What can be done to reduce food waste?

Out,_Vile_Jelly

It depends if you class food in food cupboards as "clutter" or useful staples stored for future use. What else are you going to use the cupboards for?

I bought some glass storage jars for rice, pasta, oats etc recently- they look quite pretty as well as doing their job of keeping dry goods useable for ages.

PasturesNew

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

It depends if you class food in food cupboards as "clutter" or useful staples stored for future use. What else are you going to use the cupboards for?

I bought some glass storage jars for rice, pasta, oats etc recently- they look quite pretty as well as doing their job of keeping dry goods useable for ages.

It is clutter if you open a packet and it stays unused for a year as you've other packets open and use those.... I actually bought lasagne sheets about 2 years ago - not got round to making lasagne yet.

Just pasta I've got: a box of lasagne sheets, a pack of spaghetti, a pack of small macaroni, a pack of twisted pasta, a pack of miniature seashells.
Then I got "gifted" two monster packs of giant seashell shapes.
It all takes time... I don't eat a lot of pasta....
It'd take me two solid months of eating nothing but pasta to get through it all.

It also depends how many cupboards you have. People's kitchens are different... some have big kitchens, a utility room and a larder - some have 1 base unit and one wall cabinet for everything.

I'd like to put stuff into jars/similar ... but when I tried it I ended up with a jar of stuff + half a packet that didn't fit - and then the jar went where the packet used to sit, leaving me standing with half a packet of product in my hand and nowhere to put it.

It also takes a lot of shopping/sourcing to find the right sized containers for everything that might fit into them.

When I open my wall cupboard now I have one hand open to catch what falls out before I open the door fully.

I tried the other week to reorganise all my pasta, custards, couscous packs, angel delight etc.... disaster... it's still all "shoved in there and the door shut quickly" and I've a stack of 5-6 plastic boxes on the worktop where I didn't have room to fit things after I'd tried to "reorganise".

I've even got a box in the bedroom for "Kitchen things I don't use often" as there's no room for them.

Owain_Moneysaver

PasturesNew wrote: »

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.

A tin of tomatoes and an onion makes 2 portions of spag bol in my single household; I don't mind eating it two days running. I like eating the same thing two days running as it saves cooking and washing up.

I buy pasta in 3kg bags and rice in 5kg or even 10kg bags if I can get it cheap. So it lasts a year, so what.

PasturesNew

Owain_Moneysaver wrote: »

A tin of tomatoes and an onion makes 2 portions of spag bol in my single household; I don't mind eating it two days running. I like eating the same thing two days running as it saves cooking and washing up.

I buy pasta in 3kg bags and rice in 5kg or even 10kg bags if I can get it cheap. So it lasts a year, so what.

I can't "debate" and follow threads, so I can't continue/answer.

I get all confused.... but that's not the discussion I was having is all I know

It wasn't about a single packet of pasta .... that doesn't have to be used in one day, that's true. It does sit.

It was about the build up of opened packets left behind all the time .... meaning that a single person has to think about opening something, anything, -v- a family that might simply open/use whole packs of things most of the time.

Will I have peas today? A family would open a tin of peas and use them all - possibly also enjoying a whole can of carrots. Before I open it I have to think about what I'll be doing/eating in the next 2-3 days to ponder whether I should open that tin (and use half) ... or whether to go without, or use beans... because I know I can use half a tin of beans in the next 2-3 days more easily than half a tin of peas, based on what else is already open/needs using up.

But I didn't explain that properly either

Florence_J

I get what you mean PasturesNew

Out,_Vile_Jelly

I only buy one type of pasta as I rarely make lasagne, and find proper spaghetti too much of a faff to eat. If you're not regularly making pasta dishes obviously more than one pack is a waste of space.

I live alone so my kitchen inevitably is full of clipped up half-opened packets, but it doesn't bother me; I see it as allowing me to eat a more varied diet.

I guess being a vegetarian makes me more relaxed about leaving stuff in the fridge for a while; as slightly-less-than-fresh veg are unlikely to poison you. An opened tin of peas will be fine after a week; surely it's not monotonous to have peas twice in seven days?

Just finished the last of a bag of yellow-stickered rocket that was technically past its use by date nearly two weeks ago. Not as crisp as it was, but still fine as part of my lunch.

