Tips to reduce food waste

The Love Food Hate Waste campaign estimates that a family of four could save just over £60 a month by reducing their food waste. What a saving!
So, what better time than now to get reducing? Here are my tips:

1. Don’t buy food that you already have at home - How often do you find yourself at the shops wondering if you need more onions, potatoes or garlic? Check what you have in the fridge before you head to the supermarket. Use your phone to take a quick snap of your shelves, or download a shopping list app and add ingredients whenever they’re running low.

2. Use it, don't chuck it - You can throw vegetable peelings into a pot with water, onion, carrot and celery and simmer for 1 hour to make a delicious stock. And did you know that the stems of cauliflower and broccoli are delicious? They can be added to soups and stocks, fried in stir-fries and risottos, or grated into salads.

3. Cook from scratch - Processed vegan ‘junk’ food tends to come wrapped in plastic packaging. The more wholefood meals you cook from scratch, the less landfill you produce – especially if you buy ‘loose’ fruit and veg rather than pre-packaged. Check out our 'What Real Vegans Eat' meal plan for ideas.

1. Plan your meals and make a list - Planning out a weekly menu means you have a chance to base some meals around using up ingredients your already have in the cupboard, and helps to avoid impulse buying food that will end up going unused.

2. Buy fresh food in smaller amounts and more often - Most often the foods that go to waste are fresh foods such as dairy, fruit and veg, which are less suited to a weekly or fortnightly shop than staples such as tins and dried foods. Buying your fruit and veg more often but in smaller amounts means it is more likely to be used up quickly without going bad.

3. Store correctly - Fresh foods should be stored in different ways - for instance cucumbers should be kept in their plastic wrapping in the fridge, while potatoes are best kept in a cloth bag in a cool dark place. Check that you are storing foods at the right temperature and with the most appropriate type of wrapping to keep fresh. Vegetarian Times has some great tips on how to store your fruit and veg.

4. Be aware of portion sizes - Think about how much you generally eat in one meal, and cook only as much food as you will actually consume. It is particularly easy to under-estimate how much dried foods such as rice, pasta and grains will swell up after cooking - but if you use a cup or weight measure it will be easier to make sure you are only cooking as much as you need.

5. Check your expiry dates - Try and keep foods which will go off quicker towards the front of the fridge, so that you remember to use them in time. Also remember there are differences between expiry dates - a 'use by' date marks how long a food is safe to eat, whereas a 'best before' date usually mean when it begins to go down in quality (but may still be safe to eat). You can find out more about expiry dates in this NHS Choices food labelling article.

6. Ice ice baby - Make friends with your freezer. If you make too much of one meal, freeze it. If a carton of cream is near the use by date, freeze it. If you have some leftovers you won't be able to use in time, freeze them. Brown bananas can be frozen to use in cakes and smoothies. Even leftover wine (we know, we know, is there ever such a thing) can be frozen in ice-cube trays to use in sauces and casseroles. The Love Food, Hate Waste website has a video of freezable foods.

7. Be creative with leftovers - The simplest way is to take what you have leftover into work for lunch. But you can also stir leftover veg into soups and stews, chop up cooked meat to add to stir fries, or bulk up a frittata by adding cooked pasta or rice. If you can't use it immediately, see if you can freeze it to save for later.

8. Shop local - If you are in the position to buy from a local stall or market using reusable bags or a basket, you can reduce the packaging waste and plastic bags that usually go hand in hand with shopping at a supermarket. Even better, it is easier to buy only as much as you need.

9. Grow your own - This is easier said than done for many of us (after all, most of us can't have an orchard in the backyard). But if you have a small garden you could grow potatoes, radishes, or courgettes; a balcony can take a few pots of tomatoes; and even if you only have a window box, you can grow your own mint, parsley and basil. And of course if you do have a massive garden, why not go wild and plant a few fruit trees!

10. Muck in - If you have a garden, get a compost heap going. Even the best planners end up with some food scraps, but chuck your apple cores, banana skins, potato peelings and tea bags into a compost bin, and they will break down into a glorious tonic for your garden. If you don't have a garden, check with your local council, as many run brown bin schemes to collect kitchen scraps.

1. You can crisp up stale crisps and snacks with a 10 second blast in the microwave on full power.
2. Scrub some vetetables such as potatoes and carrots instead of peeling them. You’ll have less waste and the food contains more nutrients.
3. Don’t slice a whole lemon if all you need is a few drops. Just puncture the rind with a toothpick and squeeze out the drops you need. Cover the hole with a piece of tape and pop it back in the fridge.
4. Many vegetables regrow in a jar with some water.
5. Lettuce keeps longer if you store it in the fridge in a paper bag. Don’t be tempted to discard the outer leaves as they keep the inner leaves crisp.
6. The outer stems of greens such as kale are great in smoothies.
7. If you’ve peeled too many potatoes cover with cold water and add a few drops of vinegar. They’ll stay fresh for three or four days in the fridge.
8. Rescue old bread by making croutons.
9. To crisp up leftover pizza put it on a skillet for four or five minutes.
10. If your celery goes limp place it in a bowl of cold water with a few slices of raw potato for about an hour.
11. Another tip to crisp up celery before serving is to soak it for 30 minutes in a quart of cold water mixed with one teaspoon of lemon juice.
12. Revitalize leftover food with herbs and spices, sauces and relish. If in doubt soupify!
13. Over-ripe bananas are perfect for baking.
14. Prepare lunches at home rather than eat on the go, it’s cheaper and it cuts down on packaging.
15. When lemonade goes flat make ice lollies – pour some in an ice cube tray and place a toothpick in each space.
16. If you want to use up milk before it goes out of date make cottage cheese.
17. Coffee grounds are great for keeping ants at bay.
18. Orange peels also keep ants at bay and deter flies and mosquitoes.
19. To prolong the life of fresh eggs by three to four weeks rub the shells with vegetable oil before storing the eggs in the fridge.
20. The most important tip of all for achieving zero food waste: make more food from scratch. If you don’t think you have the skills to make a complete dish think of ingredients you could add to many different meals – start with something easy such as frozen fruit before graduating to more complex challenges such as tofu.

2020-09-14