Hi everyone, as we have the tidy club and have had posts and polls on food waste here are some shocking statistics.
Globally around 1/3 of all food produced is wasted, in the UK £1.9 tonnes of food are wasted annually when we have people going without food throughout the world.
Food is perishable and fragile so there is bound to be waste but this seems a terrible waste when we have people starving and are being told of global warming by farm animals, so we blame the poor cattle and carry on putting our consumerism first.
Here's a couple of links one is the Food Waste Reduction Roadmap and Fare share, stating what they are trying to achieve to reduce food waste.
The consumer gets the brunt of the finger-wagging regarding food waste, but food distribution mayhem - which in turn is driven by supermarket stocking requirements - is a massive part of the problem.
I have a bit of an interest in food history, and apparently London food markets 100 years ago were supplied by an incredibly efficient network of market gardeners, delivering "organic" fresh food daily on early-morning trains and horse carts, and recycling the waste into compost. Many of the suppliers were actually in the city on smallish lots (0.5-2ha), doing what today is called "urban agriculture" as if it's a modern invention.
There were also delivery services bringing such things as milk and meat to your door. These persisted into the 1970s, although the quality had dropped a lot by then.
How the rest of the UK functioned I do not know, but city folk at least would have eaten better, and wasted less, than we do today - simply because it was easy to buy what you wanted locally, in the quantities you wanted it. Vegetables didn't sit for a week on supermarket shelves in nitrogen-filled bags and then for another week in your fridge; people planned better than that, often by just eating the same meals over and over.
I doubt much will change until the supermarkets are brought down. And I think that's only likely to happen when people are given a viable alternative. Sadly, the new breed of smallholders aren't good at co-operation, marketing, or technology, and unless they get a grip on those things the supermarkets will continue to hold the perimeter.
Thats very true we the consumer are blamed for waste, it was on the tv about supermarkets stocking up for Christmas and the subsequent waste.
What happens is shoppers go for the freshest so they need to drop the price on the older stock as it has less shelf life and then this food would still sell.
You make some great points and that’s very interesting about food history and I bet it worked like clockwork as they weren’t fazed with no phone signal or wi fi. People lived and worked in their community with none of this commuting malarkey.
The supermarkets tell the farmers what they will pay and there’s lots of dairy farmers in trouble, so I think the supermarkets could take responsibility for quality fair trade and ethically sourced food to cater for consumer demand...
I'm not hopeful that anything much will change on the supermarket front. The problem is that big systems tend to take on a life of their own; if something appears to be working, the people who are nominally in charge become afraid to fiddle with it in case they break something. It actually is very easy to break these things, and if the managers do break something - say, by taking a risk on small new suppliers or introducing a whole new sourcing model - they stand to lose millions for the company, and possibly their own jobs. So in a way, you can understand their conservative attitudes.
I'm working at the other end of this chain - I'm producer, in a country where supermarkets are powerful but not all-powerful. There's a lot of scope for improvement, and I firmly believe the levers of power lie in the hands of us small suppliers. But we need to get our collective act together so that buying from us rather than from the big air-conditioned warehouses is a no-brainer for the consumer.
Well I'm impressed as you're obviously an ethical food producer and I admire you for that.
You are so right about small collectives being able to give better quality and value than enormous global companies. So good for you and good luck with this. 😊
I live and work in the Far East, so I'm afraid my stuff isn't available over in Blighty at the moment My main products are fruit, green vegetables (tropical varieties), and chilis, but I have about 40 different species under cultivation, with various obscure uses. This year we'll be doing a pilot project with ethically-raised layer hens.
If not available outside Far East 🌏 , what about some photos 📸 so we can at least imagine 😌💭 the deliciousness of the various species/ tropical varieties? ☺️ 🙏
[Nice to see what folks around world 🌐 enjoy. Broadens horizons 🌅 (& tastebuds 👅 😋 ).]
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When I worked in catering years ago it was a scandal the amount of food they threw out that they could have used again when there's so many starving!
At home we have baby the spoilt ginger tabby in residence so very little gets wasted with us as we give the leftovers to her so they're not wasted!
