how much food do you waste

Robsweezie

I hate to see food getting thrown in the bin, with me anything that wont be eaten goes to the dogs, does that count as waste? least its being eaten somehow I suppose.

would you often throw out leftovers and gone off gear? or do you make sure everything is kept?

pudzey101

always throw out my leftover food in the bin , but my left over gear goes to a junkie

Hande hoche!

Quite a bit. Things get forgotten at the back of the fridge etc.

strelok

i make soup twice a week so I'll usually end up with a parsnip or two spare, which goes in the bin

otherwise, none.

well, alright. every now and again I have to throw out 2 or 3 kiwis cos I forgot to eat them.

ytpe2r5bxkn0c1

I'd safely say no food gets thrown out here at all. Peelings of vegetables go in the compost bin.
The black bin is only filled every 6 months or so.

qo2cj1dsne8y4k

We waste so much it's disgraceful. We do a full shop every week but we don't eat most of the stuff. Veg, yogurts, bread, eggs, meat uncooked, pretty much anything with an expiry date will end up in the bin.

IvyTheTerrible

We waste very little. I do a meal plan every week (with one free day so we can have a takeaway or a treat) and do a shopping list based on that.
Any fruit or veg that goes off too quick or that we can't eat (eg I bought a bag of clementines the other week that were so bitter they were uneatable) goes in the composter.
Any baguettes that dry (bread doesn't go mouldy here) before we've finished them go to my in-laws to feed their chickens (as do egg shells, for the calcium).

Your Face

Too much. I hate throwing out food.

Annasopra

LexieOnRale wrote: »

We waste so much it's disgraceful. We do a full shop every week but we don't eat most of the stuff. Veg, yogurts, bread, eggs, meat uncooked, pretty much anything with an expiry date will end up in the bin.

I often ignore expiry dates

Mink

I really try not to but I find some dairy, bread and fruit/veg ends up just inedible.

I do shopping list against meal plan but the portions that fruit and veg are sold in in the likes of aldi or lidl are just too big and don't keep til the next week. I'm just not going to cook the same veg 3-4 days in a row.

I actually end up trying to buy the smaller/loose portions in pricier shops. It costs the same or more but I just feel awful wasting food.

Bread to ducks, birds.

Plan on getting a composter when we do a permanent house move in a few months.

Sheep Lover

I sometimes just buy extra food so I can throw it out. I like to think I'm doing my bit for the bin companies.

SEPT 23 1989

Probably a few tons a year

Alun

Very, very little. Now, I don't really plan meals with great detail, so sometimes there's all kinds of odd things left in the fridge, but with a bit of imagination you can always use things up if you try. Leftovers is an unknown word in our house.

Penny Tration

Not much. The odd bit of milk past its expiry now and then, sometimes some cheese. Any expired food goes into the compost bin, but there's little of it because we plan meals and any leftovers are frozen to be used as a quick meal when we're busy.

Annasopra

I rarely throw any food out. Any bread or cheese that has mould on it I cut around it. I only throw out food that is completely rotten and inedible.

r93kaey5p2izun

Too much. I find it very difficult to buy just the right amount of food for meals for one and bread goes stale so quickly. Lack of freezer space in rental accommodation exacerbates the problem.

Spanish Eyes

I have learned to buy what I like to eat, not what I think I like or need. So everything gets eaten.

If there are spuds languishing with a few sprouts on them, I peel, steam and freeze in ice cream scoop portions.

Veg curling up in the bottom of the fridge (including lettuce), make a soup and blend it/freeze in portions.

Bread portion up into four slices at a time and freeze, they last for weeks, and you only use what you need on a particular day, it defrosts in no time, or can be toasted from frozen. I make my own brown or white soda bread for the weekends, and that gets demolished PDQ.

Milk is often fine after its date on the top. Same for yogurts. Real butter can be frozen in portions as can cheese.

A freezer is your friend. But one bit of advice, only freeze what you know you will like and eat. I have seen other people's freezers and they havent a clue what's in there!

