Reducing food waste
Save £50 a month on your food bill
A waste review carried out by the council revealed that on average a third of what is being thrown away by households in the borough is food waste. So for every three bags of shopping we take home, we effectively end up putting one straight in the bin.
Wasting food is a terrible waste of money. The average household throws away between £420 and £600 worth of good food which could have been eaten each year. There are also environmental impacts. Most of the food thrown away ends up in landfill where it produces methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas.
With a little bit of extra thought, it's very easy to make the most of the food we buy and by doing this, you could save yourself £50 per month. And as an added extra, if we all stopped wasting food, the impact on reducing our carbon emissions would be the equivalent to taking one in five cars off the road!
How Barnet residents are preventing food waste
We asked residents in the High Barnet area to share the little things that they do to make the most of the food they buy. Here are a few of them:
- Cut stale bread into cubes and fry for croutons.
- Potatoes, greens, carrots and leftovers. Mix and fry for bubble and squeak.
- Whatever delicious meal you cook in the evening, take the left-overs to work for lunch the next day and make your work-mates jealous and curious.
- Use bruised or brown fruit to make smoothies or milkshakes.
- Make sure you eat the oldest yoghurt next.
- Always ensure the oldest bottle of milk is the most accessible in the fridge!
- Yorkshire puddings with a twist – pour batter over leftovers and bake it in a hot oven.
- When making muffins, add ‘tired’ fruit.
- Over ripe bananas can be made into banana cake.
- Put stuff in the freezer.
- Make breadcrumbs out of stale or waste bread and freeze them.
- Leftover cooked vegetables can go into an omelette. Fresh veg past its best can go into a stir-fry.
- Make soup from leftover vegetables and chicken.
- Make up recipes from your leftovers – experiment.
Five ways to save money and prevent food waste:
1) Get friendly with your fridge
Just by opening the fridge door and checking the ‘use by’ dates on items you can prioritise what to eat first.
2) Cupboard savvy
Stocking your store cupboard and freezer with a variety of canned, dried and frozen goods with a long shelf-life means you will always have the ingredients standing by to jazz up your leftovers.
3) Carb control
Learn how to make just enough rice and pasta for the number of people you’re cooking for.
4) Love your leftovers
Being creative with your food is the clever way to save cash. With a little bit of thought you can create some delicious surprises from your leftovers - they don’t have to mean second best.
5) It pays to plan!
Check your fridge, freezer and store cupboard before you go shopping, then write a list so you don’t shop for things you already have.
For more handy tips and delicious recipes to make from your leftovers, visit the Love Food Hate Waste website.
Email this pageLast modified by: Rachel Jones on 01/07/2009