Do you Waste Food?
Wasting food is often a subconscious act. You might think it's not something you do, but check out these facts and you'll realise there's so much food going to waste, some of it might actually be coming from you!
Why does it happen?
The main reasons for throwing away food are:
- Your kids don’t always want to eat what you’ve cooked for them
- Too much has been cooked or prepared eg pasta and rice all the time
- It hasn’t been used in time - fruit and vegetables are a typical example because they’ve gone off in the fruit bowl or in the fridge
- The food hasn’t been eaten before it goes past its use-by date (keep an eye on the 'best before' and 'use-by' dates. The 'best before' dates are more about quality than safety, except for eggs. So when the date runs out it doesn't mean that the food will be harmful, but it might begin to lose its flavour and texture).
There are all sorts of reasons why food might not get eaten in time:
- Plans change.
- We forget what food we have in the cupboards, forget to freeze or chill something to use at a later date.
- We simply don’t know how best to use up our leftovers.
And what to do with leftover?
Why not give your leftovers a makeover?Making the most of leftovers is a great way to reduce food waste, so to help you with ideas our THINK.EAT.SAVE partner “Love Food Hate Waste” have come up with a free leftover celebrity cookbook, just for you.
Is Food Waste Bad for the environment?
You bet! There are serious environmental implications to wasting food. The amount of food we throw away is a waste of resources. Just think about all the energy, water and packaging used in food production, transportation and storage. This all goes to waste when we throw away perfectly good food. Check out ourpages and find out how you can use food and not waste it.