Tag: Food waste

Counting on … day 3

3rd January 2024

Avoid food waste

“If food waste were a country, it would be the third biggest polluter in the world. Globally, one third of the food we produce goes to waste, and according to WRAP, £3.5 billion worth of edible food is thrown away each year by UK households” – https://hubbub.org.uk/how-to-tackle-a-complex-issue-like-food-waste-and-turn-it-into-action

Food waste can happen at the farm especially if crops produce more than expected or reach harvesting time sooner or later than expected, which often means that the supermarkets are not ready for the produce. This is good reason for eating what is available which is more achievable when buying from a green grocer or via a veg box scheme. 

Food waste can happen at the shop/ supermarket when items are over stocked. Increasingly supermarkets are encouraged to divert this food to charities rather than letting it go to waste.

Food waste also happens in the home. This is best avoided by preparing and cooking only what you will eat (and so having a good feel for portion sizes), by saving and reusing left overs, and by buying only what you will use – a shopping list is a good way of avoiding overbuying.

For more tips – https://greentau.org/2021/08/09/eco-tips-4/

And – https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/

Windows of Opportunity 

13th December 2023

Cut food waste

I was once told never to waste so much as a grain of rice because somewhere a farmer had worked hard to produce it. 

“More than 900 million tonnes of food is thrown away every year, according to the  UN Environment Programme‘s Food Waste Index… 17% of the food available to consumers – in shops, households and restaurants – goes directly into the bin. Some 60% of that waste is in the home.”(1)

“About a third of all the world’s food goes to waste, and producing, transporting and letting that food rot releases 8-10% of global greenhouse gases. If food waste were a country, it would have the third-biggest carbon footprint after the US and China, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.”(2)

“In February 2016, France adopted a pioneering law on fighting food waste that meant supermarkets were forbidden to destroy unsold food products and were compelled to donate it instead. This law constituted the starting point of the fight against food waste through banning its destruction and facilitating donation. Since the adoption, its scope has been extended further…”(3)

OddBox and similar fruit and vegetable box  schemes, sell fruit and vegetables that would otherwise go to waste. The produce may come direct from the farm where there is a sudden glut or sudden drop in demand, or from wholesalers when the boxes re-home produce that is too small, too big, too wonky etc. 

Other companies such as Olio and  Too Good to Go, have schemes for re-homing various foods that would otherwise go to waste – such as breads and cakes unsold at the end of the day.

See for more details – https://www.oddbox.co.uk/blog/7-apps-that-are-helping-reduce-food-waste

And also – https://wrap.org.uk/taking-action/food-drink/actions/action-on-food-waste

Food waste is not just a western problem. It is also a problem in, for example, Africa. The World Economic Forum reports “Across Africa, an estimated 100 million people faced catastrophic levels of food insecurity in 2020; …. This is due to conflicts, successive crop failures (as a result of climate change and extreme weather events), pre-existing and COVID-19 related economic shocks, and soaring food prices. Yet, at the same time, significant volumes of food are lost after harvest in sub-Saharan Africa each year — estimated at $4 billion worth for grains alone. This exceeds the value of the total food aid received in sub-Saharan Africa over the past decade, and equates to the annual value of cereal imports. In a continent where so many people are starving, and many more, particularly children and women, are undernourished, it is unconscionable to lose and waste food at this scale. Reducing food loss and waste could be one of the leading strategies for  Africa ….

“[One] major challenge across Africa is a lack of effective transport and storage facilities due to poor access to energy to power cold storage, poor infrastructure such as roads and railway networks, access and affordability, among others. If these were improved, they could help prevent post-harvest losses.” (4)

  1. https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-56271385
  2. https://www.theguardian.com/news/2021/sep/04/how-food-waste-is-huge-contributor-to-climate-change
  3. https://zerowasteeurope.eu/wp-content/uploads/2020/11/zwe_11_2020_factsheet_france_en.pdf

(4) https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/01/food-loss-waste-africa-agriculture-farming/

Counting on …. Day 1.201

25th October 2023

Cooking seasonally is a good way of reducing food waste. Apples are very much in season now, so this can be a good time to make mincemeat. 

