We throw away millions of pounds worth of perfectly good food every year. So here, the Take a Break cookery team Lucy and Hayley reveal their top tips for cutting waste and saving cash
1. Say no to the throw
Pioneering food waste campaigners Too Good To Go have joined forces with Bake Off’s Candice Brown to launch the Look, Smell, Taste campaign to tackle confusion over date labels on food. On average, each of us wastes over £300 of best before-dated food each year, so Candice has created dishes using one of the commonly thrown away foods — dairy. Recipes include macaroni cheese with wild mushrooms, kale & garlic, and cookie crisp cereal milkshake. Find them on Instagram @toogoodtogo.uk or visit toogoodtogo.uk
2. Canned love
There’s a lot to be said for canned food. Love Canned Food have teamed up with This Morning chef Phil Vickery to create a selection of recipes showing the benefit of canned vs fresh. Canned fruit and veg is picked at the height of the season, so it’s at its ripest and most flavourful. And, of course, there is less waste. Visit lovecannedfood.com for recipes including fruity ‘no-churn’ easy ice cream and a simple sardine toast topper.
3. It’s a wrap!
Each household in the UK uses, on average, enough cling film a year to stretch 740,000 miles. Eco-friendly alternative WaxWrap comes in pre-cut sheets, bags or on a roll and can be washed in cold water and washing up liquid and re-used around 200 times. It’s made from natural materials and is fully compostable or makes a good eco-firelighter once you’ve finished with it. From £12 for a small roll, up to £22.50 for a set of three bags. Visit waxwrap.uk
4. Un-wrap it
Food waste is currently responsible for more greenhouse gases in the UK than all commercial flights taken in one year. And it might surprise you to know that food packaging does not improve the shelf life of fresh items, including potatoes and apples. Buy loose and you’ll not only avoid waste, but also save money and 100,000 tonnes of food waste in the process.
5. Soup it up
Did you know we waste more than 17 million potatoes, 14 million carrots, 556 million onions, and a whopping 733 million tomatoes a year? An investigation by Sainsbury’s revealed we waste so much because we don’t know what to cook. As part of its mission to ‘Help Everyone Eat Better’, the supermarket has developed a range of soup recipes that can feed a family of four for under £5, using up the items that we waste the most. Try roasted tomato and pepper soup or a fragrant squash noodle soup. Visit recipes.sainsburys.co.uk/scrapbooks/eat-better-make-soup for info.
6. On your doorstep
Sign up to modernmilkman.co.uk and have groceries in glass bottles, recyclable containers and compostable packaging delivered to your door. As well as milk, they sell milkshakes, juice, eggs, baked goods, and fresh fruit and veg — with no single-use plastic. So far, they’ve saved 33,518,192 plastic bottles and counting! Empties are collected to be refilled several times.
7. Waste not, want not
The Community Fridge Network is a scheme run by environmental charity Hubbub, which looks to redistribute unwanted food from local businesses, producers, and households to anyone in the community who can make good use of it. There are 200 nationwide, but recent funding from the Co-op means 100 more are in the pipeline, and together they save enough food annually to make more than 13.6 million meals. Visit hubbub.org.uk/the-community-fridge
8. Think inside the box
Did you know that around 40 per cent of fresh produce goes to waste? Oddbox is a weekly fruit and veg delivery service that buys what farmers can’t sell elsewhere, due to them having too much or it being the wrong shape. An annual subscription prevents around 360kg of perfectly edible food going to waste, and you’ll get plenty of recipes and tips on the best ways to enjoy whatever you’re sent. Boxes range from £10.99-£19.99 and contain up to four fruit and nine vegetables, depending on the size you choose. Visit oddbox.co.uk for more information.
9. Sniff it, don’t chuck it
Earlier this year, Morrisons scrapped use-by dates on 90 per cent of its own-brand milk to curb waste, since around 490 million pints of milk are thrown away annually. Instead, bottles now have best before dates and Morrisons encourages customers to simply sniff to check it’s still OK to drink. If it smells sour or has curdled, it needs to go. Keep it fresh for longer by storing in a cool bag on the way home from the shop, keeping in the fridge between 1-4°C and never drinking from the bottle.
10. The big squeeze
A handy addition to any cook’s kitchen, the Stainless Steel Squeezer from Coopers of Stortford ensures you get every last bit from tubes of tomato purée or garlic paste. It’s easy to use — just turn the key at the end to add the required amount to your dish. Price £9.99 from coopersofstortford.co.uk
11. Living on the veg
Make way for Cauli Shoots, the new zero-waste vegetable. You don’t need to prep them; the whole thing is edible, so nothing ends up in the bin. Boil, steam, grill, fry or roast ’em! They’re high in vitamin C, folate and B vitamins as well as being a good source of fibre, making them good for you and the planet. From £2 for 250g at Ocado and Sainsbury’s.
12. It’s in the bag
With a Toby Carvery Magic Bag, you get a restaurant-quality roast for a fraction of the price and you’re fighting food waste. Available via the Too Good To Go app, bags are assembled in 153 restaurants nationwide and contain unsold food from the carvery. It’s a lucky dip whether you get extra sliced meat or loads of Yorkshire puds and roast potatoes. Pay through the app, then choose your time slot for collection. Prices start from £2.29 for the vegetarian option. They’ve distributed over 100,000 bags since it began last November, saving over 250 tonnes of CO2. Visit tobycarvery.co.uk/restaurants for more information.