I am SHOCKED!
I recently heard that A THIRD of all food grown in, and imported into, the UK ends up in landfill. This is an absolute scandal.
What I cannot understand is what people are doing with their food! I do remember being totally shocked, a few years ago, hearing that people threw away the remains of the Christmas Day Turkey. Are people totally bonkers?
I would be surprised if even ½% of my fruit, vegs, and meat, is thrown away. I try to use everything. These days I even use the outer leaves of a Cauliflower; sliced very finely they make a very good addition to a potage.
This frightening revelation about wastage is the perfect reason to re-introduce pukka 'Domestic Science' in our schools. As far as I'm concerned it is far more useful to know how to make a good nourishing and tasty soup, than it is to know what an Oxbow Lake is.
I don't really know what school children do all day on their phones (other than looking at rude photos of Sally Cartwright of the Lower IVth), but whatever they do, it cannot be more important than learning about food, and how NOT to waste it.
Bring back Jamie Oliver!
I hate food waste. Very little here goes to the worm farm.
ReplyDeleteNor here, we were brought up properly!
DeleteWith domestic freezers being readily available there really is no excuse for food waste. If you can't use it, freeze it!
ReplyDeleteI have been hungry as a child. I waste nothing.
Quite right, there really is no excuse. Fridges and freezers these days are used as storage for take-away pizzas (which often get thrown away).
DeleteA lot of people don't even seem to know how to cook. They certainly aren't going to reuse or freeze any leftovers. It needs an army of Jamie Olivers to teach the basics.
ReplyDeleteI find it all very sad. Eating and drinking with friends should be one of the great pleasures in life; it always has been in mine.
DeleteNow there's just the 2 of us at home we create very little food waste - however we also have a young black lab! Say no more 😉
ReplyDeleteI had a yellow Lab', so I know what you mean.
DeleteOne of my employers, and a good cook....
ReplyDeletewas, I discovered, a food snob.
He once gave me an almost complete, beautifully cooked, small turkey.... it was missing most of the meat on one leg and some breast meat... plus a bit of stuffing!!
I accepted gratefully but expressed surprise and he told me he always ate fresh food and normally threw away all leftovers.
I discovered that he's come from "an estate" and made good.... but it was only after asking a friend who was a psycologist that I discovered that it was a THING to throw away leftovers "because it showed you could afford to!" And it was done normally, at the outside bin where people could, obviosly, have a good gander as you did it... but he felt the amount on the turkey was too much to sling and knew I was living "on me tod".... it lasted a whole week for two of us [I'd actually just met my nowwife] and the only things slung were the bones!!
But I learnt my cooking at my Gran's side and she was a divorcee pre-war bringing up three kids.... nothing was left, even the smell... she always wafted that towards me!!
And, because of my Dad's job and the need to entertain visitors.... I learnt the art of party food from my Mother... but, even there, leftover pasta salad was mixed with a tin of tuna and topped with cheese for a tuna bake.
Leftover veg strips for dipping were left on the side in the kitchen under a cover and we dipped'an'nibbled freely over the next day or two... and any stuffed dates or celery "boats" vanished the following day... we went to bed hoping there would be some left as we drifted off to sleep, listening to the chatter and laughter from below.
'Scuse the unintended blog-within-blog post!
DeleteI'm sure you're right about the Food Snobbishness. You've really made it, if you can throw away half a roasted Turkey (and probably boast about it). I was brought up to be reasonably frugal, albeit in a 'comfortable' family. I have also taught my three children to do the same.
DeleteAs Linda (local alien) said, it seems that many younger people just can't - or won't - cook. I am appalled at the piles of over processed fast food filling supermarket trollies at the checkout. This muck goes to feed young children.
ReplyDeleteIn France I see young women all the time with their trollies piled high with ready made pizzas. I just don't understand it.
DeleteI think that the obsession with "sell by" and "use by" dates don't help, people are far too ready to throw away food as it reaches these dates rather than taking the trouble to check whether it really is going "off".
ReplyDeleteI tend to ignore them, and use the visual method; if it looks off, don't eat it. However, I should add that nothing ever gets to that state here, I've even recently eaten a tin of Paté that was three years out of date. It was delicious.
