Reduce your food waste... by loving your leftovers and using those UFOs*
*that’s unidentified freezer objects
WASTING good food is tantamount to throwing money in the bin. Yet despite grocery bills continuing to soar, we still waste about 800,000 tonnes of food annually, according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The EPA’s Stop Food Waste campaign says the average Irish household could save
€700 a year by avoiding food waste.
Here are some tips to help you to stop throwing away valuable food, resources and money.
1. THINK AHEAD AND PLAN YOUR MEALS
A RIGID meals plan is not for everyone but you can avoid unnecessary and impulse purchases by thinking ahead. Plan for five main meals a week to give you flexibility and even the odd takeaway.
Make a shopping list – ideally on your phone – so you don’t deviate from your planned menus.
2. LOOK FOR INSPIRATION TO TRY NEW RECIPES
MANY shoppers say they waste food because they don’t know what to cook.
But whether jazzing up old potatoes or limp lettuce, there is a host of imaginative recipes out there.
On the EPA’s Stopfoodwaste.ie website you can download Sheila Kiely’s Meal Planner,
which will give you a week’s worth of ideas and recipes, complete with a shopping list so you can be sure you’ve got everything you’ll need.
Or join a social media movements such as Sorted
Food – Sortedfood.com – which provides online recipe packs designed to reduce food waste and save you cash.
3. BUY LOOSE FRUIT AND VEGETABLES
BUY exactly what you need, rather than pre-bagged packs, to avoid waste and reduce packaging.
And don’t be squeamish about best-before dates. Safefood advises that the use-by date is the one that matters; food quality will start to deteriorate after the best-before date but it will still be safe to eat, sometimes weeks and even months later. Visit Safefood.net for more advice on food safety.
5. USE A PHONE APP TO TAP INTO SHARING
A GROWING range of food waste apps means it’s never been easier to reduce food waste with a few taps on your phone.
Olio and Too Good To Go ‘rescue’ and share leftover food within the local community and have millions of users. Kitche is a tool that logs what you buy, keeps track of ‘Use by’ dates and helps you to eat it all with recommended recipes. It also calculates the value of what you
have wasted weekly.
6. MAKE THE MOST OF YOUR FREEZER
YOUR freezer is a key ally as you can freeze food right up to its ‘Use by’ date.
A lot more food and drink can be frozen than people realise, from rice, eggs and cheese to milk and wine.
Exceptions are those foods with a high water content, such as lettuce and cucumber.
Love Food Hate Waste has a handy guide to freezer use – find it at lovefoodhatewaste.com/article/be-freezer-hero.
But try not to overload your freezer with lurking UFOs (unidentified freezer objects). An overpacked freezer can reduce its effectiveness and make it harder to find things.
7. WISE UP ON HOW YOU STORE FOOD
SOME food keeps better outside the fridge, including onions and two of the most often wasted staples, bread and potatoes.
Store both of these foods in a cool, dark place, such as a bread bin or a cupboard.
Ditch the fruit bowl as apples, pears and citrus fruit will keep for longer in the fridge.
Pineapples and bananas will last longer outside the fridge, however.
8. ENSURE FRIDGES ARE COLD ENOUGH
THE average fridge temperature is 6.6C – which is too warm for most foods – when it should be below 5C. Check your fridge’s instruction manual to see which temperature setting is below 5C and/or invest in a fridge thermometer and keep an eye on it.
9. FORGET ABOUT PEELING SPUDS
WE ARE used to peeling vegetables, when really all theyneed is a brisk clean to remove the dirt.
‘Forget about peeling spuds or any veg, which avoids waste and saves money and time, while providing extra nutrients,’ says Juliane Caillouette-Noble of the Sustainable Restaurant
Association.
10. LEARN TO LOVE YOUR LEFTOVERS
HAVE a leftovers lunch or dinner once a week. Store any leftovers, which you have not frozen, in the same section of the fridge so theyare all easy to find and use.
You could even leave a note on the fridge indicating all items that need consuming, prioritising any ‘Use by’ dates.
Stopfoodwaste.ie has a Luscious Leftovers recipe booklet, produced in association with GalwayGastronomy, featuring meals that use up everything from unwanted boiled spuds to stale bread – and even banana skins!