I like to think of myself as a fairly easy going chap. I don’t tend to get too worked up about things, but what really gets me is the wasting of food. I grew up in one of those ‘save your leftovers’ families, so I just don’t get it when people chuck away perfectly good food.
Although there are no official statistics for the amount of food Kiwi’s throw away, we can at least draw a rough comparison with our cousins in the UK. There the average household wastes one third of the food it purchases, and each person on average throws away 70kg of food a year. This has become such a concern in the UK that even the British Prime Minister has urged his country to stop wasting food.
Those are some pretty sobering numbers, and become even more so when you think about the money wasted as well. So what can we do to try and reduce the amount of food we here in NZ throw out?
Fortunately the internet abounds with good ideas on how to minimise your food waste. The site is www.lovefoodhatewaste.com has some great ideas for how to get your portions sizes just right and recipes that will turn your tired leftovers into fantastic meals. It also has some really useful information on how to plan your weekly meals as well as a neat feature where people can enter their own top tips and ideas about how to combat food waste.
On the domestic front, www.healthyfood.co.nz can also help you to save more and waste less. For example, did you know that you can make your own gnocchi at home using leftover potatoes? I love gnocchi! It’s also got the facts on the cold, hard cash you’ll save if you shop carefully and throw away less food.
Another good site is www.thesimpledollar.com. Though it mainly talks about how to make your money last longer, there is also information on how to get the most value out of your food bill. This includes advice on how to get three meals from one chicken and also on how to save money by making your own beer, wine and cheese.
For a good insight into the causes of household food waste and some of the environmental effects of it, the www.wastedfood.com blog has some great articles that really make you think. It has made it on to my list of favourite blogs.
I’d love to hear you ideas on what else we can do to reduce our food waste. Any great leftover recipes or shopping tips you can share? What about your best ideas for storing food and keeping it fresh?
Comments
"...the average household wastes one third of the food it purchases, and each person on average throws away 70kg of food a year."
*gasp*
That is an incredible statistic! And an awful one! Actually it's so awful that I have trouble believing it. Are you sure it's not meant to say that 70kg of food is thrown away for every person? Meaning you would total all the food that's wasted in transit, at the supermarket, in restaurants etc then average it out over each person?
I'm like you Andrew - I absolutely hate wasting food. If something in my fridge somehow avoids proper stock rotation and goes off before I eat it, I feel very sad!
Here's my best no-waste recipe. It's not really a recipe at all... more a technique...
A lot of left-overs can be turned into some kind of frittata or omelette. Just chop up any cold veges, potatoes, etc and heat them in a pan. You can boost the flavours by frying an onion or cooking up extra veges too.
Then beat a couple of eggs and pour it over the fry-up. Pop a lid (or large plate) on the pan until the egg is cooked through. Serve with a green salad and crusty bread and nobody would imagine they're eating last night's leftovers.
I often prepare the leftovers in an oven-proof (cast iron) pan and add a couple of tablespoons of self-raising flour to the egg mix, then sprinkle cheese on top and put the whole thing in the oven for about 15 mins. It makes a slightly puffier mix that's more like a quiche than an omelette.
I even do this with pasta left over from the night before! I swirl the spaghetti into a spiral in the bottom of the pan, put all the other veges etc on top, then the egg mix. I jokingly call this a birds-nest omelette.
Submitted by Lindis on 1 October 2008 11:51:31
Oh I must add my sister's special recipe here too. She calls it Stork Soup.*
Basically you never throw away the good quality trimmings off your vegetables. The classic one is when you have a broccoli or cauliflower and you have cut off the florets to use, then you have the stalk left over. Instead of throwing it away, chop it up finely and put it in your freezer.
Eventually you will gather enough bits to make a delicious soup. The base of the soup is about a cup of lentils, split peas, etc. soaked in about a litre of hot water, and about a litre of your frozen chopped vegetable bits. Simmer until everything is soft. Add spices etc to taste (I like to add a couple of teaspoons of curry powder and a teaspoon of salt). You can also add any other vegetables you like, a can of tomatoes, a cup of mixed frozen veges, or whatever else takes your fancy.
