17
Nov

Waste not want not! The perils of best-before dates

In General

Reading Time: 2 minutes

Let’s start off with some stats to surprise you:

THE PROBLEM:

  • 16% food we take home from a shop, we throw away.
  • Equates to £15 each week (average household).
  • 50% of total food wastage comes from our homes and 50% of our wastage is actually edible!

EFFECTS:

  • Huge environmental damages – the process of landfill degrades the land, pollutes with toxic gases and uses up scarce resources.

BENEFITS:

  • Waste reduction
  • Save money
  • Improved environmental conscience
  • If we ate all the wasted edible food, the environmental impact would be the same as taking a quarter of all cars off the road! In UK alone 4 million people are in food poverty – let’s match supply and demand!

Why do we waste? Either we cook too much or it’s ‘gone out of date’, so try these top tips to make sure YOU are doing your bit to save the environment:

TOP TIPS

That best-before is what it says. It’s perfectly fine to eat food a couple days out of date.

UGLY FRUIT: Chop off parts that look as they are going off and make the rest into a smoothie. Excess fruit can be frozen for a rainy day (or sunny). Get past aesthetics of fruits like blemished grapes, they taste just as good! Wrinkly tomatoes – simply grate to create a lovely tomato pulp that can be used for sauces.

EVIL BANANAS: Don’t put banana’s next to other fruit – it speeds up the ripening process.

BOBBING EGGS: Simple test to see if egg is alright after its sell-by, put in bowl of cold water. If it sinks it’s fine to eat, if it’s floats it’s a no no!

DEAD BREAD: Combine those unwanted bread crusts, blend them to make breadcrumbs; great for covering meats or crumbles. To freshen up a day old load hold it briefly under a cold running tap. Give it a good ol’ shake and chuck it in the oven for about 10 minutes; it will transform to be soft like a fresh loaf! Can use old bread for croutons.

LETTUCE SAVE LETTUCE: Don’t give up on that wilted iceburg! Simply fry it up to create a tasty veg treat. Use in soups of along with meals.

MILK + MILK CUBES: Replace container when used around half of milk. Keeping in same container speeds up spoilage. Freeze semi-skimmed milk in ice cubes – can use these to put in tea or coffee!

YOGHURT LOLLIES: Freeze yoghurts/fromage frais to create a dairy lolly!

Please tweet in  your own top tips @yoursusu – we would love to see how you get on!

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