Money saving - not buying food to throw away!

mafeey

Recent research showed that from grower to our bin 80% of food gets to the bin. From shop to our bin 30% gets thrown away, thats 1 bag in three. So this tip is simple plan your shopping for the week, go shopping after eating and buy less to throw away.:T

geordie_joe

mafeey wrote: »

Recent research showed that from grower to our bin 80% of food gets to the bin. From shop to our bin 30% gets thrown away, thats 1 bag in three. So this tip is simple plan your shopping for the week, go shopping after eating and buy less to throw away.:T

Personally I think that is a load of rubbish (no pun intended). If I read your post correctly you are saying that 50% of all food grown gets binned BEFORE it reaches the supermarket. If this is true then what can we do about it?

You also say that "From shop to our bin 30% gets thrown away" I doubt very much it is that much. I'm sure people cook a meal that is too much for them to eat and leave some. Others may let food get past it's use by date and have to throw it away, but I doubt it's 30%

geordie_joe

dspalton wrote: »

petition to try to show the supermarkets that although we like the offers, we would like a different way of being able to take them and not waste the excess.

David

I agree with that. Two for the price of one offers are nice, but as a single person I would prefer to buy one at half price. Especially if it is something that won't keep.

geordie_joe

dspalton wrote: »

thats the whole idea of the petition, sign it and pass on the link to all you know!"

david

Well I nearly did, then I saw that it was being used to gather email addresses for the sites newsletter, so I didn't bother.

PS. You are not allowed to have those links in your sig. I would remove them if I were you, before they get spotted by they sig police.

DKLS

mafeey wrote: »

Recent research showed that from grower to our bin 80% of food gets to the bin. From shop to our bin 30% gets thrown away, thats 1 bag in three. So this tip is simple plan your shopping for the week, go shopping after eating and buy less to throw away.:T

I would agree, I used to throw about 50% of my food away, Now I only buy in for the next 2 days at most.

And would agree that the Supermarkets reject a huge amount of fruit and veg from farmers, One sprout farmer I knew used to get 2/3 of his crop rejected for not being "saleable", ie exactly the same size, colour etc.

Garnet_Gem

I rarely throw anything out although I always go by the "use by" date. I check sell by dates and take items from the back of the shelf so that the food has a longer life. Food's too dear to waste.

geordie_joe

DKLS wrote: »

And would agree that the Supermarkets reject a huge amount of fruit and veg from farmers, One sprout farmer I knew used to get 2/3 of his crop rejected for not being "saleable", ie exactly the same size, colour etc.

We have two supermarkets, one green grocer and a veg stall in the market on thursdays and saturdays.

I shop at them all and agree that supermarket veg is uniform, but the stuff in the green grocer and market stall isn't.

I therefore think that the research has just found out that supermarkets reject a lot of veg and assumed that the veg is binned. It looks to me like it is bought by the green grocer and the man who runs the veg stall.

There for it is not binned when the supermarkets reject it, it is sold to other retailers.

I also think that supermarkets "hide" the less quality stuff by putting it in bags. Both my local supermarkets sell fruit and veg loose, so you can pick your own, but they also sell cheaper stuff prepacked.

When ever I have bought the prepacked stuff I have regretted it, even though it was half the price of the loose stuff.

A 3kg bag of spuds contains one huge one and 20 tiny ones the size of peas, or else they are all so brown inside they are not worth peeling.

Apples are so bruised you throw away more than you eat. Pears are so ripe you have to eat them the day you buy them.

Mr T and Mr S don't reject fruit and veg, they buy it then try to hide it by putting in a polythene bag that is covered in printing so you can't actually see what is in it.

Butternut

I have experience of supermarket veg being mouldy inside the pack, say a courgette under the ones you can see. It makes you wonder how old that stuff is.
Personally, I have an organic veg box delivered each week, we waste none of it. If youve paid for quality ingredients, I think you use them. Cheap stuff is just that !!!! Cheap !

paddy's_mum

I live in the heart of the food producing acres of Lincolnshire. I am told that this one county produces over 20% of the food produced in this country.

I can tell you with absolute certainty that a huge proportion of each crop, when it is harvested from the field, is left as it is "not up to the supermarkets' standards".

Slightly undersized or yellow toned cauliflowers are left on the stems and a week later, ploughed under. Hundreds of tons of potatoes are left in heaps in the fields as being too small. Stalks of brussels under thigh high are simply not picked.

Many farmers in this area will turn a blind eye to locals doing a bit of scrumping rather than see perfectly wholesome food going to rot.

It is the consumer who drives this level of waste and nobody else! I cannot imagine my mother or grandmothers ever rejecting apples or potatoes simply because they took a little more work to prepare. How long does it take to dig out a potato eye? Is a slightly mis-shapen tomato to be thrown away?

There is a shameful waste of perfectly good food in this country, and if you couple that with the huge amount of plastic waste, we are killing our children and our land - and we boast that we are at the top of life on earth's pyramid?!!!

geordie_joe

paddy's_mum wrote: »

I can tell you with absolute certainty that a huge proportion of each crop, when it is harvested from the field, is left as it is "not up to the supermarkets' standards".

There is a shameful waste of perfectly good food in this country,

If what you say is true then we are producing for more fruit and veg than we need if we can reject all but the best and there still not being a shortage.

I have not seen a shortage of spuds because a huge proportion of them have been left in the fields.

Far from it being the consumers who are causing the waste, it's the farmers who are growing too much.

If we all decided to buy the odd shaped veg etc. then all the perfect veg would be left in the fields to rot. And we would still have the same amount of waste.

Jonesya

Most supermarkets sell the lower graded, class 2, fruit and vegetable under their Value/Economy brand and at a lower price than class 1 produce - personally I don't see why people pay extra for class 1 potatoes/onions/carrots/oranges/bananas as you're going to be peeling them anyway.