*Actually it's Stalk Soup, but it's funnier if you call it Stork Soup. Especially if you're feeding vegetarians.
Submitted by Lindis on 1 October 2008 12:04:39
Those are some really good leftover recipes thanks Lindis. I'll be putting away the stalks of my cauliflowers in the freezer from now on.
I'm also sorry to say the statistics are true. According to a UK study by the non-for-proft group WRAP, the average weight of avoidable food waste per person regardless of household size 1.3 kg per week, which equates to 70kg per year. The study is a direct measure of waste produced by UK households.
Submitted by Andrew on 2 October 2008 09:16:20
I've also just found this great little recipe on how to make a delicious bread pudding out of leftover pieces of bread. This will defiantly please my partner. She hates eating the crusty ends of a loaf of bread!
Submitted by Andrew on 2 October 2008 13:46:12
Re leftover bread - in our house we save it all up for feeding to the ducks - one favourite passtime of my three kids. I don't really get it, why don't people just freeze their leftovers or eat them the next day for lunch - that's what we tend to do. Our only food waste is what we serve the kids that they won't eat. That used to get passed on to the dog as her "entree", but now we have a new dog with a sensitive stomach which kid of peeves me. I guess a lot of people don't realise that often food tastes a lot better the next day as all the flavours have been absorbed overnight - this is particularly true with pasta dishes. Thanks for the fantastic links though, maybe I could save up a couple of days leftovers and make a whole new meal out of them ;-)
Submitted by GreenGemini on 3 October 2008 08:50:45
Yummm, so hungry now! My mum makes really good fried rice if she cooks too much. Whisk an egg and fry it lightly, set aside. Saute some onions and stirfry with some leftover veges - carrots, beans, corn etc, all good. Add leftover meat if you have it (its fine as a vegetarian dish though), some soy sauce/sweet chilli, chop up the omelette you just made and mix that through then stir your leftover rice through the mix. Voila! Kind of looks like what you have in the picture, Andrew. I recommend :)
Submitted by Tamara on 6 October 2008 16:10:04
Ok so you guys are definitely making me hungry....
I agree about a lot of food being even yummier the next day. Anything like curries or pasta sauces are delicious when the flavours have developed and are perfect for freezing in single-portion sizes for lunches or quick dinners.
Andrew your cherry-chocolate bread pudding looks sooooo delicious! *drools*
I do exactly the same with my bread left-overs - either crusts or just bread that has got a bit old or stale. (Although my pudding recipe is nowhere near as delicious as the one you linked to.)
Basically a bread and butter pudding simply involves bread, custard and flavours. If you want to keep it really simple you can just mix up something like Edmonds Custard Powder according to the packet recipe (maybe a little runnier), pour it over chopped bread in an oven-proof dish and sprinkle with cinnamon and brown sugar.
When I have more time I make my own custard with eggs, milk & a little corn flour. Sometimes I add dried fruit like raisins, cranberries or dates (layer the fruit in the dish with the bread rather than sprinkling on top so it doesn't burn).
GreenGemini as much as I love watching kids feed the ducks, apparently bread isn't very good for ducks' digestion! It can clog their crops and stop them from digesting other food properly, and it also pollutes waterways. How about saving the bread to make bread & butter pudding, and taking some other kind of food for the ducks? I like to feed them rolled oats, wheat flakes or other grain-based food. Sorry to sound like a spoil sport :(
Submitted by Lindis on 7 October 2008 15:41:37
I just thought I would mention one of my favourite kiwi recipe book authors - Alison Holst. Many of her basic recipes can be adapted to include left-overs, and she also has books like "Meals without Meat" that have great recipes that are also simple to make.
Andrew, would it be too cheeky for you to get in touch with Alison and ask her to contribute some of her own ideas on how to avoid wasting food? I think she is probably NZ's great expert on economical, easy and delicious family meals!
