What can be done to reduce food waste?

Living_proof

A lot of people seem to throw out meat and fish if they suddenly realise they are not going to use it by the 'use by date' and I think a series of recipes and ideas for using the cooked meat or fish might persuade them to cook then freeze or cook and have in a salad, etc. Tonight I will be cooking two salmon steaks thereby giving myself a couple of days grace to use them wisely. The ideas about the community self-help groups really appeals, particularly in the multi-cultural environment I live in. Can't wait for some lovely tasty ethnic leftover dishes!

missbiggles1

Soworried wrote: »

In my area we have a very good food swap scheme ran on social media. If you are going to not use a tin of bashed beans etc you post it and people can come and collect it. Even OOD fresh veg can be given.
I'd like to see schemes like that readily known about and all over the UK.

Knowledge is the key really. I see people at work go to throw out the coffee grind powder from the bottom of the coffee maker who will then go and buy coffee flavoured essence or coffee flour for baking at an extortionate rate. It is the SAME thing, they are conning you due to lack of knowledge.

We have to get people to start cooking again from scratch with seasonal foods. They cost pennies and are much healthier for you and the environment.

A food waste cost app should be set up like the sugar reducing one. Where you scan the bar code of the item you waste and it keeps a running cost total.

As for my own waste, food wise we really have no waste, we compost the peelings that we don't turn in to soup or crisps and I weigh out all our servings so there really are no left overs.
I do need to find an alternative to dog poo bags as I currently buy the cheapest and they are not sustainable.

Tesco Everyday nappy bags - 300 for 35p.

http://www.tesco.com/groceries/product/details/?id=260274296

missbiggles1

GreyQueen wrote: »

Being a fairly cynical person, I have long been suspicious that the removal of practical cookery and its replacement with nonsense like food technology is designed to deliver de-skilled consumers into the grasp of big business. Why else would something so demonstrably idiotic have ever been proposed?

In a ideal world, these skills would be learned in the parental home. In the real world, some people have parents who are missing vital life-skills themselves. Or who are too busy about vitally-important matters such as telly-watching, face-booking and various other forms of self-indulgence.

I don't buy this line that everyone is so busy now, everyone works, you can't expect people to cook like it's the 1950s etc etc etc.

My childhood was in the sixties and seventies with a working mum and dad. No meal, other than a sunday roast, was attempted if the prep time was more than 15 mins or the cooking time more than 30. We managed to eat a trad meat-and-two-veg meal each day with a piece of fresh fruit for dessert without stressing about it.

I'm sure my mother would have rather have sat down with a coffee and a book after an 8 hour back-breaking shift in a factory, but she was a responsible citizen. Hell, if the mood struck, there might even be cake-baking done once in a blue moon.

Modern people are spared the huge time and energy-suck which was the washday prior to the automatic washing machine. Therefore, each week has much more time and energy to be spread about for the other domestic arts, such as basic cookery.

If you can cook, you can prepare food efficiently and minimise waste.

That's the point I was trying to make earlier. That sort of cooking is unfashionable these days, and I doubt that most of us would want to eat like this every day, but it's so quick and easy to do. Too many people seem to think that home cooking has to be recipe style food and it really doesn't - at least, not all the time.

kimplus8

My daughter is 11 and can follow instructions to cook a full roast dinner/ shepherds pie/ chilli / whatever- and tbh apart from needing to know the temperatures/ timings she know how to prep meat safely and prep all veggies. Since my kids were small I've had them peeling spuds, chopping veggies and ' helping' me in the kitchen- how else are they supposed to become adults???
I grew up with my grandmother and mother teaching me to cook from a young age and when I left home I was about one of the only one of my friends that didn't survive on beans on toast and pot noodles.
It's important for children to learn at home as well as at school after all- more is caught than is taught when it comes to habits and lifestyle choices.

GreyQueen

There's considerable amusement to be had by looking at the disconnect our culture has around food. There is a massive industry flogging cookery books, cookery telly, cookery courses, cookery magazines, specialist cookware shops et al.

And I doubt there's ever been less actual cooking going on in people's homes; between eating out, ordering takeout, snacking instead of dining and buying pre-made meals laden with sugar and salt and gawd-knows-what preservatives.

Most people probably feel inadequate and guilty about not being able or willing to faff around cooking fancy recipes on a regular basis. Or cooking them at all. So the tried-and-trusted recipes are shunted into the boring corner and many of us sit on our couches watching food !!!!!! while eating ready meals with cookery books into the double-figures stacked around the home.

There's a lot of snobbery about cooking, a lot of aspiration, a lot of pretension. You're not supposed to be so boring as to actually say that you like something simple and plain that your great granny might have made, are you?

