2. • What do we waste?
• Who is making the waste?
•Why is food waste bad?
•What are retailers doing?
•What we can do – tips and
advice to take home
3. UK food waste – how much do we waste?
* This covers part of the profit sector, and schools; ** incl. other parts of the hospitality and food service sector, other out of home
food waste, and pre-factory gate food waste; household figures updated October 2011. NB data for household also includes drink
waste, which is not currently available for other sectors
4. 4.4m tonnes 1.4m tonnes 1.4m tonnes
7.2m tonnesTotal food and drink waste
Avoidable Possibly Avoidable Unavoidable
Household food and drink waste in the UK
6. All types of food and drink are thrown away
The most prominent by weight:
• Fresh vegetables and salad
• Drink
• Fresh fruit
• Bakery items – e.g. bread
What are we wasting?
8. What and how
much are we
throwing away
each day?
1.6m
Bananas
5500
Chickens
5.1m
potatoes
1.3m
Yoghurts
220,000
Loaves of Bread
660,000
Eggs
1.2m
Sausages
9. ~270kg per household per
year
~5kg per household per
week
~ around 120kg per person
per year
Average household food waste
11. Environmental Impact
Producing, storing and transporting food uses up a
lot of energy and resources
=17 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year
If we were to stop wasting food it would be the
equivalent of taking 1 in 5 cars off UK roads
12. The effect of waste on your wallet:
UK householders are throwing away £12 billion worth of
good food and drink every year
£480 per household per year
£680 per household with children per year
Wasting less = Savings of up to £50 a month
The financial costs of food waste
13. It’s not all bad news...
UK household food waste has fallen by 1.1 million tonnes
(13%) since 3 years ago - from 8.3 million tonnes to 7.2 million
tonnes, or around a fifth of all food purchased
Avoidable household food waste has reduced by 950,000 tonnes, or
18%, from 5.3 to 4.4 million tonnes – one Wembley Stadium’s worth!
But...
As food inflation over this period has been around 20%, although the
amount we throw away is much lower (overall 4.4 mt vs 5.3 mt) it is
still costing us about the same
15. The Courtauld Commitment
= A responsibility agreement aimed at improving
resource efficiency and reducing the
environmental impact of the grocery retail
sector
The targets includes the reduction of household
food waste
16. There are over 50 signatories
including… BmMore th mmman
300 local authorities
in England are also
running LFHW
initiatives and have
avoided spending at
least £22m in
disposal costs.
mmds
24. Planning your meals
Save time and money:
• Saves money by using up what’s left
• Prevents buying things you already have
How?
• Know what’s in your fridge, freezer and store cupboard
• Plan your main meals for the week
• Think about potential leftover dishes
25. Benefits of Planning
• Can help get others involved in meal planning and
preparation
• More nutritionally balanced meals
• Less stressful and time-consuming – no need to try and
think of things to eat each day
• Enables you to cook double and freeze half
• Helps use up freezer meals
26.
27. Know your dates
Checking dates saves money and lets you enjoy food at its best
• Check the dates on food
regularly and use foods with the
shortest date first
• Freeze for later foods you won’t
get round to eating in time
28.
29. Savvy Storage
Storing your food correctly ensures you get
the most from the food that you buy – lasting
longer and saving you money
30. Using your Fridge
• Keep the fridge at a cool 1 - 5 degrees and chilled
food will stay fresh for longer
• Our most perishable (and often most expensive) food is
kept in the fridge, so keep tabs on their use-by dates
• The freezer may be the option for food we won't get
round to eating in time
31. Freezer Myth Buster
You can only freeze food on the day of purchase
FALSE
Food can be frozen at any point up to the
end of the “use by” date
32. Freezer Myth Buster
Frozen food isn’t as good as fresh
FALSE
Many foods are frozen at their freshest, e.g.
fish and vegetables, so they keep all the
goodness “locked” in
33. Freezer Myth Buster
You can’t freeze dairy foods
.
FALSE
You can freeze hard cheese, like cheddar and
stilton, as well as milk, cream (slightly whipped)
and butter
34. Using your Freezer
• Food can THEORETICALLY be stored in the freezer
forever
– it only deteriorates in quality, not safety
• Some foods deteriorate quicker than others
For example, chicken lasts longer than yoghurt
• Changes in quality include: colour, texture and
35. Top Freezer Tips
• Freeze up to one day before the 'use by' date – try
creating home-made ready meals too!
• Label your frozen food, including the date
• Thaw food in fridge. Or, if you intend to cook it as soon as
it's defrosted, you can defrost it in a microwave
• Eat within 24 hours after it’s been defrosted – heat
thoroughly
36. Top Storage Tips
1. Stop veg going mouldy
Put a piece of kitchen paper in with the vegetables in the fridge drawer -
Any moisture goes in the paper not the vegetables
2. Freezing milk
Freeze milk when you have bought too much or are off for a few days!
