What can be done to reduce food waste?

System

Stop farming subsidies, allow food to be more expensive and allow farms to be converted to housing

GwylimT

On a consumer level we only buy what we are eating that week (bar rice and seasoning) so come shopping day the fridge/cupboards/freezer are empty apart from that days breakfast and lunch/pack up food. Well, the freezer may have a chicken carcass or two for making stock.

My step dad was a dairy farmer so a lot of milk was wasted, so he started producing cheese, I imagine the start up costs were quite high, but once it was being sold it meant milk wasn't literally being poured away.

We have really forgotten how lucky we are to have such huge quantities of cheap and good quality food available at all times.

System

Waste is in a way inevitable if you're going to maintain a stockpile for ww3

GwylimT

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

Not making an assumption just recalling how things were many years ago in the UK. We lived a very different life back then but those were the hours that shops were open and somehow everyone managed to be fed, clothed etc. The only takeaway we had was the fish and chip shop and that was a rare treat, it came in newspaper too.

Both my grand parents worked full time so to get fed they had to employ someone to go food shopping for them, apparently it was fairly common.

William_Barnes

Multibuy offers on items should be replaced with offers on a single item.
So BOGOF becomes 50% off. etc

And while they're at it, isn't it time all food packaging was 100% recyclable

missbiggles1

GwylimT wrote: »

On a consumer level we only buy what we are eating that week (bar rice and seasoning) so come shopping day the fridge/cupboards/freezer are empty apart from that days breakfast and lunch/pack up food. Well, the freezer may have a chicken carcass or two for making stock.

My step dad was a dairy farmer so a lot of milk was wasted, so he started producing cheese, I imagine the start up costs were quite high, but once it was being sold it meant milk wasn't literally being poured away.

We have really forgotten how lucky we are to have such huge quantities of cheap and good quality food available at all times.

I couldn't cope with that level of insecurity, I'm afraid.:(

ash28

GwylimT wrote: »

On a consumer level we only buy what we are eating that week (bar rice and seasoning) so come shopping day the fridge/cupboards/freezer are empty apart from that days breakfast and lunch/pack up food. Well, the freezer may have a chicken carcass or two for making stock.

My step dad was a dairy farmer so a lot of milk was wasted, so he started producing cheese, I imagine the start up costs were quite high, but once it was being sold it meant milk wasn't literally being poured away.

We have really forgotten how lucky we are to have such huge quantities of cheap and good quality food available at all times.

This must depend on where and how you live. I live in a rural village with 2 small shops and keep stocks of dried and tinned food - the freezer I'm not too bothered about.

There have been times and I'm sure there will be times in the future when we can't get out of the village and if we can't get out then nothing will be able to get in and the shops both run out of food quite quickly.

I keep flour and yeast, dried lentils, split peas, rice, pasta, tinned soup, baked beans, tinned toms, tuna, sardines, mackerel, fruit, peas, kidney beans, chick peas, butter beans etc. During the winter we buy potatoes and onions by the sack - they last for ages if stored correctly.

We don't have mains gas and cooking is electric so we had a calor gas hob fitted so we aren't reliant purely on electricity for cooking.

I don't waste anything, we use the food up as we you would normally but replace it as it is used.

kboss2010

Things that reduced our waste almost completely (and halved our monthly shopping bill!):

- Meal planning and learning portion sizes, especially of dried foods like rice and pasta
- Stop using celebrity chef cookbooks *coughJamiecough* whose every meal used about 15 ingredients, half of which were difficult to put into anything else easily and went off quickly.
- Have a stockpile of 10-15 easy to remember and make meals that can be batch cooked and kept for up to a week in the fridge or frozen
- Learning how to use up food close to/slightly past best
e.g. fruit smoothies, banana bread, stir fries, casseroles
- One weekly shop - no topping up at local stores midweek

It's all about education and convenience. If you can get kids enthusiastic about cooking at an early age, they will always cook. I haven't eaten a microwave meal since I was about 15 and, due to my mum's ill health, we lived on them for years! I taught myself to cook and my school had basic cooking lessons to show me how to make things like shortcrust pastry, pasta bakes and cakes.

usernameisvalid

ash28 wrote: »

This must depend on where and how you live. I live in a rural village with 2 small shops and keep stocks of dried and tinned food - the freezer I'm not too bothered about.

There have been times and I'm sure there will be times in the future when we can't get out of the village and if we can't get out then nothing will be able to get in and the shops both run out of food quite quickly.

I keep flour and yeast, dried lentils, split peas, rice, pasta, tinned soup, baked beans, tinned toms, tuna, sardines, mackerel, fruit, peas, kidney beans, chick peas, butter beans etc. During the winter we buy potatoes and onions by the sack - they last for ages if stored correctly.

We don't have mains gas and cooking is electric so we had a calor gas hob fitted so we aren't reliant purely on electricity for cooking.

I don't waste anything, we use the food up as we you would normally but replace it as it is used.

Your planning sounds like mine

Country living, and I mean real country, you just cannot rely on the leccy or even the water. We won't mention the times when we get a few feet of snow either

I don't have a lot of freezer space , I rely on tins for the winter

I've lived here ten years. In those ten years we have had power off for 8 days, water off for 7 days and the oil freezing for days on end. The. We have the odd day or three where lines are down or it can take me 8 hours to cook a meal with the leccy coming on and off

I keep a couple of gallons of water in the garage, I have a great store cupboard of dried, tinned foods. And a gas ring to back up the stoves

My fridge and freezer won't be stocked, my larder certainly is

ash28

usernameisvalid wrote: »

Your planning sounds like mine

Country living, and I mean real country, you just cannot rely on the leccy or even the water. We won't mention the times when we get a few feet of snow either

I don't have a lot of freezer space , I rely on tins for the winter

I've lived here ten years. In those ten years we have had power off for 8 days, water off for 7 days and the oil freezing for days on end. The. We have the odd day or three where lines are down or it can take me 8 hours to cook a meal with the leccy coming on and off

I keep a couple of gallons of water in the garage, I have a great store cupboard of dried, tinned foods. And a gas ring to back up the stoves

My fridge and freezer won't be stocked, my larder certainly is

We keep stocks of food for the reasons you describe, although we haven't had any issues with water or had the oil freeze - yet. Power cuts can be quite common and can last anything from a few minutes to a few days, the ones I hate are when it goes off for a few minutes, comes back on for a while than goes off again....rinse and repeat.

GwylimT says:

We have really forgotten how lucky we are to have such huge quantities of cheap and good quality food available at all times.

For us that isn't always true and like you we have to prepare and provide for those times when food isn't freely available. Fortunately it isn't all that often but it does happen, we have been affected by flooding, snow and treacherous conditions in the past and I know we will be at some point in the future. And just because we could be storing more food than someone in an urban area it doesn't mean we waste it.