The average UK family throws away £700 worth of food annually.

Hi everyone,

Here's another shocking statistic about food waste and what is incredible is food waste has gone down in the UK since 2015 when they changed best before labelling of foods.

Now £700 pa is approx £13.50 a week and seems a ridiculous amount of food and shows how we are encouraged with BOGOF's and special deals so don't shop mindfully.

Here's an example of how much food is wasted in the UK:

4.4 million potatoes

I million loaves of bread

920, 00 bananas

Here's the article in todays Daily Mail please see:

dailymail.co.uk/news/articl...

I've been buying more frozen veg and have been blanching and freezing excess veggies for another day and that is such a great resource and well worth making the effort.

[SenateurDupont]

I know, same here in Canada.

I blame several thing for that.

-Lack of knowledge about food in general, how to cook, how to preserve.

-Restaurant serving portions that client wont finish.

-Groceries puts a lot of stuff in the garbages too.

But I do think my first point is the main thing. In Quebec province where I live, we had a course in high school in wich students were learning to cook simple recepies, to sow, make a budget etc. They took it off.

I try to get the most bang for my buck when I buy some food.

The green part of my leeks will go in the freezer along with carrot tops... I'll make a broth with them.

There are several way to preserve today. Cooking, freezing, pressure canning, vacuum.

Yes they cost, but if you invest in those, and change your way of doing thing, you save alot!

Regards.

[Hidden in reply to SenateurDupont]

Hi SenateurDupont you make some great points here and sadly we are encouraged to consume so there are foods on offer and we end up shopping mindlessly and not thinking about when we'll eat it all.

I waste very little as I don't like it like my food and shop regularly and buy frozen veg often as you can really minimise waste then.

Jerry. 😊

[SenateurDupont in reply to Hidden]

Frozen veg is a great choice when vegetables are out of season. Brings variety in our plates and the freezing is mostly done direcly after the vegetable has been picked in the field. So it's the fresher option taht we have. And yes... it limits the global waste!

[Hidden]

Hi Hidden good for you and I have a compost bin and wild boars for neighbours so I put things out for them and they love it, it's a free take away...😊

[Zest]

Hi Hidden

Thanks for posting this information and I will hope to read the article on the weekend.

Zest

[Hidden]

It is awful Jerry and I'm so glad I have 2 freezers.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

It is awful and you're well organised Alicia so good for you. 😊

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

It really is and I have to say I've been guilty of it but certainly not so much now.

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Hey will all have and there's the odd potato and there's households wasting £2.00 of food daily 356 days of the year...

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

That's a silly amount of waste and very sad.😔

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Quite right as we should learn from our mistakes not be encouraged to repeat them...

[Hidden in reply to Hidden]

Totally agree, none of us are perfect, we all do need to learn.

[Lesley1234567]

I keep saying this so apologies for repeating myself, but I shop in a food hall and they don’t have BOGOF or those other stupid offers they have in supermarkets, I hate supermarkets for that alone. The other thing is all the junk food they sell.

Recently Which, did a survey for the cheapest supermarket, comparing the big names like Sainsbury, Asda and such, over 53 items, there was very little in the price difference but it seemed all the items were junk food 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣

Shouldn’t laugh, maybe there should be a law as to how much junk food can be sold in one supermarket. 🤣🤣🤣

[Hidden in reply to Lesley1234567]

Hi Lesley1234567 good for you and you are so right about supermarkets and it's sad that there is such a demand for junk food.

I use a local supermarket and I don't go down some aisles like the fizzy pop and crisps ones.

Supermarkets are one stop shops with ample free parking and thats the draw as towns are so busy we have double yellow lines outside of the shops...

It would be interesting to itemise the stock of a large supermarket and analyse how big a percentage of it is junk food.

A great reply of yours. 😊

[Fran182716 Prediabetic]

When I was growing up in a largish village in the 1960s and 70s we didn’t have a supermarket till I was well Into my teens. Individual shops and the milkman would deliver some stuff other than milk. My dad had a big vegetable garden and a chest freezer, we rarely had to buy any veg except sweetcorn. My parents were teenagers/early twenties through WW2 and they knew how to avoid food waste. They did have more time to devote to this though, Mum didn’t work and Dad worked less hours than I do, they had a small bungalow and only one child!

I’m trying really hard not to waste any food now. I’m very mindful of use by dates and plan ahead, and working out how to make something boring/flavourless tasty so It gets eaten up.

[Hidden in reply to Fran182716]

This is really interesting Fran as some of us have seen many changes to shops and shopping patterns, so we now have these out of town shopping malls with shops the size of a warehouse.

Life was simpler as we didn't have the constant connection to the world with our mobile devices and I fear that some peoples virtual lives are more important than reality.

We are hit with adverts to consume and then consume some more when really we need to consume less because sometimes less is more...😊

[SenateurDupont]

Another cheap way I use to preserve vegetables is fermentation... glass jar, boiled water, veggies, salt and that’s it! there is a lot a recepies and the veggies taste great!

[Hidden]

Hi Hidden really I don't think many people actual plan meals so buy impulse items, I only buy fresh produce that I know I want to eat. I do keep a good selection of gluten free flours and like you dried fruit food that stores well and waste very little. It seems so decadent when there's no need.

Now I grew up in a small market town and we had the local Woolies (Wool Worths) and that was a department store...😊