What can be done to reduce food waste?

Livelongandprosper

It's got to be education

I don't shop in the big 4 very often, but I pop in and pick up their recipe cards they periodically produce with ideas on using left overs and their magazines. I also like to watch the programmes where people are physically shown how to use what they are about to throw away. Not all education has to be in the class room. Perhaps it's time to return to public information films?

The old style board here is my most used source of inspiration. The help and advice that is given here, freely, posters just wanting to share their knowledge, is invaluable And is an education to anyone who finds us.

Freezer space is my saviour. I don't have much but I use it as profitably as possible. Today it's a lovely day, I'm just back from a weekend away so no shopping in, so it's a BBQ using up some loose sausages, chicken thighs and some hallumi cheese. A right mish mash but a free meal so to speak

I agree totally that singles have the thin edge of the wedge. With supermarkets dominating the high streets, the lack of butchers, green grocers etc mean there is often no choice but to buy something in a large pack and be forced to eat it day in and out to use it up. I love it when abroad and I can even buy eggs as singles. The markets where you can buy just what you need for that day without being penalised for buying smaller quantities. The price is per kilo no matter what amount you buy. Unlike here where 500grms can't cost 10 or 20 p more per kilo then a two kilo pack

I remember supermarkets used to sell all fruit and veg loose and you picked up what you wanted. Meat counters always had single pork chops, single chicken fillets, small roasting joints, all the same price per lb as the larger packs, why can't they go back to that? It would cut food waste and bring the customers back in

[Deleted User]

I have been single since being widowed in 2003 the first year I seemed to live on jacket potatoes and very little else,then I had my 'lightbulb' moment and thought this is daft just because I am on my own why should I not eat more sensibly.

I now buy sausages (I do prefer the better ones and will eat one or at the most two with a meal) the rest are portioned up and frozen.

The freezer means that its possible to eat and buy in ordinary sizes and yet not necessarily eat the same thing two or three days running.

You don't have to eat badly if you have a freezer.I can buy 500 gm of mince and make a curry, a chilli a lasagne and a shepherd's pie from the 500 gms and eat one and freeze the rest.

Its a case of often having a day, or a morning set aside for just cooking and portioning up stuff.

Before I went away last week for a week I had a bag of 29p carrots in the fridge I turned those into carrot and coriander soup and made four portions which I froze for lunches .

If I make a large lasagne in a rectangular dish I can portion it up once cooked and cold into 6 rectangular plastic boxes to freeze and store, which with salad will make me 6 meals.

If I slow cook a chicken overnight (switch on before bed and its falling off the carcass in the morning)

I am not worried that the skin isn't brown as I don't eat chicken skin anyway but a £3.00 clucker will make me at least 5-6 portions of curry to freeze with odd bits left over for putting into pasta with a sauce, and the carcass is wrapped and frozen until I have two or three of them, then used to make stock for my home made soups.

I meal plan every week and have done so for the past 50+ years always on a Sunday morning, and make sure that everything I can use up that's fresh and won't freeze will get used up first, so no wastage .

A bit of boiling bacon (now called gammon although its really not ) is slow cooked and sliced when cold and again wrapped and portioned up and frozen.

A half empty freezer costs a lot to run whereas a full one works more efficiently, although at the moment I am running my freezer down to give it a good defrost before the summer so very little cooking is being done at the moment as I am eating from my stocks.

I am quite happy to buy three or four peppers as these will slice and freeze very well.

I also if I am baking will freeze slices of cake or scones as I only will have a slice or two in the cake tine and a couple of scones in the bread bin or I would be the size of a house

I cook and bake every week and make my own biscuits and flapjacks and whats not needed goes into the freezer or one of my numerous grandsons who are always willing to 'help me out with cakes,scones and cookies etc :) So being a 'singly' isn't to me either a problem, or a thing where food gets wasted

Mr_Singleton

Have been following this thread with interest.

I know that everyones circumstances in terms of resources and finances are different but the fundementals don't change.

1. Supermarkets might be convenient but they're bad.

2. You get out what you put in.

Supermarkets are there to sell you as much as possible for the highest possible price. People seem to think that Lidl is cheap but MySuperMarket tells me that they're selling vine tomatoes for £2.20/kg same as Tesco, Waitrose on the other hand charge £4.40/kg. The greengrocer I use charges £1.45/kg. The butcher will happily cut meat to my requirements and get me anything not in stock unlike supermarkets that prepackage standard sized everything and only sells the 'premium' end of things.

Don't buy as much to cause spoilage and don't cook as much to create leftovers. Simple really!

You might have bought an aubergine (not picking on you Jack_Pott!) for a certain recipe but only used half but that needn't mean that the other half sits around going mouldy till it gets thrown out. There are 1001 recipes that you could use the aubergine in. Check out Google, YouTube, PinInterest or even pop down to your local library I'm sure they'll appreciate your support.

So in summary get out there and support your local independents who will have a good range and allow you to buy the quantity you want either 100 grams or 10kg and still charge the same amount as per weight. Open your mind and appreciate that there are a whole world of tasty recipes out there if you make the effort to find them.