5 .Cheese
Take Cheese out of its wrapper and put in a plastic container -
The cheese does not sweat and stays fresh much longer
3 .Stop fruit spoiling
Keep an eye on your fruit, separate fruit which is ripening up more quickly than the others
4. Quick Veg
Peel and chop carrots, onions, etc, bag them and freeze. When needed, just take out as
much as you need and reseal - No more soggy veg at the bottom of your veg box
37. Perfect portions
• Weigh or measure your food – work out the right
amount
• Avoid piling up the plate with food – encourage people
to help themselves from serving dishes
• You don’t need any fancy tools – a mug,
tablespoon, spaghetti measure or simple scales
are all you need
38. • A Mug
Handy for measuring uncooked rice –
1 mug = 4 adults
• Tablespoon
Good for measuring out portions of rice –
5 tablespoons = 2 children
• Handfuls
Great for pasta – 2 handfuls = 1 adult
• Weighing scales
Follow the weight guide on the packet
Portions Calculator
Looking at household food and drink waste in the UK, in total we throw away 7.2 million tonnes of food and drink every year.
Of that 7.2 million tonnes 4.4 million tonnes per year is what we call avoidable – i.e. this is food and drink what was at some point prior to being thrown away edible, a slice of bread, an apple, a slice of ham etc… – this is approximately two-thirds of all food and drink waste.
The remaining 2.8 million tonnes per year is split equally between what we call possibly avoidable and unavoidable food waste.
Possibly avoidable is food and drink that some people eat and others do not for example bread crusts, or foods and drinks that can be eaten when a food is prepared in one way but not in another for example generated when making mash potato, may have been eaten when making jacket potatoes.
Unavoidable is food or drink preparation that is not, and has not been edible under normal circumstances for example meat bones, egg shells, pineapple skin and tea bags.
Note that composting at home is a solution to the possibly avoidable and unavoidable food waste.
Looking at avoidable food and drink waste – the reasons why people throw away food waste can be broken down giving us valuable insights;
The first main reason as to why food and drink is wasted is because we cook, prepare or serve too much. So for example, that’s us cooking too much and not knowing what to do with the leftovers, or dishing too much up onto people’s plates which ends up being thrown away, or even because we have perhaps burnt it during cooking.
The other main reason we throw away avoidable food is because we have not go round to using it in time, for example it has gone past its use-by date, or has gone mouldy or rotten, or smelt or tasted bad.
There are other reasons as to why food is thrown away but the research was not able to split these reasons out.
Actually – its everyone – we all waste food!
The greenhouse gas emissions associated with avoidable food and drink waste is the equivalent of approximately 17 million tonnes of carbon dioxide per year.
Signatories are key retailers and brands from the grocery sector. Also, big food manufacturers such as premier foods and northern foods who produce all the branded goods such as bisto, ryvita, jordans, branston pickle etc.
Warburtons introduced a mid size loaf to help hhs reduce bread waste.
Kingsmill introduced their little big loaf.
Many supermarkets now use resealable packets such as these Tesco Tortillas to help products stay fresher for longer.
New packaging solutions such as Morrisons broccoli - stays fresher for two days longer with new packaging
Packaging and mineral oils:
From WRAP
Here is our agreed line (approved by Richard a few minutes ago) re: mineral oils in recycled cardboard.
“The issue of food contact safety is one for the Food Standards Agency as the relevant regulator, so it would be inappropriate for us to comment on that particular matter.
“However, we do know it’s important to keep recycling paper, newspapers and cardboard. Recycled paper has been an integral part of paper making for decades, with a wide range of uses. If it’s sent to landfill it would be a significant waste of valuable resources.
“67% of the paper and cardboard used in the UK is recovered for recycling. In 2008, estimates suggests that around 11 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions were avoided by recycling paper and board – that’s like taking around 3.5 million cars off the road.”
From the FSA:
“The FSA is not aware of any firm evidence to suggest that there are food safety risks related to mineral oils in recycled food packaging.
“The German research is interesting, but due to incomplete data the results have not demonstrated that mineral oils in food packaging represent a food safety risk.
“The FSA is currently gathering information on the extent of the presence of mineral oils in food packaging on the UK market. The Agency is also specifically looking at recycled material to ensure that manufacturing processes successfully remove substances that could present a food safety concern from the finished packaging.
“Manufacturers are responsible for ensuring the food they produce is safe, and some have chosen to review their use of recycled packaging.
“The Agency continues to review evidence in this area and will act to protect consumers if the evidence shows it is necessary to do so.”
