War on UK's food waste

I suppose that many of us will have one or more issues that we feel really passionate about. One such for me is the incredible amount of perfectly edible food that goes to waste in this country. I've been reading a few of the comments today on the BBC news website which have come in as a result of Gordon Brown's suggestion that we could all do more to cut down on what is actually an unbelievable amount of food that is wasted. Rather unfairly I think Brown is getting castigated in the majority of these remarks; because he is unpopular (understandably) with a large part of the populace shouldn't mean that he is berated regardless of what he says.

In my particular case living alone enables me to have virtually zero food waste. Yes OK if I was to have a lamb chop the bone would go in the bin, if I had smoked mackerel with my salad I would carefully remove the skin and put it an old bread wrapper say and then put out with the other small amount of domestic waste for the bin men. Vegetable peelings and the like go on to the compost heap. I'm lucky in as much as I enjoy eating almost anything although obviously I have my favourites (bring on the carrot cake!) and am not scared if something was to go just beyond a 'best before date' before I ate it. And not being rich I don't see a lot of point in purchasing food if it is likely to be binned.

What is confusing to a simple soul like me is how the figure of just over £400 per household per year in food wastage has been arrived at. And it was a month or three ago that we were told by somebody that a third of food in this country is never eaten. We just meekly accept these things without any explanation whatsoever and for someone such as myself with an analytical mind this is very frustrating. So apart from private households let's think about a few other places where perfect food is just not eaten. 'Out of date' products in supermarkets, leftovers in restaurants, staff canteens and the hospitality industry, perfectly edible fruit and veg from farmers that doesn't quite fit the criteria set down by the retailers are examples. Now inevitably but sadly some of this will go to waste, more so now after the government panicked following the 2001 foot and mouth crisis which led to the abolition of pig swill.

Much is being made of the 'buy one get one free' temptation (or BOGOF as it's known) that the supermarkets use. But not all of this is for short shelf life items such as that extra tub of coleslaw you might not get through. Clearly a sense of discipline, an awareness of dates and a picture of what you are likely to eat in the next few days is called for. Not always easy I know particularly if two partners are working full time and the kids are fussy about what they eat.

Going back to where I started this piece at least Gordon Brown has got the country talking about this and not before time I say. I would like to see more emphasis on teaching young people how to use cheap cuts of meat, how to make use of leftovers (I love Bubble 'n Squeak) and so forth. In a generation we seem to have lost the skills of parents and grandparents in making a little food go a long way, an art we need to bring back.

Report suggests third of food wasted

It has recently been suggested that this country wastes a third of its food. Now these bald statements in the media seem designed to make me angry. Maybe some of the heavyweight papers go into some background detail on this but typically the media come out with these stories with little or no indication as to how they were arrived at.

Let me as a blogger pose some questions then. When looking at food waste are we just considering what is thrown out by householders? Did they include the stuff in food shops discarded because it's over the 'best before date'? And what about the food left over in restaurants? It's difficult for outside caterers too to get the quantities right. And with swill not going to feed pigs these days that's another reason for food going to landfill. It all adds up.

Putting aside these things for a minute there is no doubt that the British are wasteful with regard to food and that is something that shames us. I absolutely hate to see good food thrown away. It's true that I'm cooking just for myself as a rule and am not having to cope with changing fads of young children for instance. But I'd like to see more parents getting their offspring eating sensible food from a very early age and not always going for the easy option. Another thing that irks me is to see eateries dishing out excessively large helpings; I recall an example of this in Plymouth. Some years ago when I worked in an office in that city a group of us went out for a Christmas lunch. I had garlic mushrooms as a starter (I love these). What I was served was sufficient for a main course and I remember that I could barely get through the next course. I shouldn't be at all surprised if a third of the food was wasted that day.

It amazes me that with all the cookery programmes on TV these days together with a plethora of books on the subject there seems to be so little attention given over to recipes using left overs. Not just 'bubble and squeak' which is delicious in my opinion. I can give an example of economical use of food - in the summer I eat a lot of salads and as such I steam enough potatoes for a couple of days say. Then for the next day it only takes a minute to slice and fry the ones I've not used. I get the sense that many people discard anything not eaten on the day and that's absolutely crazy!

Going back to the original headline about a third of food being wasted, well that might not be completely accurate when applied just to folk eating in the home. But even if it was 20% I would consider that unacceptable. Truly Britain has become a throwaway society.