Submitted by Lindis on 9 October 2008 14:00:09
Now I have become obsessed with the thought of all that perfectly good food going to waste and I have to keep coming back to put more comments here :(
Andrew, I read in one of your links that yoghurt is one of the most wasted foods. It seems people buy it because they think they should (it's meant to be good for them) but their good intentions do not always follow through!
So here are my tips for not wasting yoghurt:
1) Buy plain yoghurt and add your own flavourings. This means you can make it sweet or savoury and are not restricted by the fact that your yoghurt already has sugar etc in it.
2) Buy it in economical sizes - that might be a 1-litre container rather than a pack of six small containers.
2) Use good food handling and storage practises - never dip a contaminated spoon in your yoghurt, and make sure you keep it in a cool part of your fridge (I used to have a kitchen where the sun shone directly on the fridge and anything stored in the fridge door did not last as long as if it was at the back of the fridge!)
Submitted by Lindis on 9 October 2008 14:19:17
Ooops I pressed "go" before that message was ready...
51) Use plain yoghurt anywhere you would use cream or sour cream - I use it in hollandaise sauce, guacamole, virtually any kind of creamy dip or sauce. (Try it instead of cream the next time you make Hollandaise - absolutely delicious over poached eggs or with fresh, lightly steamed asparagus! mmmm!)
93) Yoghurt makes a fantastic base for salad dressings. Try it with chopped fresh or dried herbs, a bit of salt & pepper, mustard or some capers. Or chop cucumber and/or mint into it to serve with Indian or middle eastern dishes. Thinking on middle eastern lines... any time you serve couscous, you can serve yoghurt too! Sweet with honey and dates, savoury with spices and drizzled over vegetables.
Submitted by Lindis on 9 October 2008 14:31:52
Pies!
If you have left over mashed potato and other food, just make up a batch of gravy (did you know Bisto is suitable for vegetarians?) Then mix the left overs with the gravy, put it in an oven-proof dish and cover the top with mashed potato. Bake in the oven for about 15 minutes or until it's heated right through and the top has turned golden brown.
Optional: before putting it in the oven, sprinkle grated cheese and/or paprika on top.
Tip: Don't fill the container up too high as the filling might bubble out as it heats.
Submitted by Lindis on 9 October 2008 15:38:31
Haha all of you guys are hilarious. Heard of dumpster diving? In the states they call it the freegan movement.
Here's some powerful insights: For the past 6months I haven't bought food. Twice a week, several groups of friends and myself embark on a nightly quest to scour the local supermarket dumpsters. Almost every single night we get at least $200 worth of amazing food that would otherwise be discarded into landfills - both consumables, and non consumables. In fact everything a supermarket sells, we get. Imagine buying the most expensive ingredients to make your favourite meal - we get it for free, and at no lesser the quality. By the completely WACK legislation that conducts the flow of products in and out of supermarkets, they [the supermarkets] are required to throw out all products with the very slightest imperfections - and sometimes just to clear shelf space for new product. Here's a [tiny] sample:
- Breads (Vogel's, Mackenzie country etc - about 15 loaves per night - not to mention the lesser brands)
- bakery (ridiculous amounts of cakes and slices, biscuits etc - all still packaged perfectly)
- tinned foods - every tin/can/jars that has the slightest dent - i.e. everything - fruit (blueberries, peaches etc), beans, baby food, pasta sauces, curry and tomato pastes - literally everything.
- chips, muesli bars,
- Oils (olive, conola, ricebran)
- casks of wine, and boxes of beer
- non-consumables - we've had endless washing powder, cleaning products, RE-USABLE eco bags!, toothpaste & brushes, etc
- dairy (who would of thought) - so much milk, every kind including soy and rice milk, yoghurt, cheeses
- hummus - soooo much epic hummus and pesto, sundried tomato's, - kg's of perfectly good olives
- vegetables - don't get me started! capscicums, tomatoes, bananas, fresh dates, broccoli, kumara, mushrooms the list doesnt stop.