To sum up, the top five ways to reduce your food waste are to;
It pays to plan - check what’s in the cupboard, fridge and freezer, plan your meals and know what your going to buy before you go shopping
Know your dates - check the dates on food regularly, use foods with the shortest date first, and freeze for later foods you won’t get round to eating in time
Savvy Storage - most leftovers will keep for up to two days in the fridge well wrapped, most fruit and veg will stay fresher for longer stored in the fridge, and wrap well or store in air-tight containers fresh foods once opened
Perfect portions - Measuring portion sizes helps us to avoid cooking, and preparing too much food.
Lovely leftovers – be creative with using up leftovers
Snapshot of the main page of the LFHW website (as we’re likely not to have internet connection during the workshop)
About FOOD WASTE includes detailed reports on waste.
Date labels – checking dates on foods saves money and lets you enjoy food at it’s best.
The key behaviours around date label to promote are;
Checking the dates on food regularly and use foods with the shortest date first
and
Freezing for later foods you won’t get round to eating in time
Various Tips:
Using up melons!
Submitted by Womens Institute,
Melon can be a great addition to your breakfast in the morning or as an afternoon or evening snack. Simply chop the melon into pieces and place them in an airtight container in the fridge. They should last up to 5 days.
Bad apple!
Submitted by Womens Institute,
There's always one bad apple that spoils the barrel, so keep an eye on your fruit, seperate fruit which is ripening up more quickly than the others.
Pepper Storage
Submitted by Connie, Happyville
If you are only using part of a green or red pepper, leave the stem, seeds and membrane intact, the pepper will store much longer than when you remove them.
Keeping Lettuce Fresh
Submitted by Michelle Talbot, Leeds
When you buy an iceburg lettuce (it may work for others?) break it up with your hands and store it in the fridge in a bowl of cold water - it will stay fresh and crispy for much longer than normal.
Stop veg going mouldy
Submitted by Gilda , Shoreham by Sea
I wrap lettuce, carrots, courgettes etc in kitchen paper then put them in plastic bags in the salad compartment of the fridge. They keep fresh for ages. The paper stops the condensation from softening the veg and stops mould.
Keep salad fresh
Submitted by James Wo, London, e1
Keep salad in a paper bag, or in a plastic bag with a strip of kitchen roll. Keeps them moist, but not soggy!
Freezing milk
Submitted by Ilaria, Paris
I regularly freeze semi-skimmed milk - fresh or long life - e.g. when we have half finished bottles or bought too much and we are off for a few days. It also means that we can have our much needed cup of tea when we get back to an otherwise empty fridge, whatever the time of day or night!
Cheese
Submitted by lorie, Canada
When I buy my cheese I take it out of its wrapper and wrap it in tin foil. The cheese does not sweat and stays fresh much longer than wrapping it in plastic.
Quick Veg
Submitted by Sheena Couper, North Ayrshire
Peel and chop carrots, onions, etc., bag them and freeze. When needed, just take out as much as you need and reseal. No more soggy veg at the bottom of your veg box.
Paper in veg drawer
Submitted by Maureen, Surrey
I put a piece of scrap paper in with the vegetables in my fridge drawer. Any moisture goes inthe paper not the vegetables or salad.
Quick Veg
Submitted by Sheena Couper, North Ayrshire
Peel and chop carrots, onions, etc., bag them and freeze. When needed, just take out as much as you need and reseal. No more soggy veg at the bottom of your veg box.
Portioning - Measuring portion sizes helps us to avoid cooking, preparing or serving too much food.
Many people do measure their food but don’t feel confident with the amount in the pan so will add more! Suggest making a note of number of people, food, portion size and then record afterwards if too much/little/just right – this will help them be confident with perfect portion!
Portioning is easy – you don’t need any fancy tools – a mug, tablespoon, spaghetti measure, or simple scales are all you need.
The portion calculator on the website is great for catering for larger groups. Hard to guess how much food for 8 or 10 if you’re not used to it.
Snapshot of the LFHW recipe bank. Allows you to show people that the bank can be searched by various categories and by food types.
To sum up, the top five ways to reduce your food waste are to;
It pays to plan - check what’s in the cupboard, fridge and freezer, plan your meals and know what your going to buy before you go shopping
Know your dates - check the dates on food regularly, use foods with the shortest date first, and freeze for later foods you won’t get round to eating in time
Savvy Storage - most leftovers will keep for up to two days in the fridge well wrapped, most fruit and veg will stay fresher for longer stored in the fridge, and wrap well or store in air-tight containers fresh foods once opened
Perfect portions - Measuring portion sizes helps us to avoid cooking, preparing or serving too much food
Lovely leftovers – be creative with using up leftovers