Having said that, there can be times when some food is leftover. If it cannot be used for another meal it goes to the birdies, or if that is not suitable, into the brown bin.

I'm not perfect, but am getting so much better at not wasting food.

Starscream25

I'm starting to cut up banana skins and old vegetables, I dig a hole in my flower bed and bury em for the worms, between that and recycling glass plastic and tin,my waste amount has plummeted

Harry Palmr

LexieOnRale wrote: »

We waste so much it's disgraceful. We do a full shop every week but we don't eat most of the stuff. Veg, yogurts, bread, eggs, meat uncooked, pretty much anything with an expiry date will end up in the bin.

You sound like teh sort of person I'd actually tell off if I was round your place!

Ignore expiry dates within reason, store it correctly and learn to use your eyes and nose. Do not waste!

As you may have guessed I throw out almost nothing, I make a list of meals for the week and buy the items for those meals, once you do that there is no excuse for waste really.

One simple way to reduce waste is make a stew.

OldMrBrennan83

This post has been deleted.

Mint Sauce

Bread is my biggest waste. But even at that, both general waste and recycling is no more than once a month, compost last went out around october or November.

Most food I buy is cooked and eaten, or frozen to eat later.

my3cents

Almost zero. The dogs will eat almost anything left over and even vegetable peelings get eaten by our chickens.

K.Flyer

I hate seeing food go to waste, we bin a lot less now than before.
We try to watch what is not being used up and going to waste, so we will cut down on that product or cut it out completely.
When people are throwing out food products that have gone off or well passed their use by date, they should add up how much the items cost, it might help cut down on wastage when you add up the monthly amounts.

Mink

Mink wrote: »

I really try not to but I find some dairy, bread and fruit/veg ends up just inedible.

I do shopping list against meal plan but the portions that fruit and veg are sold in in the likes of aldi or lidl are just too big and don't keep til the next week. I'm just not going to cook the same veg 3-4 days in a row.

I actually end up trying to buy the smaller/loose portions in pricier shops. It costs the same or more but I just feel awful wasting food.

Bread to ducks, birds.

Plan on getting a composter when we do a permanent house move in a few months.

You should probably stop doing this, feeding ducks bread is actually really bad for them. Not sure about other birds but I would guess it's similar.

http://birding.about.com/od/birdfeeders/a/feedingducksbread.htm

Very little, I've a giant fridge/freezer so if something is in danger of expiring before use, it gets thrown into suspended animation in the freezer until I use it.

I live alone which makes it easier to keep track of what I need and use.

jester77

I end up throwing out a lot of sauces. I need something for a recipe, usually only can get it in a large container and it's not something I would need for a few months again and at that stage is in gone off.

Milk gets thrown out quite a bit, make some coffee on the weekend and more often the following weekend the milk will usually be gone off

Bubbaclaus

Can't remember the last time I threw out food.

I don't buy anything that I don't have the intention of eating in the next 2/3 days anyway. I live right near the shop so I only ever do a very small shop every few days.

anothernight

We waste very little food in my house. I always have a good selection of non perishables (pasta, rice, couscous, dried or tinned beans, etc) that can be paired up with pretty much any vegetables that need to be used up. Cheese, mushrooms and some other bits we use up very quickly so they never have a chance to go off. We get smallish amounts of milk and eggs delivered twice a week, and vegetables once a week, so I always know what I'll have on hand which makes it easier to plan meals.

Vegetable peels, tops and ends go into making stock (it takes minutes in a pressure cooker). I make bread most weekends, but any sliced bread we buy goes straight into the freezer. The toaster has a defrost setting for sliced bread, but any toaster would do this well anyway. I do sometimes discard the sourdough starter when refreshing it, if I don't feel like making pancakes/crumpets/bread/etc with it, but I don't consider that a waste because it's a very small amount, and it was used by my yeasties for food anyway.

My boyfriend used to be the worst for throwing food out because it was approaching the best before date. Eventually he realised that I pretty much ignore the date and I'm still alive and healthy, so he started to follow my example.

