Billions of pounds of food are binned by UK households every year. How can we cut that down?
Figures from the Institute of Grocery Distribution (IGD) show that UK households are throwing away an enormous amount of food every year.
Freezers are becoming less used, according to IGD research, and young people in particular are less fond of their freezers. Apparently many are using it just to store meat that’s soon to go off, and ‘unwanted food gifts’ from relatives.
‘Last resort’ meals
Nowadays, freezers are often considered to be an ‘insurance policy’, or a source of ‘last resort’ meals, according to the research. In fact, nearly two in ten (18%) of 18-34-year-olds say that they don’t like eating food that is stored in the freezer, compared to just 8% of over-35s.
One in seven 18-34-year-olds complain about a lack of fridge storage space versus 9% of over-35s, while a quarter of the younger group think that they have "insufficient" space in their freezers compared to 14% of over-35s.
Why does it matter?
What the study reveals is that younger people aren’t perhaps storing their food in the best way to prevent food waste, as their reluctance to use their freezers shows.
And the younger group of respondents were a lot more likely to store new food and drink at the front of the fridge. If older food is left at the back of the fridge, behind newer items, the new items are likely to be used first, and the old food might go off and be thrown out.
In fact, IGD Chief Executive Joanne Denney-Finch says that, while progress has been made by the food industry to help reduce waste, “seven million tonnes of food and drink” is still thrown away by UK homes every year, collectively “costing £12.5 billion – so there’s more work to be done.”
What can I do?
IGD’s new campaign ‘Working on Waste’ is educating employees in the food and grocery industry on how to minimise food waste at home, with the hope that these tips will be passed on to friends and family.
But there are some really simple things you can do to make a change now.
A simple system of food rotation and good storage practice can help reduce that waste. When filling up your fridge, place new items at the back, and move forward the old ones. That way, you’ll waste less, and the forgotten food won’t make a mess of your fridge either.
As an alternative, you can also implement this system as ‘take from the right’, where you move older food to the right of shelves and endeavour to use it up first before the new items on the left. This is an easier method to use if you have a particularly small fridge.
If you cook too much of a meal, consider packing it up in a Tupperware box for your lunch the next day. If there’s not enough to make a whole serving, bulk it out with some bread or something similar.
Charity Love Food Hate Waste, which is backing the IGD campaign, has five other great tips on its website to help you not waste good food.
Is there anything else?
If you have extra food and you’d like to help someone else who might not be able to cook for themselves, you might consider signing up for something like Casserole Club.
If you don’t have the time to get involved in that, and would rather just give spare ingredients to a good cause, FareShare takes all “grocery, chilled or frozen food fit for human consumption.” They then deliver that to kitchens in places such as homeless hostels, women’s refuges or day centres for the elderly.
You can also donate food to your local food bank – this might be a good immediate option when you’ve bought too much of something accidentally and either don’t have space or will struggle to get through it all. You can find your nearest Trussell Trust food bank on the charity's website.
And if you have vegetables that are way past it and a garden, why not start a compost box?
Are you shocked by the amount of food we collectively waste? Do you have a system to reduce your food waste? Let us know your thoughts in the Comments below.
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