Food waste so costly for us . . . and the planet

I salute The Mail on Sunday for launching its worthy War On Food Waste campaign.

I have always believed in waste not, want not. Apart from the impact on our wallets, there is an environmental cost as well.

I’m sure that if we all try to make small changes, then we can make a start on reducing the size of the nation’s food waste.

D. Courtney, Weston-super-Mare

My husband and I like to eat out, but we are pensioners and have both limited finances and small appetites.

Can I suggest that restaurants and major food outlets offer a ‘buy one meal with two plates’ system? We would use it. There is always too much food for us, so we end up asking for a doggy bag, even though we don’t always feel like reheating leftovers.

Aud Briars, Melton Mowbray

One tip to slash food waste: don’t buy so much food.

Brian Best, High Wycombe

I have been complaining to supermarkets for years about some of their ridiculous policies.

One is ‘Ripen in the fruit bowl’. I have news for them: it never ripens in the fruit bowl. Within 24 hours, it is often covered in mould or ends up being thrown away days later, still hard but rotten in the middle.

Linda Curley, Poole

Regarding your tips to stop food wastage, I doubt that my husband and I ever fill up our small food waste bin.

We have always done the things you suggest. If food doesn’t smell and it isn’t green, then it will get eaten.

Jenny McGregor, Bishop’s Stortford, Hertfordshire

Your report about food waste is shocking. The amount that is thrown away is staggering. Imagine what a difference this food could make to food banks and struggling families.

Nick Fletcher, Malton, North Yorkshire

Your main picture showed all the fruit and vegetables wrapped in plastic, but those of us who buy produce in its loose form don’t have the benefit of ‘Use by’ or ‘Best before’ dates. We have to use our common sense.

M. Cameron, Chichester

I live on a property that was originally my great-grandfather’s smallholding.

Benefiting from an orchard, a greenhouse and a vegetable patch, I’m almost completely selfsufficient in fruit and veg.

Things I don’t or cannot grow, I purchase from local shops, and they are often of superior quality and less expensive than the supermarket.

With regard to my food waste, I don’t have any: peelings go in the compost bins and meat scraps are put out for the badgers and foxes.

Alan Baker, Westerham, Kent