THINK ABOUT HOW MUCH FOOD YOU THROW AWAY

Many of us don't give a thought to the quantity of food we waste daily, weekly monthly or yearly. We may think about it for a moment when we're scraping the leftovers off the plate, or when we dump rotting fruit in the bin. But it's become so "normal" to throw food away that we just don't give it any real thought, and we don't think how the quantities add up over the year. (We absolutely acknowledge that there are feeding schemes where not a drop of food is wasted!).

Half of the food thrown away needn't go to waste. With some basic management in the food buying process and the food preparation you could have saved a substantial amount of money!

As you know only too well food is so expensive that food thrown away is like throwing money in the dustbin. And we would never choose to actually throw money in the bin!)

A few reasons why we throw away food:

• We buy more food than we need.
• We are often tempted by special offers.
• Retail promotions, presented as money-savings offering larger sizes, extra product, or new offerings influence impulse buying which make us think we are being less wasteful. (But very often we don't use the "extra" and it goes to waste).
• We buy more fresh or perishable foods (often as the result of trying to eat more healthily - but it doesn't get eaten).
• We don't shop with a list of what we actually need.
• We choose food impulsively when at the shops and not according to plan. We get a craving for something when shopping, and the planned food is not used.
• Parents are badgered into unplanned and extra purchases by children.
• We prepare more than we need.
• We dish up more than we can eat.
• Our eyes are bigger than our stomachs.
• Our taste buds shout louder than our stomachs can handle.
• We don't plan our meals in advance and we shop without a list.
• We leave food in the freezer for too long so that it gets freezer burn and spoils.
• We throw away food because it has passed its 'use by' date - even if it's still fine
• We throw away food if it's on or past its 'best before date' - even if it looks and smells fine.
• We don't really understand the difference between the 'use by' and 'best before' labelling.
• We aren't prepared to eat leftovers.
• We cook separate meals for different members of the family/home.
• We don't think about creating new meals using leftovers.
• We don't have enough storage space to keep products beyond a certain time period.
• We have poor food storage management- we don't eat food in date order of purchasing.
• We don't understand the 'use by' and 'best before'.