Waste Not Want Not

Living in the western world, we are spoilt for choice when it comes to food. Whether it’s going out to a restaurant for dinner, or going to the supermarket for our weekly shop, we are guaranteed to greeted with an abundance of food choices.

But how much of the food we buy is actually eaten, and how much is wasted? According to Love Food Hate Waste, we throw away 7 tonnes of food from our homes every year. And not only are we wasting food, we’re wasting money too. We take for granted how much choice we have and do not value how lucky we are to be able to access good quality food at any given time. If we all slightly altered our food habits and shopped a bit more economically, we could save a lot of unnecessary waste.

If you do not already plan your weekly meals before you go shopping, I urge you to give it a try and see if helps you shop a bit more economically. This way, you don’t end up getting home and realising you have way more food than you can eat! You’ll also be saving money as well as waste by doing this, so win win! You don’t even have to be too strict about which day you’ll be eating a particular meal, but have a rough idea of the meals you can make and what you’ll need for these.

Don’t buy into “buy one get one free offers” unless you do really need two bags of carrots/grapes/hot cross buns. Supermarkets are really good at getting us to buy more than we need, so try to avoid this unless you know exactly how you’ll use the extra food. Likewise, instead of buying fruit and vegetables pre bagged just because it’s on offer, just buy the amount you need. It’s cheaper to buy a few loose fruits or veggies over a big bag that’s on offer, and again, you’re more likely to use them and avoid waste.

Treat best before dates as a rough guide rather than a strict rule. We were given noses for a reason – if something smells bad it probably is. If something looks and smells okay, I would say it was fine for consumption, even if the best before date said it went off two days previously.

The website I mentioned previously, Love Food Hate Waste has a lot of really great resources for tips on how to make your food go further, so I would definitely recommend checking it out.