BOXING DAY Did you know that wasted food has a negative impact on our environment? Think about how much food you throw away. Food left over on your plate; too much food prepared and not used; food past its sell-by date; food past its use-by date; food gone off. These all generally land up in the dustbin! Many of us dont give a thought to the quantity of food we waste daily, weekly monthly and yearly. We may think about it for a moment when were scraping the leftovers off the plate, or when we dump some vrot fruit in the bin. But its become so normal to throw food away that we just dont give it any real thought, and we dont think how the quantities add up over the year. (We absolutely acknowledge that there are feeding schemes where not a drop of food is wasted!). Half of the food thrown away neednt go to waste. With some basic management in the food buying process and the food preparation you could have saved a substantial amount of money! Read on and well explain further. (As you know only too well food is so expensive that food thrown away is like throwing money in the dustbin. And we would never choose to actually throw money in the bin!) We tend to not appreciate that greenhouse gas emissions are generated from the growing, transport, processing and storage of food before purchase and that, if food is thrown away, all this effort - and environmental impact - goes to waste too. In addition to money being wasted, discarded food has a negative impact on our environment as it contributes to global warming. This is because the bulk of wasted food ends up in landfills, and rotting food in landfills produces methane gas - one of the greenhouse gases that contribute to global warming. (When we throw away food we also dont take into account the greenhouse gas emissions that are generated throughout the food supply chain (when the food was produced, processed, transported and stored) before we even buy it.) The food packaging of many food products is excessive. There is a growing awareness that the packaging is environmentally unfriendly because it is non-biodegradable and invariably just gets thrown away and lands up on our landfills (or on our streets as litter). The good news is that people are becoming aware of the importance and ease of recycling. We dont perceive organic waste or biodegradable food waste to be in problem in the waste stream. But as we have highlighted wasted food has a negative environmental impact. Solutions A lack of planning by or for home cooks often leads to a waste of food. Here are some tips to help you waste less food • Food management begins at home - before we even do the shopping. • Check what stockpiled ingredients you have - whether tinned, frozen or fresh. Use them before purchasing more so that they dont expire or spoil. • Plan menus according to what you have in stock as well as whats in season and available. • Create a shopping list for what you need. • Stick to your shopping list when shopping. • Although some people are aware of date labels when they shop - taking food from the back of the shelf, as this tends to be the freshest - we generally dont follow the same principle at home. • Stack the food in your fridge and cupboards with the newly purchased at the back and use your existing stocks first. This process ensures that products wont get lost at the back of the cupboard. • By moving your food around it also serves as a reminder of what stock is in your fridge/freezer/cupboards. • Reducing consumption is better than reusing. • Reusing is better than recycling or composting. • Reducing, re-using, recycling and composting are better than disposing of our food waste. • Making better use of leftover items, creating menus with existing food items, and making less food is first prize when it comes to reducing food waste. • Home composting is also a great way to make use of peelings and other compostable food waste. See our page on composting. • Recycling compostable food waste into compost is a more cost effective method of waste management. From an environmental perspective, home composting does not generate the amount of methane produced by landfills. • The use by label generally applies to fresh meat and fish, dairy products, and fruit and vegetables that will either go off or rot. • The best before date is a guide relating to foods with a longer shelf life (that are low risk). Food quality may depreciate after the best before date has passed, but there are not likely to be health issues. • Reseal packing properly to protect the food. Use resealable bags, zip lock bags, or clips to close the bags properly, • It is suggested that you once youve sealed the packets you put it in a container, so that you create a barrier from the outside atmosphere. (Reuse containers that food comes in e.g ice-cream containers etc) • Buying food in the right portion sizes can assist in reducing food waste in the home. • When buying larger packets of meat, separate it into correction portion size before freezing so that you dont have to thaw the whole packet and only the amount you need at the time you need it. • Self-selection or self-dispensing is an option that allows consumers to buy only the amount they need - reducing the potential for waste. It also reduces the amount of packaging wasted. Reuse your plastic bags - next time you buy tomatoes use the same plastic bag. Dont throw away good food Feed someone else. Give your good food to beggars on the street. (Use a biodegradable container - like a paper plate, paper towel or serviette. Although its not ideal its better than a plastic container or bag that may be left as litter.)
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 09:27:46 +0000
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