Welcome to the first of our new monthly blog, packed with practical tips to help you tread a little more lightly on the planet, by guest writer Jaki Bell.
Jaki is the marketing and communications manager at Cumbria Action for Sustainability, as well as a volunteer with Penrith Action for Community Transition and the Penrith and Eden Freegle group. This month, Jaki shares ideas for cutting down on food waste…
The average family reportedly throws away about £60 worth of food a month. As a nation, we’re wasting less food than we were 10 years ago, but we still have a long way to go. If you added up all your food waste, how much would it all cost? Fruit and veg that are past their best, yoghurts and milk that turn to cheese, cheese and bread that get mouldy, leftovers from family meals each day. A few pence here, £1 there… it all adds up.
Saving money isn’t the only benefit of not wasting food, though. Growing, processing and transporting food uses a lot of resources and causes a fair chunk of the world’s carbon emissions, contributing to climate change. In fact, food and drink accounts for a whopping quarter of the average person’s carbon footprint – the single biggest chunk! One simple way to reduce your personal contribution to climate change is to waste less food. Tuck into these simple tips and see if you can stop food going unused in your house.
1. Buy only what you need
Start by writing down the meals you’re going to make for the week. Then check which ingredients you’ve already got. When you go shopping, just buy the ingredients you need. There are some really useful phone apps that can make this a lot easier, available on your app store:
- The Love Food Hate Waste app helps you plan your meals and shopping, and use up your leftovers.
- With Yummly, you choose your week’s recipes and it creates a shopping list for you. It allows you to tick off what you already have in the cupboards before you go.
2. Cook only what you need
Grab your scales and weigh the rice, pasta, potatoes, meat, veg and whatever ingredients you use for the next few family meals. Was it enough? Too much? What got wasted? Once you get the quantities right, you should find there’s less left over. Stick a note on the inside of the cupboard door with the right amounts as a reminder.
3. Put less on the plate
Rather than plating up everything you’ve cooked, keep some in the saucepan or oven and dish it out if someone wants more. That way, you can freeze the leftovers or use them next day.
4. Use up your leftovers
Lots of recipe websites allow you to search for meals with ingredients you need to use up.
Here are a few you could try next time you’ve got leftover leeks or spare squash.
The links will take you to recipes using common leftovers, but you can also search the sites for specific ingredients.
- Love Food Hate Waste [hyperlink
to: https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/recipes] - BBC Good Food [https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/collection/leftovers ]
- Jamie Oliver
- [http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/category/course/leftovers/]
5. Keep an eye on the dates
When you’re planning which meals to cook throughout the week, start with the ingredients that have the shortest shelf life. It might help to put the foods with the longest dates towards the back of the fridge, so you can start at the front and use things up before they go off.
If you’re not sure about the difference between ‘Use By’ and ‘Best Before’ dates, here’s a handy explanation from the Love Food Hate Waste website: https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/article/use-or-not-use-question
- A ‘Use By’ date on a product is there for food safety reasons. You can eat it right up to the ‘Use By’, but not after – even if it looks and smells fine.
- ‘Best Before’, on the other hand, is about quality and food should be safe to eat after the date, but it may no longer be at its best.
Find out more about food date labels and tips for keeping on top of dates: https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/article/date-labels
For more ideas to cut your carbon footprint, visit the CAfS Sustainable Living Guide.
- For information on the Annual Cumbrian Green Build and Sustainability Festival check out our post on eBusinessCumbria
