SubscribeWhy Do We Waste So Much Food?
Food wastage is bad for your diet
Think about the sorts of foods that you end up binning: they aren't usually candy bars or packets of chips. The foods which we waste are perishables, like fruit, vegetables and bread. Figures show that the top foods wasted in the UK are:
- Potatoes (359,000 tonnes)
- Bread (328,000 tonnes)
- Apples (190,000 tonnes)
If you're in the habit of buying lots of fruit and vegetables, only to bin them (uneaten, and moldy) a couple of weeks later, read about How to avoid throwing fruit and veg away.
Food wastage drives up food prices
If you've been watching the rising food prices with dismay, consider whether your over-shopping habits are partly to blame. Brown said that:
If we are to get food prices down, we must also do more to deal with unnecessary demand - such as all of us doing more to cut food waste which is costing the average household in Britain around £8 per week.
Buying two bags of potatoes when you only need one not only costs you more but creates an artificially high demand for potatoes - thus driving prices even higher.
Food wastage is caused by poor planning
One of the reasons we throw away food is because we fail to plan before we shop. Diet Blog touched on this in On a Budget: 7 Tips for Healthy Food Shopping:
Do you often end up throwing food away because it's gone off before you've had a chance to use it? If so, resolve to sit down this weekend and plan exactly what you'll need - before doing your weekly shop.
When you go to the supermarket without a shopping list, or with only a vague idea of what meals you might consume over the following few days, it's easy to end up with a shopping cart full of whatever products catch your eye. Even if you avoid the boxes of donuts (half of which will go stale and be thrown away), you might fall into the trap of buying over-large portions of healthier foods and failing to eat them before the expiry date.
Food wastage can occur when we make poor choices for our diet
Have you ever prepared good, healthy food then binned it because you changed your mind and ate something else instead? Maybe you took a sandwich to work, but colleagues persuaded you to join them for pizza - so your brown-bagged lunch ended up being thrown away. Or perhaps you'd planned a healthy spaghetti bolognaise - packed with veggies - for the family's dinner, but your kids clamored for fish fingers and chips instead.
In these cases, wasting food is a sign that your healthy eating plans could be going poorly. Eating impulsively often means we make poor choices, without really thinking - and good food gets wasted.
Food wastage is made worse if we don't store foods properly
How often have you thrown away foods which went off because they weren't stored correctly? Perhaps your cereal went stale because the box wasn't closed, or maybe the milk turned sour when you left it out by the kettle. If the fruit in your fruit bowl always goes moldy before you can eat it, keep it in the fridge - it'll last for days longer. Yes, the fruit bowl may look pretty on the table, but it's not doing any good if the fruits inside are inedible.
Invest in some 100% air-tight containers to store foods like crispbreads, cookies, crackers and cereal. They'll stay crisp rather than going stale, and your initial outlay on the containers will be saved many times over.
Don't forget that many foods can be frozen - pita breads, for instance, go stale quickly once the packet is opened, but will keep for weeks in the freezer. If you buy meat when it's on a buy-one-get-one-free offer, freeze some.
When you have leftovers from a meal, put them into a Tupperware box and store in the fridge (if you're sure you'll eat them the next day) or freeze - never throw away food just because you cooked too much.
Do you - or your family - waste a lot of food? What are your best tips for avoiding food wastage?
(Photo by Esteban Cavrico)
Why do we waste so much food?
This is one of those existential questions that no one with any real, immediate problems would ever ask. Asking it is a sign of a very high level of self-involvement. Since it's a "why" question, no real answer is needed or wanted. So here it is.
Why do people do things? People do things because, at the time, it seems like a good idea (or at least a better idea than the alternatives).
Why do people waste food? Perhaps because it spoils? Just a guess there. You can eat moldy food or stale food or extra food when you're not hungry -- but you don't because this is a bad idea and there are better alternatives. Wasting the food is the better alternative, so you do. Worrying about it is pointless, self-indulgent, silly, and mentally unhealthy. Choose a better hobby.
Since people pay for their own food, they have a monetary incentive to govern their behavior. It is an adequate motivator that will lead people to make adequate but imperfect choices. And they do.
Gordon Brown should consider finding some answers to help the people he's supposed to lead. They don't need him to be their mom and tell them to "Clean your plate kids, there are people starving in Africa."
We're all grown up now, sir. We'll eat or not eat as we see fit. We'll buy or not as we choose and as our budgets allow. No official input is needed or wanted.
ReplyWhat a bunch of crap. Food wastage may be 1% responsible for food prices.
When will the Europeans get away from that Socialist crack pipe? I smell another agenda to control people.
I doubt most people waste food at home. Restaurants and grocery stores it's a different story.
So what did they do to come up with those numbers? Sort through every dumpster and weigh them? SLBS to me.
ReplyPotatoes (359,000 tonnes)
Bread (328,000 tonnes)
Apples (190,000 tonnes)
Considering there are 60,776,238 people in the UK (2007 estimate), the above works out to:
11.8-pounds of potatoes each year per person, or 1/2 ounce per day
10.6-pounds of bread each year per person, or 4/10 of an ounce per day
6-pounds of apples each year per person, 1/4 ounce per day
ReplyI admit that I'm not the best cook, so I've found that cooking with recipes helps. I only buy the food that I'll use for those specific dishes rather than "grabbing" bits and pieces at the store.
