Stop Food Waste

Food waste is a global issue which has significant environmental, social and economic consequences. Roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year "” approximately 1.3 billion tonnes "” gets lost or wasted. Fruits and vegetables, plus roots and tubers have the highest wastage rates of any food. However there are plenty of things you can do to reduce your food waste from utilising the freezer to purchasing wonky veg! Read on to find out some simple steps you could take to reducing your food waste in your daily life.

Top tips to reduce your food waste

Plan effectively with a shopping list

Before setting out to do your shopping, make a list of exactly what you will need this is easier to do if you try to plan your meals for the week this can limit food waste as well as save you some money

Wonky veg 

You may have seen that many supermarkets have started to sell wonky veg- essentially vegetables that don`t look very attractive but are just as nutritious and tend to be cheaper so make use of such offers when shopping

Canned/Tinned fruit & veg 

It doesn`t have to be fresh! Go for tinned/canned options of fruit and veg that have a longer shelf-life and are just as nutritious and help reduce your food waste.

Frozen food
Start freezing leftovers, bread, meat, fish etc and use for another meal at a later day or just start buying frozen so you use only what you need and can pop the rest in the freezer.

Best before and Use by dates
There is often a lot of confusion between the two and what they mean, which can result in a large amount of food waste due. A use-by date on food is about safety, foods can be eaten until the use-by date but not after. You will see use-by dates on food that goes off quickly, such as meat products or ready-to-eat salads. The best before date is about quality and not safety. The food will be safe to eat after this date but may not be at its best.

Use up store cupboard leftovers
Cook dishes to use up any leftover ingredients; for example some leftover chicken from a Sunday roast and some poor looking veg could quite quickly be whizzed up into a soup!

 

Overripe Bananas

Do you find your bananas start going black in your fruit bowl before you even get round to eating them? Although they don`t look particularly appetising you can still eat them so don`t throw them away! Our Registered Nutritionist, Lisa Huggins has some ideas of how you can avoid binning them!

With a young family, we get through a lot of bananas! They provide a really easy and convenient snack and are great for topping on our breakfasts in the morning but they do over ripen quickly- particularly in warmer weather. Brown bananas can help reduce the fat and sugar content of recipes as they are very sweet and add moisture so I use them to create some healthier recipes with my children! Here are some of our favourite recipes to make together:

Banana "˜Ice cream`

  1. Slice up your over ripe bananas
  2. Put in an empty ice cream container and pop in the freezer until frozen
  3. Using a food processor, whizz them up until they are smooth and resembles soft scoop ice cream
  4. Serve in a cone or in a bowl with fruit or sprinkled with chopped nuts and seeds or your favourite topping!

Banana and Date Flap Jacks
Ingredients:

  • 80g dates, sultanas or dried apricots, chopped
  • 2 large ripe banana, mashed
  • 1tsp vanilla extract
  • 80g vegetable spread
  • 50g desiccated coconut (unsweetened)
  • 200g oats

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 180°C (160°C fan).
  2. Melt the vegetable spread carefully in a microwave or in a saucepan
  3. Combine melted vegetable spread, chopped dried fruit, mashed bananas, vanilla, oats and coconut.
  4. Place mixture into oven proof dish (20x15cm).
  5. Bake for about 25 minutes until golden and
  6. While hot cut into squares
  7. Once cooled a bit, transfer carefully to a cooling rack
  8. Enjoy once cool enough to eat!

Banana, Date and Walnut Bread
Ingredients:

  • 3 large ripe banana, mashed
  • 75g vegetable oil
  • 230g self-raising flour
  • 2tsp baking powder
  • 3tsp cinnamon
  • 80g of chopped
  • 50g of chopped walnuts (optional)

Method:

  1. Preheat oven to 200°C (160°C fan).
  2. Mash bananas in a large bowl
  3. Add the oil and
  4. Mix in the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, date sand
  5. Pour mixture into a greased and lined loaf tin
  6. Cover the tin with foil
  7. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes
  8. Cover with foil and bake for another 20 minutes
  9. Allow to cool, slice and enjoy!

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