DeleteNormally speaking the smell method is more reliable than the visual and the method most engaged to identify whether food is off or not.
DeleteI think 'common sense' is the best rule!
DeleteI decide what meals I am going to cook and do the food shopping accordingly, so we don't throw much away. The " food caddy" that goes out for collection once a week is mainly used tea bags! Is there a use for those? (10 tea bags a day between us !)
ReplyDeleteI believe people put them on the garden, I'm not sure what for though.
DeleteSome teabags are compostable - for example both Tesco and Sainsbury home brand in red boxes. Many other brands of tea bags come in plastic mesh bags which should not be put in the compost. On their own the compostable teabags would not nourish the soil but with vegetable waste etc. they add a little goodness to the mixture.
DeleteI'm always astounded at the wasteage these days, not only of food but everything else as well. We have zero food waste here, everything gets used, even apple peelings and cores go into making apple cider vinegar. Our council was talking about introducing food waste bins...WHY? Who the heck wastes food these days?!! We're supposed to be in a financial crisis but I think not....
ReplyDeleteTo hear that a third of all food goes to waste is shocking. I can guarantee it's being wasted by those who can least afford it too.
DeleteI have to admit that every couple of weeks I crumble up a few slices of stale bread, douse it with water and then throw it out for the garden birds. Please forgive me.
ReplyDeleteI'm afraid that our birds here don't even have that luxury; certainly not the Seagulls. They'd be queueing by the back door.
DeleteBeing on my own I find that at the supermarket most food items, such as meat or fish, are packaged for at least two people. Usually I'll buy the smallest by weight and where possible, freeze what I don't cook before it's sell-by date. I use the smell test to determine if something will last an extra day or too.Some items warn not to re-freeze, so I avoid those. Fresh veg such as broccoli tend to be large, about the size of a football, aimed at a family of four, and I do have trouble eating a whole one before it goes off, but it's one of the few things I bin.
ReplyDeleteI had cookery lessons at school and have a GCE 'O' Level in Domestic Science. No good for getting a serious job (as my father pointed out), but just added to my number of passes.
We are just two, so I buy accordingly. I do plan ahead by several days, but things can easily change. Tonight for example, I find myself with half of a large Aubergine in the fridge, so it'll be Aubergine Curry tonight.
DeleteI'm afraid that things have changed so much since we were young re food. For starters, the only ' take away ' was fish and chips and we only had that on special occasions ..... once in a blue moon. I think a lot of the younger generation use take aways a lot. I have to say, we never have take away. I did have to resort to it when our new kitchen was being done and it was stone cold when it arrived ! I thing that ' dommy subs ' { Domestic Science as we used to call it should be on the ciriculum and also how to budget your food shop. A chicken can last a whole week ending up with making soup but most don't do that anymore. Everything is about making life easy but, by the time it takes to order and deliver your take away, a million different meals could have been made. XXXX
ReplyDeleteWe had a Thai take-away last year, which wasn't too good. Everything to do with what we eat, how we eat, and where we eat, is so important in life that it really should be high-up on the school curriculum.
DeleteEvery adult should know how to do laundry, and cook for themselves. If we fail to teach these basics, we are failing as a species. World hunger is not an issue of growing enough, it is about wasting food, and not getting it to where it is needed.
ReplyDeleteIn France where I live, no-one grows anything. The land is there, the perfect weather is there, but Brussels has other ideas.
DeleteI venture to guess if you had a line of fresh vegetables out, the younger generation would not know what they were , if they did, they would have no clue as to how to prepare them.
ReplyDeleteHow to get french fries out of a potato...no way.
What would they do with an Artichoke, or an Aubergine, or even a Courgette?
DeleteLike you, I shop and prepare meals at home. Everything gets used. Last night I cooked steak tips with mushrooms, green and red peppers and onions. The quantity made enough for two dinners. There will be no waste.
ReplyDeleteThe cost of food is still high. How do people justify disposing of so much food?
I think it must be either bravado, or even snobbism. Personally I see no kudos in either; just foolishness.
DeleteWe are from a generation who cook, and reuse leftovers, here we now only cook what we need, so food waste is not an issue. Like others I am shocked to see so much process food being sold for convenience, so much goodness is removed in the processing, cooking and food management is a dying subject.
ReplyDelete