SHWI member and blogger, Ros Arksey has written about the recent Love Food Hate Waste course organised for our members for her food blog, Nibbly Pig. She's kindly allowed us to post it below....
Love Food, Hate Waste
I love food and always try to plan my meals and make the
most of leftovers, whether that is putting them in the freezer or turning them
into lunches for work. As you can imagine, I was very enthusiastic about
attending this Love Food, Hate Waste workshop hosted for our Seven Hills WI
group.
Peter Hellawell from WRAP delivered the session at the Showroom
and explained how we can all learn to waste less food, save money and pick up
useful tips along the way.
Here’s a bit of background for you…
‘Love Food, Hate Waste
was launched in 2007 and raises awareness of the need to reduce food waste and
helps us all take action to tackle it. It shows that by doing some easy
practical everyday things in the home we can all waste less food, which will
ultimately benefit our purses and the environment too.’ Love Food, Hate Waste website
Sheffield is part of their 10 cities campaign which means
there are lots of awareness-raising activities going on, like this workshop, to
get the message out there to help reduce waste. Sheffield was chosen due to its
high population and the fact that we have higher than average waste levels.
We started the session in an interactive style with Peter
asking us to raise our hands if we love food. Lots of hands went up. Then he
asked, ‘who hates waste?’ Again all hands were raised. So we quickly
established that we were a crowd with an appetite to learn.
Peter set the scene with some hard-hitting facts about food
waste.
· UK Households
waste around £12.5 billion worth of food and drink each year
· On average
4.2 million tonnes of the food that is wasted is avoidable
· Food waste
costs the average household £470 per year
· The most
commonly wasted products are fresh vegetables, salad, fruit and bakery items.
The conversation and activities were then focused on
recognising what we do now, could we do anything better and what tips could be
helpful for the future.
Planning and being organised seemed to be at the heart of
reducing waste. For example, plan your meals, think about portions, utilise
leftovers and keep a check on use by dates.
For example, if you are tempted for a buy one, get one free,
then consider if you will use the products or would you be better sharing it
with a friend or family. Think about what you already have in your cupboards,
do you need to buy more food? Try out practical tips to make food last longer,
like adding a damp piece of kitchen roll to an open bag of salad, this will give
it a couple more days freshness. If you have broccoli that has wilted, put it
into a glass of water or bowl and this will help it crisp up.
Know your dates. Use-by dates are about food safety and
generally when you must use the item. Best-before, is when it is the most
suitable time to eat it and is all about quality.
Sell-by or display until are shop led and is an internal
guide for shop staff, as consumers we don’t need to take notice of these dates.
Consider storage to get the most from food. Eggs like a
constant temperature, they don’t have to be in the fridge but this is the best
place for most fruit to make it last longer. Don’t put your bread in there
though, this will make it go stale quicker – keep it in a bread bin if you have
one. Alternatively, just get slices out of the freezer the night before you
need them, which is what I do.
**5 degrees is the optimum fridge temperature.
Love your freezer. We learnt that you can freeze eggs if
they are separated, remember to make a note of how many whites you have added
together, as when it comes to defrosting you might struggle to work this out.
You can freeze soft cheeses like brie and yoghurts; if you stick ice lolly
sticks into the yoghurt tubs this will give you frozen yoghurts for the kids or
you. Remember to label what you are freezing, we are all probably guilty of
having some mystery frozen ‘surprise’ that we get out to defrost. A sharpie pen
was suggested as something to invest in to label up items. You can even get
technical and make a spreadsheet to track what you have in and how long it has
been there.
**Freezers operate best ¾ full.
These are a selection of the facts and key tips that we went
through on the night. There are lots of useful resources on the Love Food, Hate
Food website, go check it out.
It certainly got me thinking about what else I could do and
when I got home, two peppers, half an onion, a lime and some ginger were all
chopped or sliced and put in the freezer, as I knew I would not use them while
they were at their best. I now have a piece of paper on my fridge with the
meals I am cooking for the week and a reminder of what needs using up from the
freezer.
Thanks to Peter for an informative session. I’d encourage
you all to see how you can do your bit to make a difference to the planet and
your pocket.
