Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working with top domestic appliance maker Haier to understand more about food waste, and how to reduce it in our family.
As a small family, we do struggle with food waste. It’s all too easy to buy something and only use half the pack, and the remainder then goes out of date or spoils before we finish it. It’s not just us, right?
Today, though, I’m happy to be sharing some expert tips from the Love Food Hate Waste team. Helen from Love Food, Hate Waste has looked through the video tour of my fridge, and my week of food diaries, and pulled together some tips.
Check out the video below and read on for some of our tried-and-tested tips that we’re implementing to try and reduce food waste.
Buy Loose
As a mostly 2-person household, there’s no point buying pre-packed vegetables and fruit, most of the time. So I’m buying things like apples and bananas loose, in smaller quantities, then topping up as we need to.
Don’t Buy what you Already Have
I loved the top tip from Love Food Hate Waste to take a photo of the fridge on my phone before I go shopping, to see what I have. I also take a quick snap of the cupboard, too. Now if I’m planning to make tacos, I don’t need to wonder whether I have tinned tomatoes and buy some ‘just in case’.
Freeze Early
I noticed keeping a food diary that we often toss half a loaf of bread because it starts to turn before we use the whole pack. So now, I still buy the same loaf, but I split it and freeze half on the day we buy.
Freeze Late
I hadn’t realised until I watched X’s video that some foods you can freeze right up to the ‘use by’ date. So if it becomes apparent that I’m not going to use up that bacon before the week’s end, I can toss it in the freezer for another time. For some reason, I always thought if you didn’t freeze something the day you bought it, you shouldn’t freeze it.
Leftovers for Lunch
Flea actually has school dinners but if she has a lunchtime sports club, it’s always a real rush. It turns out that if you’re eleven, taking leftover quesadillas or pizza into school for lunch is an AMAZING treat. Who knew? #MumoftheYear
Adjust your Fridge
One of the best tips I’ve picked up from this campaign is to check your fridge temperature. I literally never looked at my fridge temperature, just set it to the middle of the dial and forgot about it.
I’ve recently taken delivery of a shiny new fridge from Haier (review to follow) and this morning, I swear the blueberries on my porridge were noticeably colder than usual. Having your fridge cold enough gives your fresh fruit and veg the best possible odds of staying fresh for longer. (As a rule of thumb, your fridge should be set between 0 and 4 degrees)
To find out more about food waste, check out Haier’s tips on Facebook and their website.
I have a Hotpoint fridge and I must say, everything lasts longer than the sell by date (I don’t risk it with dairy :P)
Reducing food waste is a massive focus with my family, we’re pretty big on helping the environment where we can.
I recently watched a documentary called Chasing Coral. Because of climate change, the oceans temperature rose by 2 degrees which killed 1/4 of all coral reefs in the space of a year!
If loads of corals die in a place that people depend on fish this will affect the business and the food chain.
I’m a big advocate of people living greener lives but, I also think people often forget about the ocean.
There’s some good points here – though I know this is an old post 🙂 I was looking into some tips specifically in cooking so far as reducing food waste and how things might differ between the US and UK. I appreciate the pointers.
Ultimately, a lot of it comes down to just being sure you buy or make the food – both type and volume – that you’re actually going to eat! Thanks for the reminders.