Half of world’s food ‘is wasted’ so waste not, want not

“Almost 50% of the total amount of food thrown away in the UK comes from our homes. We throw away 7.2 million tonnes of food and drink from our homes every year in the UK, and more than half of this is food and drink we could have eaten.

Wasting this food costs the average household £480 a year, rising to £680 for a family with children, the equivalent of around £50 a month.”, according to recent research.

Read the full story: here

Reasons for food waste:
Inedible 36.5%
Left on plate 15.7%
Out of date 15.1%
Mouldy 9.3%
Looked bad 8.8%
Smelt/tasted bad 4.5%
Left from cooking 4%
Other 3.8%
In fridge/cupboard too long 1.5%

So, clearly, the most obvious ways of reducing this waste are to cook and prepare the food to be edible and attractive and not to put too much on a plate.

But that still leaves other options. We try not to waste food at all in our house and are generally successful.

For example, recently we had a fairly large chicken (Tesco reduced!) for Sunday roast. Pull the rest of it off, chill and use for a curry on Tuesday with left-over pringles as popadoms and some left-over garlic dip added something special.

Cheese and chive dip worked well with boiled potatoes and even better with mash.

Left-over ham from Christmas, frozen once chilled, chopped into small pieces makes for a great Quiche Lorraine.

Please share your thoughts on this subject.