Food Waste

I read an article in today's Telegraph which said that the supermarkets (Tesco was named, surprise surprise) were responsible for the waste.
Something like 60% of the bread Tesco produce is wasted, some by consumers, but most of it because it's left on the shelves too long.
Ditto bagged salad.
They have promised to redesign the shelving, so that not as much produce is on display at any one time.
Like you HL I don't waste anything.
Just off to my local baker to byuy some fresh bread for lunch. [yum emoticon]

Our lunch today is made up of yesterday's meal.
Left over lamb,carrots potatoes and gravy.
The only thing I have added today is sliced onion,herbs and cheese and Worcester sauce.
The lamb I have minced with the onions ,added the carrots the gravy and herbs, a slash of Worcester sauce and sliced the potatoes on top and covered with cheese.
No waste for us.

You are both making me hungry

Did I hear correctly that each household wastes £700 of food every year ? I don't SPEND that much on food every year !! I eat very well too but like many of you nothing is wasted. Ham shanks (£1 from my butcher) can give me at least soup for 3 lunches and if I wasn't so piggy with the meat would also give 3 main meals with the addition of veg from next doors garden.

I love ham shanks

I must confess to wasting both bread and salad (bagged or otherwise).

I do not eat a great deal of bread myself but like to keep some in for the grandchildren or DH. To be fair the bread technically doesn't waste as we have a lot of hungry ducks and swans in the park beside my house.

I do eat quite a lot of salad and find that the leaves and tomatoes don't seem to keep for vey long even in the fridge.

Waste very little of anything else though.

I have a small 5 litre "food waste recycling" caddy. In a flat so no composting. I average about half a caddy a week for two of us and that includes peelings and teabags. Bet it is not the post war generation that is over buying and dumping.

Same feelings from me, I waste very little food indeed. The level of waste horrifies me. Perhaps supermarkets stock up with too many perishable foods.

The throw away generation need to think more about this.

Think about what meals you are going to have each week before you buy. Don't buy very perishable food just "in case you might fancy it sometime." use your freezer for the stuff that can be frozen.

Do not get hung up on sell by dates of vegetables or other food. Use common sense about the condition of tired veg, its often possible to just chop off odd bits that are soft. Make soup or peel and freeze them to make soup later.

You do need to more careful about meat and similar stuff.

I think it would help if supermarkets didn't promote BOGOFs and similar offers on fresh fruit and veg - not much use to those of us who live alone and encourages waste.

I think it is the younger ones who waste food. Our generation were brought up to waste not want not and it is now ingrained. I hate to throw anything out and take great pleasure in making meals that could be labelled - "Honey, I emptied the fridge!" DH is always well fed. When I was younger and poorer I could make a meal out of a dishcloth (well not really but you get the idea.)

We have a bitza lunch every now and again – for those who don't know, it comprises bits of this and bits of that out of the fridge.

Does anyone remember the European folk tale about stone soup?

Absent I remember the stone soup story.

Yes, I remember it too Absent.

What little waste we have either gets recycled into eggs or the dogs get it.

Sooo, if the majority of us grans waste no more than twenty quids worth of food a year and the average wastage is a whoping £700 how the hell much do some families chuck out?

I had such a huge salad this evening! A bag of mixed leaves was threatening to go off so I've been a rabbit - in that sense only - tonight.

Bought a lamb shank or two from B.....d Stores Hebrideanlady, they weren't called shanks though, what are they call in your locality xx

We throw the leftovers into the sky and watch and photograph the gulls feeding when at V.Cottage - Hebrideanlady. DDH takes the most amazing picture of them - on even had a small Hovis shaped loaf in its throat while it was trying to guzzle everything else on the lawn.

My DiL sends round her left over/out of date fruit and veg for our chickens. Most of it is so usable it never makes it to the chucks.

We look after her children most days .... they love Nana's home made soup and fruit salads

I miss having chucks as they meant we threw so little onto the compost heap. Like everyone else who already posted, I was brought up to make a little meat go a long way. Our Thursday night evening meal has always been made out of whatever is left in the fridge, and still is, even though we are now 2 rather than 5 or more. I buy salad bags with watercress in them, but try and avoid the other leaves bags. I suspect they are one of the biggest causes of waste.

When my daughter visits she goes through the cupboards for out of date dry goods, jams etc. when she leaves I put them all back.

I love my daughter but I would never allow her to go through my cupboards or fridge and tell me what I should throw away. Being my daughter, of course, she wouldn't dream of doing it – until I become completely senile and incapable anyway. Brendawymms Why on earth do you allow yourself to be bullied in this way? Of course, you are not alone – lots of other under-the-thumb-of-their daughters' mothers on GN have admitted allowing this to happen too. I find it incomprehensible.

Not only would my daughter's not do it, doing it wouldn't even occur to them. They know that I understand how food works.

I don't regard putting unused vegetables or floppy salad items on the compost heap as "wasting". I regard it as feeding, in due course, the garden.

oh bloody hell! apostrophes again! Why does that happen? I know plurals don't have them!!!!!

I keep bread in the freezer, and defrost as needed. Don't eat meat or fish, and only buy it in small quantities for DH. The salads are the main problem, because the bags are too big for two of us to get through before they go soggy and brown.

The food waste story is, however, focused on the supermarkets as well as on the consumer, and is truly horrific - a complete anomaly in these days of food banks etc.