Download July 2010 - Bite Magazine

20
ETHICAL EATING
LOVE FOOD HATE WASTE
How often have you let a half-eaten
bag of salad go off in the back of the
fridge? Or watched fruit ripen and
then brown in the fruit bowl? Every
year Scottish consumers waste over
500,000 and £1 billion pounds worth
of food; that’s an average of £430 per
household.
Part of the problem is that we buy
more than we need and allow leftovers
or unused products to spoil. However,
we’re also throwing food away before
we even need to. Zero Waste Scotland,
the Scottish Government’s programme
to reduce waste and encourage
recycling, estimates that two thirds of
our food waste could have been eaten.
And what’s more, much of it is actually
still within date and even sealed in its
original packaging.
Zero Waste Scotland works in
conjunction with the UK-wide
campaign Love Food Hate Waste. The
initiative’s interactive website offers a
wealth of advice on how to reduce the
amount of food we throw out. This
could be making a shopping list to
make sure you only buy what you need,
or clearing up the difference between a
‘use-by date’, which should be adhered
to, or a ‘best-before date’, which only
acts as a guideline.
Something as straightforward as where
you store your food can also make a
difference. Most fruit and vegetables
will keep longer in the fridge, sometimes
as much as two weeks more; and simple
tricks like always using a clean knife for
jam or sauces can prevent
contamination and ensure the product
stays fresh until the end of the jar.
Perhaps the most useful tools the Love
Food Hate Waste campaign provides are
guidelines for portion sizes. Simply type
in what you’re cooking – rice, pasta, etc.
– and the number of portions you need,
and the website will calculate the dry
weight required. This should help reduce
seemingly uninspiring leftovers, but if
you open the fridge to a sea of bits and
pieces, type your list of ingredients into
the recipe finder and let the website do
the rest.
Now, with an iPhone application,
Facebook and Twitter page, there really
is no excuse for not making an effort to
reduce the food we waste, and pick up
some extra culinary knowledge in the
process.
www.lovefoodhatewaste.com