Count Down

Surplus cabbage and root vegetables lend themselves to being turned into sauerkraut which is good for our gut biome and can be a handy part of a salad or – if heated – main meal.

https://greentau.org/tag/sauerkraut/

Counting on … day 1.200

24th October 2023

Food waste accounts for 24% of the green house gas emissions that relate to food. Of this food waste two thirds food’s emissions come from food that is lost in supply chains or wasted by consumers. Almost two-thirds of this is due to losses in the supply chain often the result of poor storage and handling, whilst the other third is food thrown away by retailers and consumers.  https://ourworldindata.org/food-waste-emissions

Reducing food waste is something we can all do. See this earlier item for tips – https://greentau.org/2021/08/09/eco-tips-4/

And for a different way of using up bread that might otherwise be thrown away, try Chester Cake. It is a variation of bread pudding without the eggs, and baked as a pie. This recipe comes from https://www.wandercooks.com/chester-squares-gur-cake/

Counting on … day 1.072

15th March 2023 

Food that is wasted – whether that it is on the farm (perhaps being ploughed up because there is no longer a market for it or it has become damaged), between the farm gate and the store (too many or too little of too mis -shapen), or in our kitchens  (because we have bought too much or let what we have go ‘off’) – accounts for 8 to 10% of the world’s carbon footprint. Reducing food waste saves resources, limits pollution and ensures more people are better fed.  

This week OddBox which diverts food that would go to waste into a weekly veg box delivery issued its annual report – https://www.oddbox.co.uk/blog/our-do-good-report-2022

Counting on …day 1:020

20th January 2023

Cut food waste! A third of all the world’s food goes to waste and adding up the waste of resources in producing and transporting food that ultimately goes to waste plus the carbon footprint the food that then goes onto rot, accounts for about 8% of global emissions. 

Here in the UK households throw away 4.5 million tonnes of edible food every year.

For more information – 

Eco Tips

https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200224-how-cutting-your-food-waste-can-help-the-climate

Counting On …. Day 27 

10th December 2021

On average about 18% of the food we buy at Christmas is thrown away! According to Marija Rompani, director of ethics and sustainability at John Lewis Partnership “The reality is food waste creates six times more greenhouse gases than aviation. When we throw food away, we waste the precious resources taken to grow, package and transport it – and as it rots in landfill, it produces methane, a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide. So the simple action of throwing food in the bin has more of a negative impact on our planet than people often realise.” (https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2021/dec/04/avoid-food-waste-christmas-climate)

The means to avoiding such waste is two pronged: don’t buy more than you actually need, and make sure you do use all that you do buy. For more tips on how to reduce food waste see  https://greentau.org/2021/08/09/eco-tips-4/

Eco Tips

Curtailing food waste

Photo by Karolina Grabowska on Pexels.com

Reducing food waste

4..5 million tonnes of food is wasted by UK households each year – that equates to 12.5 million tonnes CO2. Avoiding waste is about only buying what is actually going to be eaten within the shelf life of the food stuff.

  • Plan meals
    • plan a daily menu or a weekly menu. This way you will know what food/ ingredients you need.
    • think about portion sizes: eg portion of protein = 30g nuts, 2 eggs, 90g meat, or 150g cooked beans or pulses.
    • check which ingredients you already have and which additional items you need to buy.
  • Make a shopping list and use it: buying extra may be storing up future waste.
  • Think about using alternative or substitute ingredients.
    • if a recipe asks for peas and you haven’t any, can you use chopped courgette/ apple/ dried peas?
    • if celeriac is on your shopping list but not in the shop, can you buy carrots/ parsnips/ sweet potato instead?
  • Plan your meal according to what you already have.
    • Rather than buying a complete set of ingredients, create a recipe that uses what you already have.
    • Use up ingredients that are in your fridge that would otherwise go out of date. Try the internet for ‘fridge clearing’ recipes.
    • If you have left leftovers from a previous meal, incorporate them into today’s meal
  • Make good use of a glut. If you have an excess amount of a food or if there is a really good offer at your local shop, have a go at food preserving . Excess fruit can be bottled, made into jam, or made into chutney. Excess vegetables can be pickled, fermented or made into chutney.
  • Store all food stuffs carefully so as to keep them fresh and maintain their life. Some foods – like potatoes – are best kept in breathable (paper/ cotton) bag that excludes light. Some are best kept in bags – eg carrots and root vegetables – to stop them drying out. Some are best kept in the fridge such as cucumbers and lettuces. Some are best kept out of the fridge such as apples and tomatoes.
  • If you shop locally and buy locally produced foods, less food is likely to be wasted in the distribution chain. Try a fruit and veg box scheme that comes direct from the farm.
  • Be ready to buy small or oddly shaped fruit and vegetables that would otherwise be discarded. Some fruit and veg box schemes such as OddBox, specialise in sourcing products that are either small, misshapen or surplus to demand.
  • Buy and eat food that is in season.
  • Have a few recipes that use only store cupboard ingredients so that you can always make a meal with what’s in the house. Eg spaghetti with a tinned tomato and haricot bean sauce, garnished with black olives.