Funnily enough, a certain kind of woman aspires to be a great cook to wow men. Most men I know prefer good plain cooking and would rather have a steak-and-ale pie or a full roast followed by a fruit crumble than any amount of faffy-food.

maisie_cat

Food is cheap and that means that is does not command respect!!
Today I found a cucumber soft in the fridge and I'm so mad at myself. I'm self employed and make food from from scratch mostly unless I'm busy. In that case we end up eating stuff I've cooked & frozen or the occasional ready made meal from the supermarket. I use frozen veg/fruit and cook & freeze pulses but the cucumber got me!
I'm not sure that plain packaging and making bogof's illegal will help. Education will help the ready meal generation and the internet is a brilliant resource

usernameisvalid

Food is cheap

I think that's the trouble


For the majority if the population food is a small part of their budget A chicken is just on average £4. A loaf as cheap as 35p

When I started work it cost me £20 to feed myself,dad, and sister for the week. That was out of a wage of £42.50 a week. Nearly 50% of my take home wage. That was over 30 years ago. Now I spend £30 a week and compare that to NMW that's just a days wage

when I was growing up, chicken was a fortune. Chicken was a great treat not one bit was wasted. Nowadays chicken is as cheep as chips and even the poorest can afford it

We have no respect for the food we put on the table anymore. It's a throwaway item. If we don't fancy what's in the fridge, sod it, chuck it and get a takeaway

Living_proof

usernameisvalid wrote: »

Food is cheap

I think that's the trouble


For the majority if the population food is a small part of their budget A chicken is just on average £4. A loaf as cheap as 35p

When I started work it cost me £20 to feed myself,dad, and sister for the week. That was out of a wage of £42.50 a week. Nearly 50% of my take home wage. That was over 30 years ago. Now I spend £30 a week and compare that to NMW that's just a days wage

when I was growing up, chicken was a fortune. Chicken was a great treat not one bit was wasted. Nowadays chicken is as cheep as chips and even the poorest can afford it

We have no respect for the food we put on the table anymore. It's a throwaway item. If we don't fancy what's in the fridge, sod it, chuck it and get a takeaway

Totally agree. When I was young chicken was luxury but a roast beef joint for Sunday was quite affordable. Food was available seasonably so eggs were more available after Easter but turkey was really reared for Christmas and Easter only. Lamb just spring, apart from frozen NZ stuff all year round. Food is mega cheap now in comparison, and a darned sight more interesting!

sooty&sweep

Hi
I was walking along my high street with a friend at approx 7pm & looked in a bakery window, I think it was Gregg's & there were a couple of clear dust bin size bags full of their products that were going to be binned.
We went into Costa to buy two coffee's & watched the staff bin a tray of packaged sandwiches. When we spoke to them they have to bin them. They'd asked about the possibility of taking them to a nearby homeless charity and they've been told they can't !
Why do regulations have to be so rigid that high street food retailers feel that they cannot donate stock thats on it's sell by date to local homeless charities or soup kitchens ? The regulations should force them to work in partnership with such charities not bin huge amounts of perfectly edible food !
I fully appreciate the need for food controls but a ham sandwich or sausage rolls etc etc do not become a food poisoning risk as soon as it hits 5.30 !
In terms of reducing food waste in the home their needs to be more education about cooking at home & money management. Never mind cooking fairy cakes it needs to be more like an invention test. In my fridge / cupboards tonight I have x y z What can I make ?
Jen

Money_saving_maniac

usernameisvalid wrote: »

Food is cheap

I think that's the trouble


For the majority if the population food is a small part of their budget A chicken is just on average £4. A loaf as cheap as 35p

When I started work it cost me £20 to feed myself,dad, and sister for the week. That was out of a wage of £42.50 a week. Nearly 50% of my take home wage. That was over 30 years ago. Now I spend £30 a week and compare that to NMW that's just a days wage

when I was growing up, chicken was a fortune. Chicken was a great treat not one bit was wasted. Nowadays chicken is as cheep as chips and even the poorest can afford it

We have no respect for the food we put on the table anymore. It's a throwaway item. If we don't fancy what's in the fridge, sod it, chuck it and get a takeaway

I think you need to remember that there were no takeaways to speak of when we were younger, there was the fish and chip shop and that was it, pretty much. As for the idea of ringing up and getting a takeaway delivered that was like the idea of flying to Mars.
IMO part of the problem of the disconnect from food is not the price of it but the constantly available nature of prepared food. Not only were there no ready meals/precooked chicken bits/millions of ready made snacks available, even if they HAD been available if you didn't buy them when the shops were open (9-6) then you weren't buying them at all. This made people plan out their meals in advance if they didn't want to live on fish and chips.

It's a good thing that food is cheap, because with the rents that people have to pay these days, if it wasn't, they would starve.