Tasting notes

There are plenty of delicious ways of using up food that’s a little past its best

Tackling food waste one dish at a time

LAST WEEK I wrote here about food waste and highlighted a few of the growing number of innovative producers who turn surplus veg into something wonderful. Soon after my copy deadline whistled by, the UN’S World Food Programme (WFP) launched a campaign that aims to encourage you and me to do the same, and since donations to it will help the world’s largest humanitarian organisation to fight hunger around the world, I hope you’ll forgive a continuation of the theme.

Recipe for Disaster is an entreaty (or challenge, if you prefer) to put our tired tangerines and sorry-looking lettuces into lunch or dinner (instead of the bin), take a picture of it, and post it on social media using #recipefordisaster. Many of you probably do the first bit already; bragging about it might prompt friends to do the same, hopes the campaign’s ambassador, chef Arthur Potts Dawson, ‘even if the plateful looks like a disaster itself ’. Potts Dawson has worked with the WFP before to get its messages out. ‘The numbers blow my mind,’ he says. ‘They are hard to fully appreciate: 1.4 million bananas thrown away every day in the UK? That’s crazy!’

With his 30 years of cheffing knowhow, his rubbery carrots will likely turn out prettier than ours, but ‘the most important thing is that you’ve taken the time’ to filter through the best-before dates and serve up something special – and follow up with a £5 donation to support the WFP’S work.

As I write this, I’m invited to a conference on food-surplus initiatives, and told about a producer of delicious crackers made from juice pulp (Nibs etc; check them out). Food waste? There’s plenty more to say – and do. wfp.org/recipefordisaster