ReplyBest,
Coop
I personally don’t like throwing food away because I think it’s a waste of money and time. I shopped for it, transported it, washed and prepared it and paid for it. Even if I was super rich, I would not like to waste something that someone else could use. I am originally from Montreal, and have to admit the first thing that literally shocked me when I moved to Florida was how much stuff people threw away. See someone just take a big pile of paper napkins or butter or ketchup packets with a meal and only using a couple, then just throwing the rest in the garbage. There is no need to throw it away, and maybe those people didn’t realize that they were paying for it one way or another. But the others who were conscientious about not wasting were also paying for it too.
I was also raised on the “starving kids in Africa” mentality, but still won’t stuff my face if I’m full and have food left on my plate. I will just keep it for a snack later or put in a freezer bag and freeze it. Every time I have a little bit of vegetables or meat leftovers, pasta, rice, good vegetable trimmings or vegetables that I know I won’t use before they go bad I just add them to the freezer bag. And once the bag is full and I have time, I will make a soup. I check to see if there’s other stuff in the fridge I can add, then I put it all in a pot with stock/bouillon and cook it. After it’s cooked I puree it in the blender or food processor until its nice creamy consistency and I have a wonderful healthy soup. If I have milk or little bit of cream to add that’s even better. Don’t get me wrong, I am not a cheap person, and a lot of my spending money goes to food and restaurants, but it just makes sense not to waste and I don’t want to give in to the disposable mentality. It’s the same reason I don’t use paper or plastic cups and plates. Just a though!
ReplyI don't think my family wastes much food. I plan my meals on Sunday, buy the groceries I need, and most of the time we eat what has been planned. I cut recipes down to feed my small family and freeze leftovers for a second meal or for my lunches later.
I'd say the only time we waste food is if I make something that no one liked. I'm not going to force anyone to eat it.
ReplyWe don't waste much. I go to the store every few days for foods that spoil.
ReplyAnd we love food ;)
I don't waste food...I've maybe thrown out a total of two rotten apples and maybe 4 rotten tomatoes in the past year. I'm really good about knowing how much food we'll use in a week, so I buy that much. Anything that's nonperishable I buy less often...once a month or so, sometimes less often than that. It's really knowing how to store things properly and how to pick out good produce at the store. Like, never buy apples in the big bags because usually there's one bad one in there. I go to the bulk bin and choose all the apples I want and bag them up myself.
My aunt and uncle waste a LOT of food though...it makes me mad. She claims that they "hate leftovers", so after she makes any meal, she promptly throws the leftovers in the trash so they don't take up room in the fridge. I'm sorry, but that's not a good excuse. If you hate leftovers, don't make enough food for there to BE any leftovers.
We make enough money that I suppose we could afford to "waste food", but I just don't think I'd be able to do it mentally. I love food a lot and I hate to see it go bad and have to be thrown out.
ReplyIt startles me a little to see how when a topic like this is raised, everyone goes on the defensive. People start blame shifting like politicians and I have to wonder why. I don't waste much food, it's something I'm very conscious of, but I would be naive to think that I don't live a wasteful life and that I am part of the problem. We all are. That is something we have to accept and combat.
ReplyI know that we waste a little too much food at my house. I think that the prime minister may be overstating the importance a little bit, but I do think it is important to consider the amount of food we waste. I think that the best way to prevent is when we shop. Making a list of specific things we need when shopping help prevent us from buying more than we will end up needing.
ReplyThese stories I'm about to give a purely anecdotal, but I believe may be symptomatic of a lot more people
When I'm with my parents, my mother in attempt to eat healthily buys lots of lettuce, fruits etc. Which is great, but she buys very high volumes of it. As we all know these things are quite perishable. No one my family is particularly fond of cooking, so what happens is she leaves food she bought, blatantly forgetting it's existence and it ends up spoiling. Even if she did use some of it one point my family of four simply does not eat it all.
My father on the other hand when he does cook, or buy food makes food that nobody likes and cooks a lot of it for the benefit of not having to cook later. What happens? It ends up wasting in the fridge.
And a friend of mine frequents fast-food, but buys copious amounts of it and ends up not being to finish it all. or not even bothering to finish it all.
What do all of these stories have in common? Laziness. If there were ever an answer to societal woes that would be it. There's no phenomena here. It's just flat-out laziness. None of the 3 I mentioned are spoiled, or stupid for that matter, but if they had simply taken that extra little step to prepare they would've saved themselves a bit of money, but alas tis not the way we beings usually operate.
ReplyIsn't the UK the country with ridiculous produce standards? Like if a few hundred kiwis are found to be a millimeter smaller than required standards, they must be destroyed-- not sold at a discounted price or even given to the poor. I think there's a law about crooked bananas or some nonsense.
ReplyI wish stores would sell half-loaves of bread. For a single person, a full loaf is just destined to go moldy and stale before you use the whole thing. And I know how they do it in most of Europe, but the way cities are laid out in the US buying fresh bread every morning just isn't practical! I hate that I almost ALWAYS throw away the last 2-4 slices of bread in a loaf.
ReplyHalf loaves would definitely be nice, but what you can do is freeze the part of the loaf you didn't finish...you can toast it later and use it for croutons or French toast or grind it up for breadcrumbs. At least it doesn't go to waste that way.
Reply