Pollycat

Mr_Singleton wrote: »

You might have bought an aubergine (not picking on you Jack_Pott!) for a certain recipe but only used half but that needn't mean that the other half sits around going mouldy till it gets thrown out. There are 1001 recipes that you could use the aubergine in. Check out Google, YouTube, PinInterest or even pop down to your local library I'm sure they'll appreciate your support.

That's why I always menu plan.
If I know I'm only going to use half an aubergine, I'll have something else planned to use the other half up - but as different from the first dish as I can make it.

splishsplash

I think Home Economics/Domestic Science should be a mandatory subject in secondary schools. I still remember quite a lot of the topics covered, from designing a kitchen and learning about work triangles to budgeting and meal planning for our imaginary families and frail convalescent relatives.

We also learned nutritional requirements and food storage as well as cooking, baking, sewing, crocheting, knitting and dressmaking.

There were also modules on social science, consumerism, parenting, technology, you name it, it was covered.

Not only did it teach us how to avoid waste, it also contextualized why it is so important to preserve and respect resources. It taught us how to evaluate 'bargains' and chase the bottom line for value for money - moneysaving in the extreme!

A really practical, valuable subject which I have used very much over the years. I still have the textbooks and still refer to them from time to time - I'm 53 now:eek:.

Pollycat

splishsplash wrote: »

I think Home Economics/Domestic Science should be a mandatory subject in secondary schools. I still remember quite a lot of the topics covered, from designing a kitchen and learning about work triangles to budgeting and meal planning for our imaginary families and frail convalescent relatives.

We also learned nutritional requirements and food storage as well as cooking, baking, sewing, crocheting, knitting and dressmaking.

There were also modules on social science, consumerism, parenting, technology, you name it, it was covered.

Not only did it teach us how to avoid waste, it also contextualized why it is so important to preserve and respect resources. It taught us how to evaluate 'bargains' and chase the bottom line for value for money - moneysaving in the extreme!

A really practical, valuable subject which I have used very much over the years. I still have the textbooks and still refer to them from time to time - I'm 53 now:eek:.

It wasn't even a mandatory subject when I was at school - and I'm 63!

PasturesNew

It's easy to fill my freezer up too quickly - and then suffer months of trying to get through it....

One loaf of bread is about 1/3rd of one basket... and I have 2.5 baskets.

You can't keep putting stuff in, you do have to eat it ... and, having had it 1-3x the season might've changed, or you simply didn't particularly like it, or just don't fancy it at all.

All I ever eat is what's in my house; I don't eat out, or go out to eat, etc etc ... and so it's particularly tiresome to perpetually have to only eat what I've got in.

Last Saturday I "splashed out" and bought a chinese main dish + 1 side dish, I made white rice too .... I ate that Saturday, Sunday and Monday. Although it was lovely I wouldn't have fancied it again ... and I couldn't put it in the freezer as I've spent the last 1-2 months trying to empty the freezer as it needs defrosting.

Sometimes I'll open the freezer and all I am taking out is the equivalent of one slice of onion! It takes ages to get through stuff. .. so it's best to use the freezer sparingly.

Florence_J

I hate prepacked vegetables, which sadly all that seems to be available to me given that I live far away from a big supermarket that may or may not do them, and my local greengrocers has now shut. It would be so much better if I could pick and choose how much I wanted so that I didn't end up with 750g left and having to find a way to use them all up.

And please get rid of best before dates. I think there was once someone on an old episode of Eat Well For Less who obeyed sell by dates on eggs! They don't even have the remotest relation to the quality of the eggs but the person was like 'if the shop won't sell them after that date why should I eat them?'

[Deleted User]

pollycat I am even older than you honey and it was called 'housecraft' at my school. There was a huge room for the kitchen and also a bedroom and dining room fitted out where you had to learn to change sheets and make the bed :):)hospital corners and set the table for an evening meal for four complete with napkins etc which also had to be washed starched and ironed :):) all by hand no machines In the kitchen (aprt from the iron) we had to learn to bake without gadgets as well the only machine being the large ovens this was back in the 1950s.mind you my late Mum ensured that I could cook well before I ever went to senior school, along with my two older brothers which was unusual back then but she said 'I'm not letting a child of mine out into the world without the basics of how to look after themselves '.But then my late father also could cook and made a pretty good jam from fruit from the garden and his soda scones were gorgeous

Pollycat

JackieO wrote: »

pollycat I am even older than you honey and it was called 'housecraft' at my school. There was a huge room for the kitchen and also a bedroom and dining room fitted out where you had to learn to change sheets and make the bed :):)hospital corners and set the table for an evening meal for four complete with napkins etc which also had to be washed starched and ironed :):) all by hand no machines In the kitchen (aprt from the iron) we had to learn to bake without gadgets as well the only machine being the large ovens this was back in the 1950s.mind yo my late Mum ensured that I could cook well before I ever went to senior school, along with my two older brothers which was unusual back then but she said 'I'm not letting a child of mine out into the world without the basics of how to look after themselves '.But then my late father also could cook and made a pretty good jam from fruit from the garden and his soda scones were gorgeous

Jackie
Was this a mandatory course for girls?
When the boys were doing metalwork or woodwork?

There was an option in our 'O' level years to do 'domestic science' which was basically cookery.
If you were in the 'top set' of pupils, this option was actively discouraged (grammar school) in favour of a 'more academic subject'.