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Hi Hidden that is a really shameful waste of good food.
Your ginger cat sounds wonderful...😸
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Baby is our niece and will be 16 in April! This morning after my interview myself and my friend went for coffee and we had a chat about things and she said that the managers at my previous job with the way they put obstacles in my way when I wanted to do things were dogs in the manger not wanting me themselves but not wanting anyone else to either out of pig headedness and selfishness and I said how cats are selfish creatures and worse than dogs and she said how baby is selfish due to being spoilt by her mother!
I didn't get the job but I wasn't heartbroken over it as I suspect it had already unofficially gone before anyone went to interview and if that's the case I don't want to work there anyway!
I worked in a bakery years ago and the manager there said to us that she had no problems with us taking home the leftover food that hadn't sold so not much was thrown out there and one lady would take home cakes and pasties and feed them to her spoilt dogs so very little went to waste!
That manager had said to me recently how it is beyond her when I resigned that they didn't query it and ask was it what I wanted as she had received lots of resignation letters as line manager from staff after arguments and would keep them in her office and not take them further and usually the member of staff after calming down would say to her that they had been hasty could they change their minds and she would say yes they could as she never accepted the letter anyway and would rip the letters up and throw them out!
It was beyond her why the line manager at the job I left in November hadn't left the letter I sent in in the office and had just sent it to higher management anyway not trying to talk to me about it asking me is this really what you want? If it was then have sent it on to higher management!
I feel I made the right choice to leave that job in November and it was long overdue!
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Hey you did make the right decision Hidden and it was last year and we're in a new decade so I hope that the future is kinder to you.
Jerry. 😊
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Had a busy morning this morning applying for jobs and had a walk over lunchtime which helped in getting me out of the flat.
I had an interview yesterday that I didn't get but I wasn't heartbroken over it as now I have had time to think it over I probably would have hated it there anyway.
Tonight its welsh class 7/9 at the university.
I have a phone interview tomorrow with b and q early and then a regular one later on at 11.20. If they don't come to anything the world won't end and I won't be heartbroken.
I got another interview on 3 February at 1pm at a place yesterday afternoon so I had to rearrange with my friends to go out the previous weekend instead just do overnight on the Saturday coming back Sunday afternoon so the weekdays are free for when interviews come up.
At least now when I am offered interviews between 10.30 and 3 I can accept them no problems and don't have to put up with pettiness with asking for time off which I hated!
I had come up with what I thought was a good idea but it had ended up backfiring on me say when I got interviews whilst I was working between 10 and 3 I decided to make up appointments and I had ended up being caught out!
I had done that on purpose as I was sick of their attitudes whenever I wanted to have done something as they would put obstacles in my way so making up appointments seemed a great idea at the time!
I can laugh about it now but I would never have made them up just because I felt like it!
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Hey good luck with your interviews. 😊
Hi Hidden we have food banks where supermarkets have a food bank crate where shoppers can buy non perishables and donate them.
What’s happening in the UK is cafe’s are springing up cooking meals with what would have been wasted and customers pay what they can or what they think it’s worth.
Food loss is what happens when people go food shopping mindlessly and you’re right there’s no need for it.
I think a lot of the food is wasted before it even reaches our fridges, but I have noticed my own at-home food waste creeping up a little.
I used to meal plan and write a detailed shopping list every week, but between one thing and another, I've not been writing shopping lists or sticking to my meal plans as much. That makes a big difference to the amount we throw away. We are trying to reign it in again.
TAD does have some good points about the way shopping has changed now though. Things come in multi-packs, and if you don't need it all, you inevitably create waste. Also, if one item in a pack spoils, the rest of the pack goes out with it.
Hey you are so right here that much is wasted before it gets to us. I have noticed my food waste creeping up a little as well and I have been cooking the fresh veg I buy making a meal and freezing the rest. I have also been buying frozen veg. I have a compost bin and the veg trimmings go in there and I don't generate a lot of waste anyway.
TAT does makes some excellent points about shopping habits and how food is now presented to us in hermetically sealed bags all nice clean and shiny...
