Waste not, want not

SAVE MONEY: GOOD FOOD | ITV 8PM

Susanna Reid gets away from the Good Morning Britain sofa to co-present this new series, which aims to help us all shop sensibly and cut down on the food we throw away needlessly.

Each week, Susanna and chef Matt Tebbutt will be helping ordinary families to identify potential savings and, in a fine example of the glamour of working in television, sometimes that means investigating the contents of their kitchen bins…

“I signed up to the show before I knew I’d have to put the gloves on and rummage through people’s rubbish!” chuckles Susanna. “I’m very grateful to the families who’ve allowed us to do that. It’s interesting – we’re all guilty of wasting food, and I really admire the people who use every last ounce of everything they buy.”

Susanna and Matt found that many of the featured families were throwing away perfectly good food which, although outside its ‘best before’ date, was still completely edible.

“We tend to get paranoid about ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ dates,” shares Susanna. “Sweet potatoes don’t come out with a ‘best before’ date on them, but once they’re packaged with a date on the label, people think ‘I can’t eat that’ and it ends up in the bin. We’re throwing away fruit and veg because someone, somewhere has decided that on the first of March it ceases to be edible, and that’s not the case.”

There will be lots of tips in the series to help viewers find inspiration for their leftovers, and Susanna says making the show has altered her approach to cooking and shopping.

“It’s completely changed my habits,” she tells us. “I went to the supermarket with a very savvy shopper, who manages to feed a family of five on what many of us would think was a hugely challenging budget. She gave me loads of tips!”