What can be done to reduce food waste?

System

Making it more expensive will make people think twice about wasting. Most people could live a lot cheaper than they do but won't unless pushed - that's why marketing still works

Mr_Singleton

MatthewAinsworth wrote: »

Making it more expensive will make people think twice about wasting it.

Been saying that for years!

Pop_Up_Pirate

The number one prevention of food wastage in this country would be the removal of BEST BEFORE dates.

The amount of people I come across who bin food simply because it said 'Best Before Yesterday' is astonishing.

moneyistooshorttomention

Final thought from me - PasturesNew makes the point clearly on another thread that single people are forever having to eat leftovers in order not to waste food. For instance - if we buy a packet of pasta then that means we have to have 4 or 5 pasta meals in pretty quick succession. A family, on the other hand, only has to have one pasta meal and the packet is used up and they can eat something else instead.

So - manufacturers do need to take a lot more account of us singles and make things in smaller packets (but at no extra charge of course!) - so that we dont have to choose between endlessly eating the same thing again or throw it away (ie waste it).

I'll admit that, once I'm feeling better off financially, then I am likely to have few qualms about trying to ensure that I don't have a lot more "repetition" in my diet than someone in a family would - ie throwing it away if need be to avoid excess repetition just because of being single (aka food waste).

PasturesNew

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

Final thought from me - PasturesNew makes the point clearly on another thread that single people are forever having to eat leftovers in order not to waste food. For instance - if we buy a packet of pasta then that means we have to have 4 or 5 pasta meals in pretty quick succession. A family, on the other hand, only has to have one pasta meal and the packet is used up and they can eat something else instead.

So - manufacturers do need to take a lot more account of us singles and make things in smaller packets (but at no extra charge of course!) - so that we dont have to choose between endlessly eating the same thing again or throw it away (ie waste it).

While that's true, I think most household waste is from families simply loading their tables with food and not seeing any value in the leftovers, or the things they bought and didn't get round to using before the date.

Us singlies, in the main, probably have better food overload control as we really DO think about more of what we're buying because we're more conscious of the impact on our fridges/cupboards of buying something in the first instance.

Families can tend to just fill a trolley with stuff in the belief they'll eat it, somebody will eat it.... but they don't and it's shopping day again and they've another entire trolley full, so they refill the overflowing fridge again.... pushing last week's whatnots to the rear.

I think smaller packs would help older people and singlies and those in households of "two differing diets who have to eat different items" - for families they'd still be doing what they're doing, with the bigger packs.

I don't buy a pack of sausages before I've thought about "how are you going to eat all 8?", whereas families are quite happy to load 2-3 packs into the trolley "somebody will eat those" .... then toss a whole pack in the bin 2 weeks later. Selling packs of 2-4 sausages would mean more singlies bought them and got a bit more variety in their lives without Consumption Commitment ... but it wouldn't change the behaviour of families who would still load up 2-3 packs and waste one.

[Deleted User]

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

if we buy a packet of pasta then that means we have to have 4 or 5 pasta meals in pretty quick succession. A family, on the other hand, only has to have one pasta meal and the packet is used up and they can eat something else instead.

I wouldn't regard pasta as a problem because the dried stuff is non-perishable, but I agree wholeheartedly with the general point. When you mention it to the foodies they always say you can use up the remainder of a packet in another recipe, but they're missing the point, as you point out. Furthermore, cooking another recipe usually involves buying another large packet of some other ingredient which then exacerbates the problem.

I quite like Mediterranean roast veg, but that leaves me with half an aubergine, half a courgette, half an onion, and two out of a pack of three peppers to use up without cooking something that just seems like the same meal again.

I've noticed that they're making the problem worse by selling more and more fruit and veg in bags. I assume it's to stop people from picking the pretty ones and leaving the ugly ones, but again, it's hard to use up a whole bagful of pears in between them being under-ripe and over-ripe.

PasturesNew wrote: »

I don't buy a pack of sausages before I've thought about "how are you going to eat all 8?"

Exactly, people keep going on about scrapping best before dates, but you don't need to overrun the BB date if you just think before you buy. (Have you not tried the frozen sausages?)

PasturesNew

jack_pott wrote: »

.... stop people from picking the pretty ones and leaving the ugly ones...

If that were a general law .... maybe I'd not be single

Pollycat

UKParliament wrote: »

Hi All,

The Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee has published its report on food waste in England. The report says that the Government should establish a national food waste reduction target to drive efforts to reduce the food waste costing the average person in the UK £200 per year and supermarkets should publicly report data on the amount of food they bin and relax rules that prevent the sale of "wonky vegetables" to combat food waste.

For more information and to read the report in full, please visit the Parliament website.

TBH, I think that's stating the bleedin' obvious.
I could have come up with that one.

But I agree with what PasturesNew says below:

PasturesNew wrote: »

The trouble with the Govt is they don't do anything well - all that'll happen is that toffs will meet, claim expenses, go on expensive visits ... and have a department set up at great cost, to produce leaflets ... that nobody reads .... and we all get taxed an extra £200/year to pay for that.

I'd rather have food waste in my cupboard, than pay for a lot of toffs to go out to dinners on expenses.... and for leaflets I won't read.

In the main, the message sent out will confuse people, they'll get it wrong, it'll all be a disaster and nothing will change - until another Dept is set up to fudge the figures and move the goalposts so they can prove it worked. So thanks, but no thanks .... all that will happen is people still waste the same amount they always did ... and more toffs get to stay on a gravy boat of high income and expenses and a jolly good easy life job.

Cheers.

PasturesNew wrote: »

While that's true, I think most household waste is from families simply loading their tables with food and not seeing any value in the leftovers, or the things they bought and didn't get round to using before the date.

Families can tend to just fill a trolley with stuff in the belief they'll eat it, somebody will eat it.... but they don't and it's shopping day again and they've another entire trolley full, so they refill the overflowing fridge again.... pushing last week's whatnots to the rear.

I agree particularly with the bits in bold.
I think a lot of waste comes about because a lot of shoppers just chuck whatever they think they might want in the trolley with no real plan of what they are going to do with it or when they are going to use it by.

I meal plan for 3 weeks at a time, utilising family packs of mushrooms, peppers etc - knowing 100% that everything I buy will get used up.
I shop with that menu plan in mind so my list contains what I need for that plus whatever I'm running out of.
And I make sure I have the latter things on my list in plenty of time to buy it when it's on offer.
I've had lamb stock cubes on my list for a while but only bought when they were on offer at 2/3rds of the usual price.

Izadora

MatthewAinsworth wrote: »

Making it more expensive will make people think twice about wasting. Most people could live a lot cheaper than they do but won't unless pushed - that's why marketing still works

But it will also punish people who are already living as cheaply as they can. I'm guilty of being quite wasteful at times but pushing me into thinking about reducing what I throw away shouldn't disadvantage people who have no choice but to use up every single thing that they buy because there is no money spare to live any other way.

[Deleted User]

Give a man a carrot and he can eat for a day, teach a man to garden and he can grow pounds of the things, teach a man to cook and he can make soup and eat well every day.....education is the key to using what you have to the best advantage and if home skills aren't in the home or on the education curriculum any longer they really ought to be put back there. Knowledge gives empowerment even in the kitchen!