The Big Food Waste Problem (with words from Lagom Chef)
According to the UN, if food waste were a country it would be the third biggest greenhouse gas emitter in the world. Here’s why Food Waste Day is so important - and what you can do to help - with words from Lagom Chef.
Photo: Olio - olioex.com
We’ve all been there: shopping around in the supermarket, wondering what we might eat for the week – maybe even picking up a few extra things that we might fancy. If we don’t eat it, we’ll just throw it away. No biggie. Right?
WRONG! Food waste is an enormous global issue, and this time we can’t put all the blame on big corporations.
That’s right. In the UK, 70% of food waste comes from individual households (according to the Waste and Resources Action Programme), which means each item of food that we purchase and throw away is contributing to the bulk of the problem.
Photo: Martyn Odell - Lagom Chef
Last year, we interviewed Martyn Odell – AKA The Lagom Chef, one of our awesome food-waste-warriors – to see what advice he had on reducing food waste. His message was simple: plan, buy, cook, and eat.
Plan
Try to make a rough meal plan several days or weeks in advance of making your meals. It’s also important to plan for leftovers – and not to waste other food that you would’ve eaten if you didn’t have leftovers!
Buy
Shopping in supermarkets is fine (buy what you can afford!) – but it’s important not to pay too much attention to labels and dates. It’s also important to take portion size into consideration when buying food. You can use this handy tool to calculate your Basal Metabolic Rate and get a good estimate of how many calories you need per day.
Cook
Knowing how to plan and buy an accurate amount of food is one thing. Knowing how to cook it is quite another – and there are plenty of us who could do with polishing up our skills! How you cook is important, as it can change the longevity of your ingredients – blanching vegetables, for example, helps them stay fresher for much longer.
Eat
This one is simple – make sure you EAT the food you buy! That may mean you need to put leftovers into a Tupperware for the following day or whizz up some vegetables into a soup. Thought those ingredients were too old to use? Think again! Lagom Chef’s website and social media channels are full of ideas of how to turn ingredients you thought were past it, into something delicious.
Brands that can help you reduce food waste
Photo: Oddbox - Oddbox.co.uk
Reducing food waste alone can be a daunting task – luckily, we’ve got some more incredible brands that are here to help you be part of the solution.
Here are our top 5:
1. Flawsome – These delicious drinks reduce waste by being made from 100% wonky fruit (that is, fruit that was rejected because it was a little ugly). They’re also vegan, have no added sugar, and come in a recyclable glass bottle. (Get an extra 10% off with code: GOODFIND)
2. Oddbox – Veg isn’t supposed to be perfect - and lots of oddly shaped vegetables are wasted. Oddbox takes funky and surplus veg and delivers them straight to your door.
3. Rubies in the Rubble – Condiments are a great way to preserve ingredients – but Rubies takes that concept even further, using fresh ingredients that would otherwise have gone to waste.
4. Olio - Got food that you won’t be able to use in time? This app is designed to share surplus food amongst the community with a few simple steps, so you’ll never have to waste perfectly good food again.
5. Earth and Wheat – Enough wasting ugly food! Earth and Wheat will deliver fresh wonky and surplus bread that would otherwise have gone to waste.
There are lots of brands that are fighting the good fight against food waste, so be sure to check out our full list of Food Waste Warriors!
So there you have it. Food waste can be tackled in many ways and from many angles – but ultimately, it all starts with the habits we find ourselves in every day. A few small steps can make a huge impact, so it’s time we all became more mindful about our own food consumption.
Words by Emily Weedon (interview by Charlotte Lorimer)