R.D. aka MR.D

Very little nowadays due to my husband.

He has shown me just how lazy and unprepared I am.

Left to my own devices, I buy things in too big of portions and don't use them all or leave them too long. Sometimes I'll get lazy and not want to cook the thing i'd planned. Then it's just waste.

Himself on the other hand treats food shopping and cooking like a military exercise. Everything is planned out in detail and absolutely nothing goes to waste, ever. It's like magic. He has a ton of different recipes up his sleeve that use the same veg or ingredients but are totally different.

Seeing the way he operates and having benefited from it, I really do realise that waste is usually down to a lack of planning and commitment to sticking to that plan.

murpho999

Expiry and best before dates have brought about more waste in my opinion.

People are obsessed with them and misunderstand "Best Before".

I have eaten food that has been weeks/months out of date and it has been perfectly fine.

Look and smell tell you more than a computer generated date.

bnt

I cook for myself, so I make sure it all gets eaten - something my waistline can confirm. In the week I've composted some banana peels and pear cores, and thrown out some chicken bones and 1 (one) slice of bread that started going off.

I'll make a large batch of e.g. chicken & veg & parcel most of it out in to sealed containers for the fridge. Last night, for example, I cooked brown rice in the rice cooker, with some cooked chicken & veg in sauce (4 weeks in the fridge) reheating on the steam tray above it: came out perfect.

Spanish Eyes

For those of you who might be ok at baking, if your buttermilk goes out of date you can still use it to make soda bread for up to two weeks. That's what I do and I'm still here!

Buttermilk is not ok for freezing though, unlike whole milk.

I often wonder what folk did before dates were compulsory on food items. Sniff and eat, or discard if the smellers meant a real no no I suppose.

Bongalongherb

I never waste food, I always make sure that what I purchase will be used. I could never understand why anyone would waste food. Folk should just buy what they need.

Shenshen

Not a lot, really. If bread goes out of date, I leave it out o go stale, then grate it for breadcrumbs. Veg that goes a bit brown gets used for making stock, fruit gets used up in cakes and muffins (banana muffins are a current favourite of mine).

We don't eat meat, so have no waste there. We tend not to do a big weekly shop though, I find we end up wasting a lot more if we do. I usually stop by the shops on my way home every second day or so.

etoughguy

strelok wrote: »

i make soup twice a week so I'll usually end up with a parsnip or two spare, which goes in the bin

otherwise, none.

well, alright. every now and again I have to throw out 2 or 3 kiwis cos I forgot to eat them.

Ha this was almost verbatim what I was going to post!

The Randy Riverbeast

Not a lot. When I go shopping I see whats on offer and plan meals around it.

Now and again we go through the food we have and take out anything thats nearly out of date so we can focus on using that up. Bread and sometimes milk are the most common thrown out things. We just started buying less milk and a half loaf costs more than a full loaf so should probably start freezing. The milk often goes off before the best before for some reason.

Super-Rush

Anything we don't eat goes to the staff, except the caviar.

Poochie05

The Randy Riverbeast wrote: »

Not a lot. When I go shopping I see whats on offer and plan meals around it.

Now and again we go through the food we have and take out anything thats nearly out of date so we can focus on using that up. Bread and sometimes milk are the most common thrown out things. We just started buying less milk and a half loaf costs more than a full loaf so should probably start freezing. The milk often goes off before the best before for some reason.

Does it get left out on the counter much?
may be an old wives tale but an hour out of the fridge is a day off the date...

Spanish Eyes

Super-Rush wrote: »

Anything we don't eat goes to the staff, except the caviar.

Love it. LOL.

miezekatze

We used to be quite bad at that and threw out loads, but now I usually plan our meals for the week before we go shopping and throw away very little food. There's only two of us so I often end up freezing portions of bread, meat etc. The only thing I have to throw out regularly is milk, it just doesn't keep very long and we don't use very much of it.