Think.Eat.Save for World Environment Day

Food waste is a huge environmental and economical problem, and this year World Environment Day is about how we can all make a change to reduce it.

Here are some easy ways you can reduce your food waste:

Shop smart – Plan your meals, write a list and only buy what you need, you’ll save food and money

Get freezer friendly – If you have leftovers from your dinner pop them in your freezer for a tasty homemade ready-meal another day

Compost it – Composting is a great way to reduce the impact of your unavoidable food waste, such as veggie peelings and fruit skins. If you haven’t already got a compost bin the Dorset Waste Partnership has some great offers to get you started

Store it right – Store your food just right to keep it fresher for longer, there is some great advice available from Love Food Hate Waste

Think global – Food waste is an issue hitting more than just your pocket, it contributes to global warming and drains natural resources, find out about the environmental cost of your food habits using the WWF virtual shopping cart

Freezer frenzy

Did you know: The average UK household spends £680 a year on food that ends up in the bin. This leads to a massive 7.2 tonnes of extra waste every year. 

If you want to make a change try our favourite ways to save food and money using your freezer:

• Freeze leftovers, simply portion, cool, label and pop in your freezer.
• If you’re not going to have time to eat your meat put it in the freezer before the use by date and use within 24 hours of defrosting.
• Did you know pasta sauces and pesto can be frozen? Only cook what you need and freeze leftover sauces for another meal.
• You can freeze leftover rice if you make too much. This handy video from Love Food Hate Waste tells you how.
• Wrap food carefully or store it in air-tight containers to avoid freezer burn.
• If you like fresh herbs try chopping them, popping them in an ice-cube tray and adding a little water, perfect every time!

Reduce your foodprint – Think.Eat.Save

Think.Eat.Save is the global campaign started in January this year to tackle the global food waste. Every year one third of all food produced (roughly 1.3 billion tonnes) is wasted unnessarily.

Here are their top ten tips to help you reduce your foodprint and your food bill:

1. Shop smart – plan your meals and only buy what you need
2. Buy funny fruit – fruit and veg goes to waste every year simply because it looks different
3. Understand expiration dates – this infographic from love food hate waste is great.
4. Zero down your fridge – Eat what you have before you buy more
5. Say freeze and use your freezer – frozen foods remain safe indefinitely
6. Request smaller portions – Help end food waste in the hospitality sector, and don’t be afraid to ask for only as much as you will eat
7. Compost – compost your leftover fruit and veg
8. Use FIFO (First in First Out) as a kitchen rule, and stop foods going off before you eat them
9. Love leftovers – experiment with leftovers to make something new or try out a recipe from love food hate waste.
10. Donate – non-perishable and unspoiled perishable food can be donated to local food banks, soup kitchens, pantries and shelters

We are what we waste

According to new research carried out by Sainsbury’s, Brits think they bin almost 10% of their weekly shop whereas actually it’s more than double that. The research has identified six types of people, each of whom wastes food in a different way:

• Hungry Hoarders (11% of theUK adult population) shop while hungry, resulting in impulse purchases. They often fail to plan ahead meaning their shop might not create complete meals.
• Ditsy Diarist (9% of the population) do not consult their little black books before their trip to the supermarket and as they eat out a lot or work late, much of what they buy sits unused in the fridge and is eventually thrown away.
• Food Phobics (25%) are ultra-conscious and throw away food on or before the best before date without first checking its condition.
• The Separate Shoppers are a generation of independent individuals who buy their own food without checking what their partner or housemate has already bought, often resulting in duplication.

However all is not lost, some people are a far more careful about food waste:

• Freezer Geezers – those who simply love their leftovers and use their freezers effectively to minimise food waste.
• Conscientious Consumers are a group who love to make meals out of leftovers. Freezer Geezers and Conscientious Consumers combined make up 44% of the population.

Here in the South West 65% of us are Freezer Geezers!

Despite tough economic times, WRAP research reveals that British shoppers are unnecessarily throwing away an incredible £12 billion worth of food a year. Read more here.

Rescue recipes – revive your food!

It’s time to perk up your perishables and put a stop to food waste. A new autumn Love Food Hate Waste Rescue Recipes campaign kicks of this week. It is designed to offer advice about reviving and rescuing commonly-used foods that are past their best e.g. bread, potatoes, fruit and vegetables, and prevent them from ending up in the bin.

Far too much biodegradable waste ends up in landfill where it breaks down and produces methane, a gas that contributes to climate change.

We will be running several roadshows across the county in coming weeks, where people can pick up tips for using up foods that are past their best as well as five new rescue recipes for your Love Food Hate Waste cookbook. The first one starts tomorrow (5 October 2011) – our recycling team will be at the Co-op in Swanage from 10am to 2pm so pop along and see us.