I've taken to buying frozen veg a bit more too, if I know I'll have a busy week. It's easier to only use what you need and because it's pre-chopped, we don't have the same bias against wonky-ness. Only downside is having less freezer space for leftovers though.
I also bags of frozen mixed veg mixed peppers as I can cook smaller portions and have more variety, I need a bigger freezer...they sell bags of wonky veg now and they're great value and taste the same... 😊
My labrador eats most of my food waste, carrot peelings, greens tomato pieces, fruit, even pieces from strawberries and no he is not fat. He is eleven and acys like a puppy, also he eats egg shells, we were told yearsago it helps his bones.
Thanks for this thought-provoking post, and I really like the replies too. I had an article in my in-box today which is relevant - it's entitled '9 Nutrition Tips for Reducing your Carbon Footprint' by Jillian Kubala, and is from healthline website.
I have a calendar every year from the Guernsey Lovefoodhatewaste campaign which gives various tips on reducing food waste. I don't know if these are national campaigns or not - but the Guernsey website is:
Thank you Zest I agree the replies are really interesting here's a link to Guernsey Love food hate waste: gov.gg/lovefoodhatewaste
This is interesting about reducing our carbon footprint so thanks for that it's very helpful.
Jerry 😊
Hi Hidden
It's shocking the amount of waste and I agree that they go on about the consumer not wasting food whereas the supermarkets and restaurants ought to look in 'their own back gardens' so to speak. I was in Tesco last week looking for milk for my husband and the date on quite a few of the bottle or organic milk were actually that day's date and of course I wasn't going to buy that as it would go off before my husband had chance to use it. I wonder what Tesco did with the milk that was left? It could definitely go to the homeless soup kitchens as it would make lots of drinks for them, we don't need to waste.
At home I use my freezers all the time so as to avoid as much waste as possible.
When I was a child my mum used to shop every day for the groceries she needed and now that is very rarely done as most people shop weekly and that does include me but as I said I use my freezers a lot so very rarely waste anything. Our local Council collect food waste on a fortnightly basis and make and sell compost with it.
To finish off, there's too much greed now and meal portions need to be reduced as we are eating far too much now (I saw a programme on TV about the way the Americans treat their farm animals and there was a sign outside of a diner for a 72oz steak, that's ridiculous!).
Alicia your mum went through WW2 so knew what a precious thing food is, I saw a film set in the early 1950's and this chap walked 12 miles to get 4 eggs from a farm as they still had rationing.
Now we have 24hour shopping with home delivery including a myriad of takeaways its non stop shopping pay as you go urban living.
I've watched documentaries about ghetto's in India and Mexico and my garage was bigger and better built than their homes and they were watching movies of decadence, so how are they going to see us, when we have walls to keep poverty out...And how would a family in these conditions see a 72oz steak...
Whats important Alicia is we are talking about it and from many aspects so this is whats needed and to say enough is enough and shop with our pockets to make it happen.
Years ago when I was 17 I had stayed with my grandparents and my aunty and her 2 girls were there and Nana had prepared a tea for everyone with salad and some bread and butter and meat plated up and one of my cousins had said to Nana how she didn't like salad and had demanded Nana get her a pizza no please or thank you to Nana and nana had got her a pizza!
When I told my friends about this they said how they would have been told that they were eating what was there or going without and told off for being rude and ungrateful when there's so many in the world starving!
My cousin could have had the meat and put it in the bread and butter and made a sandwich out of it and missed out the bits she didn't like but no that was just attention seeking!
Do you all belong to trash nothing/ freecycle? I and others have been known to offer food there which would otherwise go to waste. Packs of cereal bought for guests who then didn’t eat it, coffee, tea bags, soft drinks that weren’t to our taste, pet foods and fruit and veg particularly from our gardens in the summer months. Don’t be afraid to offer before things get past it, someone may be grateful .
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My main products are fruit, green vegetables (tropical varieties), and chilis, but I have about 40 different species under cultivation, with various obscure uses. This year we'll be doing a pilot project with ethically-raised layer hens. 
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