By Guest Blogger, Annie Button
Food wastage is a constant environmental problem that affects everybody on the planet. Food waste across the UK and Europe costs businesses and households an estimated €143 billion a year, contributing to 6% of the continent’s total greenhouse gas emissions. As of 2022, it’s estimated that approximately 25-30% of global food production goes to waste or is lost.
The EU has set out legally binding targets for a 50% reduction in food waste within the next seven years. The UK, an ex-EU member state, has similarly set out the Courtauld Commitment 2030, a voluntary agreement that encourages widespread food waste and greenhouse gas emission reductions, as well as critical water resource protection, across the UK food supply chain.
Both the EU and UK’s specific food waste reduction initiatives are measured against UN Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3, which aims to halve global food waste per capita at retail and consumer levels, while also reducing food losses across supply chains, including post-harvest losses, by 2030.
The annual Food Waste Action Week takes place from the 6th of March 2023, aiming to encourage us to reduce food waste at home. 70% of the 4.5 million tonnes of food thrown away by UK households can be preserved with some simple behaviours and habitual changes.
How to Reduce Food Waste Alongside Kitche
Kitche aims to help households reduce the amount of food they waste every day, with the help of establishing a food waste hierarchy. The core MO of Kitche is to prevent food waste before it happens, encouraging people to eat what they buy and buy what they eat.
When thrown away, not only is edible food going to landfill, but all the processes, land, and resources that went into that produce are wasted too. Food loss and wastage have a knock-on effect on every party involved in the food supply chain, from production to transport to consumption.
While downloading the free iOS or Android Kitche app will be the biggest step you can take in your quest to reduce food waste, there are some general habits you can break and changes you can make that will also make a huge difference.
While the average consumer is likely aware of – and willing to fix – the environmental impact of their food choices, everyone can all take decisive and meaningful action by rethinking the ways we shop, cook and plan our meals. Finding ways to reduce food waste every day can lessen the impact significantly, and by making more conscious decisions to preserve more food, we are, by extension, saving resources and money.
Check out the following seven tips for reducing food waste at home.
Buy What You Need
It’s surprising how often people buy more than what is necessary during their trip to the supermarket. What’s more, buying foods that we already have is also more common than we’d like to admit. All it takes is a little bit of extra forward thinking and awareness to avoid wasting food that never gets eaten.
Take an inventory of the food that you have in the house, and make a shopping list before you make your next excursion to the supermarket. This way, you can avoid purchasing unnecessary items and reduce how much you throw away.
Many supermarkets like Tesco have community donation boxes where shoppers can bring sealed non-perishable food items that will be distributed to food banks, charities, or as part of local community projects. This can also be a good opportunity to give back and avoid food going to waste.
FIFO – First In, First Out
Organising your fridge and cupboards with the ‘FIFO’ method can be useful in helping you reduce waste and keep a more accurate record of what you currently have at home. Restaurants and supermarkets use this method when restocking their kitchens or shelves.
Placing newer items at the back of your fridge or cupboards, and bringing items that are closer to their use-by or sell-by dates to the front, will ensure that you have a better idea of the foods that are ready to eat.
Tinned foods are particularly easy to overlook and forget about, particularly due to their long lifespans, but this can happen to any food item. We’re all busy people and before long, we can forget what we bought, even if it was the other day. However, adopting this ‘FIFO’ method across the board can help prevent unnecessary wastage.
[Image Source: Deposit Photos]
Use Your Fridge and Freezer Wisely
There are certain ways in which you can store perishable foods – like fruits and vegetables – to prevent spoilage and preserve their shelf life.
Some foods will keep for longer if outside the fridge, such as potatoes, onions, bananas, and bread. If you have fresh fruit or vegetables that you can’t feasibly use, you can always keep them in your freezer. While this might affect their texture, they can still be used for dishes like smoothies or sauces or pudding bases down the line.
It’s wise to keep your fridge at a temperature between 0 and 5°C. If it’s any warmer, it will go off more quickly. The fridge is an excellent place to store leftover meals in airtight storage containers, but you can also freeze them if you can’t fit another meal in during the week.
Adjusting your fridge or freezer is easier than ever to do if you have invested in secure smart home technology. You can control appliances via your phone or tablet, as well as your heating and home lighting, which can also go a long way in preserving your energy consumption and carbon emissions. This secure, integrated technology has become increasingly popular with homeowners that want to make better environmental choices.
Make a Meal Plan
Planning a few meals for each day of the week is a great way to preserve more of your food items.
Many people make meal preparation plans when trying to eat healthier or are planning around an exercise regime. However, at the heart of it, meal planning and preparation can help you from buying too much food when shopping.
Furthermore, many time-restricted people are paying for meal prep services which can, in some cases, be more convenient and cost-effective than buying ingredients from supermarkets.
[Image Source: Deposit Photos]
Be Smart with Portion Sizes
Another excellent way to reduce waste is to be a bit more conservative with your portion sizes. It’s one thing to only buy what you need at one time, but also, when it comes to cooking, only dishing up the amount that you need to eat. Measurements remove any need for guesswork and also make your preparation more accurate.
Measuring and tracking your food can be done through handy apps like MyFitnessPal, which many people use when dieting or eating healthier in training regimes.
Eat Leftovers
As part of your meal plan, you can consider dedicating two or three days to having any leftovers from the meals you cook. Of course, depending on your household size, this may be easier for some people to do than others.
However, cooking a big dinner can give you an extra meal or two to have later in the week, or provide a suitable packed lunch for a trip to the office, which will help reduce the waste from individual meals and keep your kitchen more organised.
Figures from WRAP, the food waste charity, show that the equivalent of eight meals is thrown away every week, equating to roughly £730 a year.
Repurpose Waste if Possible
As mentioned above, using peelings or scraps of vegetables can make great soup ingredients. Herbs can also be frozen, celery leaves can be used for additional seasoning, and so on. By keeping a food waste diary, you can find ways in which you can utilise otherwise unthought-of scraps of food.
For anything that can’t be saved, composting – where food biodegradation occurs naturally – can be a good idea. This natural process turns food into dark, nutrient-rich materials that can be added to the soil. While this doesn’t necessarily reduce wastage, it’s lessening the environmental impact of unused food ending up at landfill sites. Councils stipulate the right process for storing food waste for every household.
There are many benefits for the planet in minimising food waste. Everyone needs to play a part in reducing their environmental impact, from the kitchen to the board room and government halls. A collective and practical mindset will pave the way to really making a difference.
About the writer
Annie Button, a freelance writer who has written for various online and print publications, specialising in lifestyle, business, branding and career development, anniebutton.co.uk.