I am 100% serious when I say that I, and several others I know haven't had the need to buy food for the past 6months, and lived like kings. You don't need to either - im not kidding. Adapted from UK stats, New Zealanders throw away half a million tons of perfectly good food every year. A significant proportion of this going straight into our landfils. The dumpster revolution is swarming New Zealand and many country's across the globe.
Consider the mass amount of resources it takes to supply say a blue cod fillet into the shelves of your local supermarket - somebody owns the fishing vessel > fills the vessel with fossil fuels (oil) to power the boat > employs crew > sails out into the ocean > uses a longline to catch not only that species, but several others they had no intention of catching > sails the catch back to port > processes the fish (filleting etc) > pays a delivery truck to take it to the supermarket > the fish sits there for sometime before > oh' well, nobody bought and consumed the fish > thrown into the supermarket dumpster > and then discarded into the landfill. How many problems can you see with this process - apart from the obvious?
However - this activity is actually considered illegal in New Zealand - regarded as theft. Why? Is it not for the greater good - your saving perfectly good food from New Zealand's ever increasing landfills - where it is not composted and releases harmful methane gas - further contributing to the problems of global warming. What is wrong with taking someone elses rubbish - they obviously don't want it right?
So what can you do? Boycott supermarkets where possible - all your doing is contributing to problems of over consumption and excess food wastage. Wait till supermarkets close - usually around 11pm and cleaners have gone home. Take a torch and a friend. Don't draw too much attention to your self. Happy exploring :)
Submitted by greenYouth4 on 14 October 2008 11:45:26
Hi greenYouth4, I know some freegans here in New Zealand who live by the motto that they will eat anything as long as it is free. I was a freegan by necessity in my student days but it's not a lifestyle choice I would make now.
My sister did a lot of dumpster diving when she lived in the US, although she relied on it mostly for clothes and non-food items. (As we don't usually call them "dumpsters" here in NZ, I prefer to call it Jumbo Jiving. [Sounds much more fun than Skip Scavenging.])
It really is an awful shame that so much food gets wasted by retailers and wholesalers. That's one of the reasons I prefer to shop at farmers' markets whenever I can. Not only is less food thrown away, but what is discarded is usually used as compost or pig food rather than sent to landfill.
Years ago when I got married we arranged in advance with the City Mission that any food left over (and not taken home by the guests) would be delivered to the mission. I understand their policy has now changed and they won't accept left-over food or food that is past its expiry date. I can understand that they don't want to expose some of the most vulnerable members of society to the possibility of getting sick from food that has not been properly prepared, stored or transported.
Meanwhile, good on you for making the most of some of the terrible waste that goes on in our society. Keep up the good work!
Submitted by Lindis on 17 October 2008 13:02:45
Hi greenYouth4 and welcome to our community. Thanks for your ideas about being a freegan. I've always found it a really interesting concept, and it's great to get a fresh perspective.
Lindis - thanks for all your awesome ideas for combating food waste. I've taken a few notes and look forward to trying some of them out. I've been dutifully saving up my leftovers for stalk soup, so I'll let you know how I get on!
Submitted by Andrew on 21 October 2008 16:25:55
This is such a global thing and something everyone should care about. I just read some pretty shocking figures on the blog of the EU commissioner. It seems that 1/3 of all food in the UK is binned and that food waste in france could feed all undernourished people in the Democratic Republic of Congo. You know what the figures are for NZ
http://blogs.ec.europa.eu/fischer-boel/
kiki
Submitted by kiki on 5 February 2009 13:42:15
Thanks for that Kiki. I havnt heard of any national surveys regarding the amount of food wasted in New Zealand. However, a local survey I heard of reported that 'kitchen waste' made up 42% of waste on the kerbside. 24% of this 'kitchen waste' is food that could have been eaten. This equates to approximately 10% of the toatl domestic rubbish set out by households.
Submitted by Tink on 3 March 2009 14:58:57