Reducing food waste
Reducing food waste is a big issue and costs the average family with children £680 a year. It also has serious environmental implications too. Avoidable food and drink waste is the equivalent of approximately 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
If we all stop wasting this mountain of food, the CO2 impact would be the equivalent of taking 1 in 5 cars off the road.
Recycling and re-using old products, and composting your kitchen and garden waste makes an enormous difference - and could save you up to £50 a month! But learning to reduce or minimise what we throw away in the first place is probably the best way of tackling the region’s waste mountain.
Love Food Hate Waste promotes the following behaviours to reduce food waste:
• Check what is in the cupboard, fridge and freezer before going shopping
• Know what you are going to buy before you go shopping
• Plan meals in advance
• Check the dates on food regularly and use foods with the shortest date first
• Freeze foods you will not get round to eating in time
• Measure portion sizes to help avoid cooking or serving too much food
• Be creative with using up leftovers (most leftovers will keep for two days in the fridge if they are well wrapped, apart from rice)
• Use the fridge to extend the shelflife of fruit and vegetables
• Wrap fresh foods well or store in air-tight containers once opened
For a whole host of information and handy tips, advice and recipes for leftovers to help everyone waste less food, please see www.lovefoodhatewaste.com.
Watch our Love Food Hate Waste video below.