What can be done to reduce food waste?

PasturesNew

jack_pott wrote: »

(Have you not tried the frozen sausages?)

No. I've looked at them, through the freezer cabinet windows, on many occasions ... but not bought them. It's a combination of things, one of which is commitment to buying something that I have to eat that I might not like .... and I can't use an oven/hob (strange phobias), everything has to be nuked or slow cooked or shoved in the toaster, and I prefer sausages fried

I'm generally "a bit iffy" about sausages as I have many very bad memories as a child of gristly bits in them, nasty hard gristle. Although you rarely get that these days, I know it's out there...... and petrified of finding it.

Also, for a lot of bags, you can't see inside the bags - I hate buying blind ... and where you can see inside they "look a bit light/pink". When I buy sausages I tend to head more towards cumberland or lincolnshire, which tend to look less pink ... although I have noticed that you can get frozen cumberlands these days.

Maybe one day .... in the meantime there is so much food available that no one person can possibly eat everything, or try everything, that they might like.... food varieties, products, choices are endless these days!

[Deleted User]

Pollycat, in the 1950s 'mandatory' was virtually everything in school, you didn't have a choice you just went where you were sent, and learned what you were told , although we did have one boy in the housecraft class who wanted to be a chef, and I don't think he found anything very interesting to cook there, mainly basic cookery and the baking was quite limited.

Girls wern't allowed to do metalwork or woodwork though, which was a shame as I now enjoy renovating old furniture (mostly junk shop stuff )mainly for my grandchildren's bedroom.

and as for 'picking the subject for 'O' levels well it was unheard of, whereas todays children get a choice of what they wish to study :):)

Pollycat

JackieO wrote: »

and as for 'picking the subject for 'O' levels well it was unheard of, whereas todays children get a choice of what they wish to study :):)

And children of the 1960s did too - at least in my school.

Subjects were put into groups so for example you had to do a science - biology, chemistry or physics - and of course English language and maths were mandatory but we were allowed to choose a range of subjects designed to set you on your chosen career, with advice from a careers advisor.

Strange how much things changed then in such a short few years.

Pop_Up_Pirate

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).

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).

That makes no sense to me.
Why does a packet of pasta have to be used up in one day? If its a packet of dried pasta, you use what you need and then put the whats left in the bag in the cupboard for next time.

Its thinking that the packet must be used up that day that wastes the food, not the fact that someone is single or a couple even.

Pop_Up_Pirate

jack_pott wrote: »

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.



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?)

Ok, so you have roasted veg on one day and you have half of stuff left over. It doesn't have to be used the following day. It will keep a while.
Half an aubergine and half an onion and you can make moussaka. Not a lot like roast veg.
Pepper you can put into stir fry, pasta sauuce, omelette.
Courgette you can fry with mushrooms to top a pork chop.

Its all about planning.

Frozen sausages are dreadful. Do people actually give those to children?

Pop_Up_Pirate

MrsLurcherwalker wrote: »

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!

Exactly.
Schools should never have done away with Housecraft.
When I was at school, this was mandatory. We learnt how to manage a home, from budgeting and cooking, to sewing and ironing.
Girls these days don't do anything like the same thing.

[Deleted User]

Back in those 50s and 60s years we didn't have Comprehensive schooling and 'one size fits all' education. I went to a Technical School and we had Home Economics for the first 3 years until we got to 'O' Level time when we had to fit the proscribed box for our choice of career when it came to subjects. I know the Secondary School just above out house taught girls 'Homecraft' which was all aspects of running a home from laundry, to budgeting, to childcare to cookery/needlework, preserving etc. even general cleaning and boys (separate school but on the same site) learned home maintenance (building, carpentry, basic plumbing, decorating and repairs, really DIY), gardening, animal husbandry (chickens, ducks, rabbits but no large ones) even beekeeping and that set us all up very well indeed for adult life. A different and much more interesting education that we could SEE the value of and thus stayed engaged with the whole process rather than being so bored we became disruptive and got excluded (sweeping generalisation I know and there are always a few!). All I know is it's stood me in good stead for more than 50 years and still does today!

Aytoun27

Livelongandprosper wrote: »

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

I agree completely. I had the same problem when I was single and lived alone. Now I there are three of us in the household we still have problems because food is usually prepacked in two's and four's. We can use the extra chicken for sandwiches and freeze the extra pork chop, but there is wastage on a fourth item that doesn't always get used and that we didn't need to buy in the first place. Loose stuff would be so much better, but the supermarkets don't do it and all the local bakers, butchers etc. have long since been replaced by takeaways.

PasturesNew

Pop_Up_Pirate wrote: »

That makes no sense to me.
Why does a packet of pasta have to be used up in one day? If its a packet of dried pasta, you use what you need and then put the whats left in the bag in the cupboard for next time.

Its thinking that the packet must be used up that day that wastes the food, not the fact that someone is single or a couple even.

That's not what was meant. I'll try (badly) to explain:

A family picks up a small packet of pasta, cooks it, eats it, bag in the bin.

A singly picks up a small packet of pasta, knows exactly how much to weigh out for their portion, reseals the packet and nigh on the whole of the packet is then in the cupboard ... cluttering it.

Family cupboard: Empty
Single cupboard: 80-90% of a pack of pasta

Repeat each day for each ingredient. No packet ever gets opened/used. Everything has to be clipped, stored, and then mocks you each time you open the cupboard as it's cluttering up the little cupboard and you don't fancy it again yet.

Family Day 1: Spag bol. 1 pack of spaghetti - used up. 500g mince, tin of tomatoes, onion. All eaten, they loved it.
Empty cupboard, empty fridge.

Single Day 1: Spag bol. A bit of spaghetti, rest back in the cupboard. 500g mince, tin of tomatoes, onion ... spoon out a portion, then box up the rest and put it in the fridge/freezer.
Cupboard has an opened pack of spaghetti lurking. Fridge/freezer has 4-5 portions of bolognese that need using up.

PasturesNew

Pop_Up_Pirate wrote: »

Ok, so you have roasted veg on one day and you have half of stuff left over. It doesn't have to be used the following day. It will keep a while.
Half an aubergine and half an onion and you can make moussaka. Not a lot like roast veg.

Looking at that from a single's point of view, re the roasted veg -> moussaka.

OK, so now I have to make a white sauce, if I've got milk in ... and if I've got flour (well, I have, the bag's been lurking 2 years).

Ah, need mince, that comes in a 500 gram pack. So I'd better either make 4-6 portions, or not bother... do I have enough roasted veg for 4-6 portions of moussaka?

At what time are the army I'm now trying to feed arriving?

So even if you make the moussaka, you've now INCREASED the leftover food instead of reducing it, by needing to have/open/use even more ingredients .... to create: a pile of leftovers.

You start with a bit of roasted veg leftover and now you've got milk to use up, a bit of spare sauce floating about, loads of mince and some portions of moussaka....

All that need using up ....

You've taken a few spoons of roasted veggies and turned it into enough food for a week... and you need half a drawer in the freezer to store/freeze the leftovers.

So you're further back, not ahead, now.