Recently I have been posting a lot on my socials about food waste. I feel very passionate about this topic and can distinctly remember meal times when I was a child when I had to finish everything on my plate; otherwise, I'd get no dessert. While this amounted to blackmail, and I should've called child services, it did instil in me some great principles never to waste food. After all, it's pretty crazy to think about how our food grows, let alone waste it!
Now, why should we care about food waste, you might ask? The average family throws a staggering £730 worth of food in the bin every year! Not only this, but it also contributes towards climate change. These are the long-term changes to our weather patterns and temperatures driven by human activity, which leads to rising sea levels, flooding, wildfires, melting ice, and extreme weather events. This puts habitats, wildlife and humans all at risk. While it might not directly affect all of us at the moment, we need to take action now to lessen the damage.
While this may sound daunting, I think food waste is the easiest thing we can all tackle! Globally, we waste one-third of all food produced; in the UK, we waste 70% of this within our homes. If we reduce our food waste, the average family could save up to £730 a year! Not only this, but we could also save 36 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, equivalent to taking 1 in 5 cars off our roads. Great!
There are several reasons we waste food. These include the following:
Cooking too much
Food going out of date
Sold in too large a quantity
Not liking it
The most commonly wasted foods are:
fresh fruit and veg
potatoes
eggs and dairy
bread
leftover meals
How Can You Reduce Your Food Waste?
Now, your next question is probably, 'how do I go about reducing my food waste?' Well, there are several ways which I will discuss in future blog posts, which include:
Only buy what you need (check the fridge before you go out)
Storing food correctly (freezing food is a great way to make it last longer)
Eating every edible part of the food (think broccoli stalks and cauliflower leaves)
Learn how to cook intuitively, making the most of what you already have
Use leftover veg scraps or bones to make stocks
In the meantime, I have been producing short videos on my Instagram account that showcase ways you can reduce your food waste. At the moment, these mainly include recipes using commonly wasted ingredients, but also tips on how to store your vegetables!
Recipes
How To Store Food Correctly
I have also shown what to do with herb stems and how to store your carrots so they last longer and don't go floppy. I will continue to upload food waste content and add it to my blog. I'd love to hear your thoughts on food waste, and please don't forget to check out my socials for more sustainable food tips!
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