Expired: ‘Sell-by’ and ‘display-until’ dates

You may have seen in the media that new guidance (opens in new window), which came out yesterday, is calling for clearer date labels on food. This is great news as it will help shoppers save money by not throwing perfectly good food away as well as make it easier to know when food is safe to eat.

Under this guidance, food packaging should only carry either a ‘use-by’ or ‘best-before’ date. ‘Sell-by’ and ‘display-until’ labels are being removed to avoid confusion.

Foods like soft cheese, ready-prepared meals and smoked fish are likely to carry a ‘use-by’ date. Biscuits, jams, pickles, crisps and tinned foods are likely to feature a ‘best-before’ date.

Did you know at least 60 per cent of the 8.3m tonnes of UK household food and drink waste is avoidable? To help prevent this, here are some tips:

• Get to know what date labels mean, and keep an eye on them.
• For foods with a ‘use-by’, eat them before the end of the date (never afterwards) or freeze to use them in the future (remember you can also cook food up to the end of the ‘use-by’ date, and then freeze meals to be used later).
• For foods with a ‘best-before’ date (except eggs, where the ‘best before’ date must be treated as a ‘use by’) remember that if you store them correctly (e.g. putting apples in the fridge) they will last longer and can safely be cooked\eaten even after the date.

We’d like to hear what you think of the new labels guidance, so post your comments here along with any tips for preventing food waste.

County Show time

If you missed us at the Melplash Show in August, our recycling officers will be at the Dorchester County Show this weekend (3 and 4 September 2011). Again, we’ll have a whole range of waste prevention information available including leaflets on home composting and food digesters, tips for reducing food waste and real nappy information. We’ll be there to answer any of your questions or queries about waste and recycling, so come along and see us.

You’ll also get another chance to enter our ‘Guess how many cans are in a bale’ competition, to be in with a shot at winning £25 worth of Amazon vouchers.

Finish Your Food champions

Pupils at St Mary’s CE VC Primary School have been crowned ‘Finish Your Food’ champions after being awarded the Mr. Silly Sausage trophy for reducing the amount of food they throw away by a massive 95 per cent!

The school was one of six Dorset schools which took part in a new ‘Finish Your Food. Don’t be a Silly Sausage’ trial campaign designed to encourage primary school pupils and their families to cut food waste.

Our waste education officer, Kirsten Juniper, visited each school during the summer and weighed the amount of food wasted after pupils had finished lunch and then engaged with children in an assembly about how much food gets thrown away. Kirsten then returned to each of the schools two weeks later to see how much they’d managed to reduce their food waste by.

Tanya Robinson, Head teacher of St Mary’s CE VC Primary School, said: “The Finish Your Food campaign has really brought attention to our pupils how much waste piles up from the scrapings of plates at lunchtime each day, it was quite a shock for the children to weigh the total! Kirsten clearly outlined the reasons why we should strive to eat up every mouthful and our pupils took this on board and have since made a real effort to polish off their food. They were delighted at winning the silly sausage trophy and felt it was well deserved!”

Dorset Schools interested in participating in the autumn term can contact Kirsten Juniper on 01305 22866. Also see our schools recycling education web page for information on other activities we provide.

Finish your food. Don’t be a silly sausage!

We’ve been trialing an exciting new campaign aimed at encouraging primary school pupils and their families to reduce their food waste. This summer term, six Dorset schools have been taking part in our ‘Finish Your Food. Don’t be a Silly Sausage!’ trial assembly.

Our waste education officer visited participating schools and weighed the amount of food wasted after pupils had finished lunch. They then engaged children in the ‘Finish Your Food. Don’t be a Silly Sausage!’ assembly, talking to them about how much food – 8.3 million tonnes a year – is thrown away.

Children were given a pledge leaflet calling for them to try to finish all the food on their plates for seven days.

We’re now returning to each of the schools and weighing the food again to see how much they’ve decreased their food waste by. The winning school receives the Mr Silly Sausage trophy!

This initiative has been used across other parts of the county and on average it reduces the primary school’s food waste by an impressive 30 per cent!

Dorset Schools interested in participating in the autumn term can contact Kirsten Juniper on 01305 22866.

New sizzling Love BBQs, Hate Waste roadshows

Are you planning on firing up the barbie this summer?

A cold drink, crunchy salad and food cooked over hot coal are the essential components of barbecue bliss. But knowing how much food to cook for family and friends, and storing leftovers, can be tricky.

Our new barbecue themed roadshows are designed to encourage you to save money and help the environment by getting smart with food. You can pick up some ‘scorching BBQ’ tips as well as tasty barbecue recipe cards at a series of roadshows across the county this summer. The launch event kicks off at Kingston Maurward’s fun day this Saturday (12 June 2011) at 10am to 5pm.

And if you don’t already have a Love Food Hate Waste cook book, which feature other pull-out recipe cards for meals made from leftovers, you can also pick one up!