Spring-clean your kitchen cupboards

Fruit & vegetables

Cut off the mouldy bits on fruit, then blend what remains into a juice or smoothie, or cook down as a compote for your breakfast cereal or as a healthy, delicious pudding. Rethink the way you look at veggies – if their appearance is lacklustre as part of a dinner, boil them up and make a tasty, super-healthy vegetable soup.

Potatoes

Throw away green-tinged potatoes as these are toxins that could upset your stomach. Cutting out the green bits doesn’t mean the rest of the potato won’t be affected.

Meat

If the surface of the packaging is ‘domed’, this means there has been bacteria activity, so it could be suspicious. Once opened, smell it. If it smells rancid, or strong, throw it away. If you’re still not sure, touch the surface of the meat, if it feels sticky or slimy, it’s probably bad, so throw it away.

If in doubt, throw it out. It’s not worth the potential food poisoning. And don’t even think about freezing it – contrary to what many people think, freezing does not kill harmful bacteria.

Fish

If it smells over-fishy and makes you wrinkle your nose, throw it away. Fresh fish should smell like being by the sea.

Shellfish

Discard mussels that are open, before cooking. And in reverse, discard the closed ones, once cooked.

Eggs

Place in a bowl of water: if they float, they are 'off'. If they half-float, they are still OK to use, but could go off soon, so smell each one as you open it. If they smell bad, throw them out.

Jam

Keep jam in the fridge after opening the jar. If any mould appears, scoop it out to 3cm (1in) below the mould, so any spores that are starting to spread are removed.

Bread

White and blue mould can be OK! Simply cut these bits off and the rest of the loaf is fine. When the mould is yellow, orange or black, throw it away.