[Deleted User]

If I open a tin of beans (not often, but now and again ) i will have half with my meal and the other half I stick in a rectangular box and put in the fridge where they may sit for a couple of days without any problem

Or if I am making a shepherd's pie which I sometimes do I cook the mince carrots and onions ,chuck in a few mushrooms as well, and from a pot of cooked mince I will have maybe 5-6 portions in plastic boxes to go into the freeze.

I use a light layer of beans on top of the mince then cover with cooked mashed potato, and once cold its frozen so I can have an instant meal from the freezer

My DD gives me any spare left over boxes from a chinese take away with the lids and they are fine in the freezer as I can put one in the fridge in the morning to defrost then cook it in the microwave when I get home in the evening takes about 5 minutes to reheat through, no different than the instant ready meals stuff you buy in the supermarket, but its home cooked, and by freezing it I have put it on 'pause' until I am ready to eat it .
I will cook a large lasagne and portion it up into these boxes as well so they too cam be frozen and zapped when I want a quick meal. I have a good stash of these boxes with lids which wash out very well and can be used over and over again. at least I know whats in the food I eat as I won't buy rubbish mince and like the slightly dearer stuff with a better taste than the stuff you see in the supermarket, mind you I am lucky that there is a fresh meat butcher near to where I live so I can buy the amount I want and not have to buy great boxes of stuff that the supermarkets seem to want us all to buy.

YorksLass

It’s interesting to read about others’ experiences of what they did or didn’t learn at school.

I moved from primary to secondary school in 1960 and did a limited amount of cookery/sewing etc. In Y1 we sewed a needle case and a cookery apron, both by hand.

In Y2 we did cookery using the apron but tbh the lessons were mainly taken up with hygiene, workflow planning etc and there was precious little taught about actual cooking! I remember making lemon & barley water, liver & onion casserole, shepherd’s pie, scones and shortbread. Good job my mum taught me how to cook and budget!

Sewing in Y2 was a machine sewn blouse. An auntie, an older sister of mum’s, had already taught me machine sewing and when eyesight failed she gave me her Singer machine set in its own table. It had done her good service (originally a treadle converted to electric) before then and continues to serve me well too.

We all did the same usual subjects in Y1 (Maths, English etc) and French, and were then split up for Y2 according to ability and end-of-year test results. The top set took Chemistry, Physics & Biology as separate in-depth subjects plus Latin, no cookery or housecraft. The bottom set did Biology, French (no second language) and all aspects of housecraft. The middle group took CP&B as a general science subject; half did Latin & French and the other half did German & French; again, no cookery or housecraft.

I think it was probably something to do with the school being an all-girls high school where the emphasis was on academia rather than practicality. Ironic really, since they did recognise that not all girls get married and might need to earn their living. :huh: The expectation was that pupils would continue into 6th form followed by Uni; if you didn’t conform to that expectation and wanted to leave at the end of Y5 - either to start work or go to college - there was very little in the way of careers advice.


How times have changed!

Callie22

I was at school in the 90s and our 'food technology' was dreadful. Both of my parents were chefs so I learned to cook at home, but if I'd relied upon what we were taught at school then I'd be a functional illiterate in the kitchen. We only got 'food tech' lessons in one term per year, and we never, ever learned to cook anything from scratch - one lesson I particularly remember involved bringing in a ready-made flan base, a tin of fruit and a packet of quick-gel to make a fruit flan. That really was the most advanced cookery that we ever did. My school made all students choose a 'technology' GCSE (so either food technology or 'design and technology' (i.e woodwork)), and I chose food technology. It involved absolutely no cooking but I did learn how to design food packaging and work out the calorie content of a muesli bar ...

PasturesNew

My problem isn't about cooking .... it's about using appliances. I've got lots of appliance phobias.... too many to even list. I really struggle to use any appliance that aids cooking. I can't use ovens, I can't use hobs; In the past when I've used a hob, I can only have one ring on at a time - for a very limited amount of time. I can't use any hot fat/oil/fryers. I can only use the microwave for a maximum of 20 minutes and my mini oven for a maximum of 20 minutes. I can't have a cooker hood on. I don't like cooking after dark/with the kitchen lights on. I can only use one appliance at a time, so have to "stagger and juggle" all my cooking between appliances so it all comes together at the same time.

And when it comes to washing up .... that boiler petrifies me

You can take horses to water.... but if they're afraid of it, they won't drink.

I can't be the only person with these issues.... I bet most just stay quiet.