Do You Waste Food?

[nailit]

Apparently the average UK family throws away 60 quid a month on food wastage.http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/07/uk-households-food-waste
I find this both morally reprehensible (when people in our own country are resorting to food banks) and frankly just plain bad housekeeping.
Im a single bloke living on benefits and cant afford to waste food but even when I wasnt I found it wrong to do so.

My actual food waste for the month could fit in a shoebox.
Any 'leftover' food gets recycled into a curry, vegetables such as carrots and potatoes get cooked whole (instead of peeled) and any fruit or veg that maybe is on the turn is blended into a smoothie. Even any food that has become uneatable to me is used to feed the local wildlife that CAN eat it.
I just find something wrong in wasting food.
Is it just me that thinks like this?

[Retrochic]

I hate throwing away food and rarely do -we either eat it or the hens get it. Leftover meat is made into curry, left over meals either eaten for lunch the next day or frozen to eat later. The people who annoy me most are those that throw out the food because its a day past its use by date,without even smelling it or examining it to see if its ok.

[jno]

it's not always that easily to calculate the next week's food, especially witha family; and not everyone has the time to go shopping every day to try to get the portion sizes right.

However, it seems 34% of the waste is undrunk drink, and another 34% is fresh fruit. Beats me how that happens: I chuck away the occasional wormy apple, but that's about it.

[Gavmacp]

We get a veg box every two weeks which I wish we didn't. As we get veg we will never use. I have requested to my wife that we cancel it but that appears to be to deaf ears. I would much rather buy what we can eat and use. I really don't understand it.

[woofgang]

I am not sure why its any worse to waste food than to waste anything else?

[jno]

it doesn't actually seem to be leftovers, Retrochic. The details are here

http://www.wrap.org.uk/sites/files/wrap/Total%20UK%20household%20food%20and%20drink%20waste%20infographic.pdf

[sherrardk]

I plan v carefully and never throw any food out. There's never any leftovers and I use everything I buy.

[Jackdaw33]

As a single bloke myself I sympathise. The main reason why I waste food is that it is almost impossible to buy perishable goods in small quantities. For example I bought 6 Hot X buns earlier this week. I ate 2 but binned the other 4 as they had gone rock hard. Had I been able to buy just 2 I would have done so.

[sherrardk]

Couldn't you have frozen them?

[Jackdaw33]

I do not like defrosted bread.

[whirlyhurly]

Totally agree Nailit, especially if like myself, your father could not be trusted to provide for his family{a gambler}. Any wastage at all is "a sin" in my mind, apart from orange/melon/banana skins which go in the recycle garden bin. The only "food remains" I have to dispose of is chicken bones. Why folk buy beyond what they are actually going to cook seems irrational.

[sherrardk]

They freeze lovely, I freeze all of my bread (I go through loads of it so get it all delivered).

[Gavmacp]

I do agree with jackdaw supermarkets appear to cater for families and not single people. I remember seeing an old man looking at a large packet and I presumed he was thinking will it go off before I eat it.

[nailit]

naval //morally reprehensible' - bit strong isn't it? //
Not when some people dont know where their next meal is coming from. Ive been homeless in the past and have a very vivid memory of trying to retrieve a pie from a local pie shops bins one night only to discover that they had poured bleach over them to prevent people like myself (at the time) from eating them.
So no, it isnt a 'bit strong'.

[Gavmacp]

Nailit,
I agree I see a lot of people looking through bins for food. I thought by now we would have a society where this didn't happen but unfortunately it does.

[nailit]

Have to say jackdaw, been single hasnt really been a problem regards food. In fact 'family' packs are a saving to me. I havnt got a problem in freezing food until needed. I'll quiet happily eat defrosted bread, buns etc. Having been homeless in the past I'll eat anything. (in fact, having ate prison food, anything else is corden bleau...)

[BRIGHT SPARK]

With 20 pheasants queueing each morning nowt gets wasted!

[askyourgran]

I am only just beginning to realise I buy too much food, I don't waste what I use, usually make curries or pies of leftover meat the next day. It's the sell-by dates that are my failing, I will not eat anything out of date, or for example if I buy a jar of mayonnaise, I find that once opened to use within 4 weeks or so. My biggest waste is yoghurts of which I may only eat one and the rest is thrown away. I cleared my freezer recently to find that although I could freeze a pie or something I had to use it within one month.

[Georgiesmum]

The only food that i have to throw out for collection every week in my food bin are banana skins, celery stalks,tea bags,broccoli stalks, orange peel apple cores i throw on the lawn for the birds to enjoy.!