Rant alert! Freezer food life.

Ah, I understand. Thanks Crun.

"How come the strawberries didn't go mushy?"

I think it's all about speed of freezing. If you use a home freezer the fruit freezes slowly, which allows time for large ice crystals to form, which rupture the cell walls. If you can freeze the fruit near instantly, the ice crystals don't have time to grow to the same size, and the cell walls don't get damaged.

I think the do not freeze instruction is mainly about quality Charleygirl Some things just don't thaw very nicely - cream splitting and that sort of thing. I do find bacon and ham have a tendency to taste rancid if they are frozen for too long.

I thought fruit and veg had a 'best before' date but not a 'use by' date.

How come the strawberries didn't go mushy?

I watched the first programme and was shocked at the wastage and decided not to follow any more as it was the same theme. Heaven knows how long some of my food has been sitting in the freezer. I have frozen the odd item of convenience food bought iin M&S which said "do not freeze" and I am still alive.

Yes, I,m going to try more frozen fruit - it looks like it has really improved.

Actually I did find the item on frozen fruit interesting. I didn't realise that the quality had improved so much now. I normally avoid it because I expect it to thaw as a mush.

When I saw it trailed I hoped it might at least be interesting if not useful, but it was just patronising.

Challenging the pundits to save money off a £17,000 food bill is hardly setting the bar very high, any idiot could do that. It was obvious from the size of them that they must have been throwing most of it away, on my diet £16,900 would provide a family of four with 10,300 calories a day each!

It would have been more interesting to see what sort of program Jack Monroe could have made.

I did not watch this programme, but have a complete aversion to food wastage. You would probably be surprised at the things we eat as am I not prepared to throw anything away unless it constitutes a danger to health.

Vegetables past their prime finish up in yummy soups or stir fries.

Sometimes after a visit from the children I find that things have gone missing from my fridge as they have cleared out things that I would have kept! I choose to assume it is done out of kindness.

I agree there is probably quite a lot of setting up and editing to give the maximum "good grief!" effect. My main point was that I couldn't believe they threw freezer stuff out after a month! Or indeed that they looked at use by dates on fresh veg. Unless your freezer is on the blink stuff should last months! (I am very quick to dispose of something I think has been spoilt by the freezer being switched off accidentally - especially fish or cream.) Fresh veg is just that - fresh until it looks bad. They seemed to be throwing out perfectly good stuff. Bring it here - I'll make soup!

Actually I have quite enjoyed this programme because it is about showing people how they can eat better for less, I dont want to see yet another programme from some worthy showing me how to boil a sheeps leg for 14 hours and then feed my family with it for a month. Surely the whole point is that you dont have to compromise on taste, quality or convenience to save money. But yes, i do agree that he amounts the three families spend on food is eye watering.

I couldn't believe the amount they were spending even using the excuse that they like to (understandably) spoil their little girl who was recovering from leukaemia.

She was such a little sweetie though

When this series started I thought it was going to be about advising low paid families on how to make their money stretch further. So far all the families featured have quite clearly got money to burn and you wonder whether they will take any notice once the cameras have gone. I also think there's a large degree of exaggeration to give the viewers a chance to feel smug about their own sensible spending.

I suppose the whole point of the program is to find a silly couple and bring them into the 'light'. Lets hope they actually learnt something.
How on earth did they manage to spend over £300 a week on food? I think I could buy the most expensive range of my weekly shop and not spend that much.

Agree! Agree! Agree!

We just couldn't believe that silly couple! More money than sense!