How not to contribute to the food waste mountain
It seems our parents' attempts to make us 'think of the starving children' when we left food on our plates were all in vain: Britons, we learnt today, throw away a third of our food, equating to 6.7 million tonnes every year.
I know I'm as guilty as the next Brit, especially since I often cook for myself but still buy family packs of bread, vegetables and other perishable items out of sheer laziness. So I've come up with a few tips on how to reduce your food waste. Please feel free to suggest more!
1. Pay attention to use-by dates on the food you buy. It's not unusual for supermarkets to put new stock next to stuff that's almost past its sell-by. Taking a few seconds to check this means you'll throw out a lot less. You might also want to invest in some re-sealable containers for keeping food fresh for longer.
2. Get a wormery, and turn your rubbish into high quality compost. Worms won't eat all your food waste (citrus and onions are a no-no) but once you've cut down the amount you buy, you can start feeding your wriggly friends vegetable peelings, old fruit, leftover pasta, rice and even small amounts of meat, and they'll soon be happily churning out plant feed. Wormcity sell them from just £20.
3. Lobby your supermarket, to stop them putting food in unnecessarily large packets. More and more people are living alone, and it makes sense to let us pick how much we want to buy. The government's waste body Wrap are already doing this on our behalf, but why not add your voice by writing a letter or making dropping a note in the suggestion box at your local branch? Alternatively, try shopping at local markets were produce is not sold in packages.
4. Donate to the homeless. You could take a leaf out of various supermarket and food chains' books and give the food you won't manage yourself away. The most obvious way to do this is by simply gathering it up and distributing the food yourself, but you could also get in touch with homeless charity Crisis to find out more about where to make donations.
5. Never, ever shop when hungry. You'll buy at least twice the amount you need!
