The UK wastes 7 million tons of food at
the household level each year and that equates to about 22 million tons of
carbon footprint. About 5 million tons of this food waste is avoidable so today
I’m going to give you my 5 top tips on how to reduce household consumer food
waste. So my first tip is the most important one and this is about planning.
Planning the food that you’re going to eat throughout the week. Having a look to
see what’s in your cupboards to make sure that you’re not going to buy food
that you already have and you can record these on a food planner. We have one at
Loughborough which is easy to download and easy to use which will help you carry out this
activity. So my second tip is about shopping. Whether you’re shopping online
or physically going to the store the important thing is to write a shopping
list and then stick to that list. Don’t get drawn in by the end of aisle offers,
buy one get one frees, because you’ll end up buying products that you don’t
necessarily want and won’t use in time. So my third tip is about storage. Once
you’ve bought the food and got it home you need to put it in the right place so
whether it goes in the freezer or the cupboard or the fridge. For example many
types of fruit and vegetables should really be stored in the fridge. Even
those which aren’t always sold refrigerated like apples and grapes. The
other thing you should be aware of is best before dates and use by dates and
the difference between those. Best before dates are a guide to help you judge when
the food might be at its best but actually past that date you can use your
common sense as to whether it’s consumable. Use by dates are more
important and you really should be abiding by those for food safety reasons. So my
fourth tip is about preparation and it’s about cooking just the right amount of
food for the people that are going to eat it so really you should be weighing
ingredients out, proportion sizing appropriately and it’s always best to
cook slightly less food and then have a snack afterwards rather than over-
cooking or over-preparing food and then over-consuming or of course creating
that food waste, that plate waste. So my fifth and final tip is about leftovers.
If you are in the situation where you have some food leftover don’t just leave
it to fester and stew on the side. As soon as it’s cool enough, stick it in
a resealable reusable plastic container and either stick it in the fridge, eat it
in the next day or so or stick it in the freezer and eat it over the coming weeks. So hopefully these tips are useful for you if you have any of your own tips leave
them in the comments. you