Charlbury Area Waste Action Group

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Stop being wasteful with food

Oxford Times, Friday 29 April 2005

As part of our Cleanest County campaign, Helen Peacocke points to a survey which shows more than half of people bin unopened bags of salad each week.

If you put all the food that’s wasted in our country every year into lorries and lined them up they would stretch all the way from London to New York, and perhaps just a little bit further. This is a real indictment on our life-styles. It is thought that the British may waste more food than any other nation, with many households throwing out as much as 30 to 40 per cent of all food they buy.

But it’s not just householders who dump food. Some of the estimated 500,000 tonnes of edible food waste ending up in landfill sites comes from supermarkets because it’s past its sell-by date. Some is thrown out by wholesalers, restaurants, sandwich bars and canteens, and some is withdrawn from the market to guarantee farm prices.

It is estimated that the wasted food is worth between £8bn and £16bn a year (some estimates put it as high as £20bn) and the cost of disposal about £50m. Only 3,000 tonnes is given to charities and local authorities for redistribution.

Waste managers from Oxfordshire County Council say these new national statistics should act as a stark reminder to people to be more careful. Waste reduction office Katie Zabel said: “It’s not just a case of somebody leaving food on their plate. The more serious problem is people buying way too much food, letting it go past its sell-by date and then just throwing it straight into the bin.”

She added that if people didn’t blithely buy far too much food, almost in the knowledge that they are not going to use it all, we wouldn’t be in this situation.

An ironic feature of these figures is that supermarkets fight for customers by lowering their prices. Yet having sought out the best price, customers happily throw away as much as a third of what they purchase. But if you get two for the price of one, throwing one away is not the loss it could be.

We have lived with a cheap food culture in this country for too long. We appear to be going for quantity rather than quality now, often ignoring the excellent produce than can be sourced locally. One-stop shopping, where enough food to last the week is grabbed from shelves, may save time, but it often leads to stocking up with more than’s needed to avoid a further trip later in the week. Then there’s the taste of commercially produced packets of food. The packaging looks stunning – the reality is a different matter. The contents rarely mirror the picture on the box, so waste is inevitable.

The aroma of freshly cooked food can influence our appetite, too. Walk into a kitchen when the roast is in the oven and your appetite is immediately stimulated. There is nothing stimulating about the aroma of microwaved food.

The fact that meals are seldom shared these days may make a difference too. Choice also comes into the equation. While politicians continually promise choice, when it comes to food, this can often mean waste, particularly when it means putting out more than can be eaten in order to offer every member of the family exactly what they fancy.

Silly facts emerge too. Did you know that in a survey five years ago, it was discovered that more than 150,000 gallons of gravy is wasted every week when it’s poured over the Sunday roast because we are eating the potatoes first and so they don’t have long enough on the plate to absorb the gravy? And, of course, it’s common knowledge that Coleman’s mustard makes its profits from the mustard we leave on the side of the plate.

Leftovers were once used to create other dishes such as bubble and squeak, made from yesterday’s mashed potato and cabbage. Not so these days – cooked food sits in the fridge until mould forms on the top and then it’s dumped.

Quarters of raw cabbage and singled vegetables are often dumped because we feel there’s not enough left to make a complete serving. Little thought is given to how they could be incorporated into a new dish, such as a stir fry, which will absorb all manner of vegetables. Stale bread is no longer used to make bread and butter pudding or thicken soups.

Even unopened bags of salad are thrown away. Recent findings based on a survey of more than 1,000 households discovered that 61 per cent of those interviewed admitted binning at least one unopened bag of salad a week. A similar percentage admitted to throwing out unused loaves of bread and fruit too, while a slightly smaller percentage added meat and cheese to the list.

Obviously, no one wants to go back to the days of rationing, when every egg had to be accounted for, but is really is time we looked at the contents of our larder and began using what we buy more wisely. What is the point of seeking out supermarket bargains if they are never going to be eaten? Far better to spend more on local food that tastes so good it will not be wasted.

Katie Zabel says that the county council is addressing this problem by encouraging people to make better use of their compost bins, for although Oxfordshire is one of the better counties when it comes to recycling or composting waste, there’s still room for improvement.

She said: “Unwanted food can be composted and that is the environmentally friendly way to deal with the situation. However, we would prefer it if people just thought a little more carefully when they go to the supermarket.”

Reducing Waste in Your Kitchen

• Soup, gravy or sauces left over from a meal can be poured into an ice cube tray and frozen. When frozen, they can be placed in a bag and used whenever you are cooking a dish which calls for extra flavour.

• When adding fruit to a bowl always put the fresh fruit at the bottom so the riper fruit gets eaten before it goes off.

• Always store bananas away from other fruits as they tend to accelerate the ripening process of fruits and vegetables.

• Avoid storing mushrooms in plastic bags – they keep best when stored in a paper bag.

• Check the contents of your fridge on a daily basis, so that a dish of leftover food is not pushed to the back and left to gather mould.

• Don’t be tempted by ‘Bogof’ (Buy One, Get One Free) offers at the supermarket unless you are absolutely sure you can use the second pack before it deteriorates

• Be firmer with the family when it comes to food choice. If everyone eats the same meal, less is wasted.

• Be inventive when it comes to using up left overs which can be added to soups, casseroles and many other dishes. Leftover jacket potatoes , for example, taste delicious the next day if they are sliced and shallow-fried in olive oil until crisp.

• Remember that if you must throw bread away, it is better to offer it to the birds than place it in the dustbin.

• Get yourself a quality vegetable peeler, so less of the vegetable is peeled off with the skin.

• Avoid buying extra food in case you get a visitor. If someone does turn up unexpectedly, try working out ways of stretching the food you have got so that there’s more than enough to go round.

• Try buying local produce from the farm gate, as eggs will probably have a far longer shelf life and vegetables will be far fresher than those from a supermarket. When the pick-your-own season gets under way, go and pick your own fruit and vegetables because nothing could be fresher.

• If you want to frighten yourself into being more careful with food, try costing out the amount you throw away each week and then reducing your spending by that amount until you get it right.