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The pressing problem of waste

How frozen food can help you reduce waste

There's no doubt that food waste is a hot topic in the UK at present.

At the same time, we're living through the most serious economic crisis of recent times. Both issues have an obvious link to thrifty and responsible housekeeping – and both issues can be addressed with frozen foods.We've put together some advice from a range of expert sources, on how buying frozen food can help you avoid generating waste.

Some startling facts...

We throw away 1/3 the food we produce

WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Plan) is a government agency dedicated to understanding the population's patterns for disposing of waste and evaluating the benefits of recycling. They've recently published some startling and persuasive facts:1

 

  • In the UK, we throw away around one third of the food we buy. Of that 61% or 4.1 million tonnes is avoidable.
  • The most common reason for food waste is that it's left unused - 61% of the avoidable waste or 2.5 million tonnes. We also cook and prepare too much, resulting in an additional 1.6 million tonnes of food waste a year.
  • 40% of this (almost one million tonnes) isn't touched and a tenth (340,000 tonnes) is in date. We bin 6.7 million tonnes every year - one third of the food we buy. We thrown away 1,405,000 tonnes of fruit, vegetables and salad. Most of that food (61%) could have been eaten if we had planned, stored and managed it.
  • UK households on average pay £420 for food each year that is thrown away.
  • Every tonne of food waste is responsible for 4.5 tonnes of CO2.

Some useful tips... 

How eating frozen food can make a difference

  • Keep your grocery shop regular (eg. once a fortnight) and buy in bulk
    Frozen food can help here. Buy perishables daily but only to supplement the core meals that come from frozen. Cook two or three extra portions of any one recipe at the beginning of the period and then immediately freeze the extras.2
  • Plan your meals in advance
    Sticking to a plan stops you coming home from the supermarket with a load of food, but no real idea of what you are going to cook. Planning won't just cut back on waste - it will save you a lot of time and money as well!
  • Plan your shopping list
    Having planned your meals, this is the next logical step. Make a list and stick to it! The facts above are telling in this respect - 340,000 tonnes of food every year that is completely edible, yet never makes its final destination.3
    By planning in advance what you're going to eat, you can buy frozen food and know what it is that you're going to cook three or four days away. Contrary to popular belief, there's a huge range of frozen foods that cover nearly every food range. The chances of getting bored with the same thing are pretty low!
  • Use and understand your freezer
    You really can buy almost anything in frozen form - from herbs through to meat, bread through to cakes or fish. With correct care and maintenance (see the Freezer page on this website) your freezer will become your most useful tool in the fight against waste.
  • Make sure you get your portion control correct
    By only cooking what you need straight from the freezer, you will get your portion control more accurate. Also, remember that world food prices are going up. The more we waste, the faster they will rise. So work out what you eat in terms of weight, and make a note for future reference. Eventually it will become second nature!4
  • Use your leftovers - don't throw them away
    The freezer and Tupperware are the two best things that ever happened to waste management. Make the most of both of them, and you'll always have a freezer full of frozen uncooked food and frozen leftovers ready for reheating!5
  • Don't shop hungry
    Feeling hungry will tempt you into buying a whole load of stuff you don't really need or want! By shopping soon after you've eaten, you will become a lot more discerning with your grocery shop.
  • Think of ways to cut down on packaging
    It's not just food that we waste... the packaging it comes in is now also proving to be a massive burden. Major supermarkets have recently been told by the government that they must look at ways to reduce packaging.6 By thinking green and considering the frozen alternatives, you will naturally reduce the amount of packaging waste that you generate.

Frozen food makes it easy

In most cases, cutting back on waste isn't much more than common sense!

It certainly needn't take up too much time or effort. Just apply some of the basic rules above, and make sure that you plan ahead when you're shopping for food. You'll make a difference in the long run and you'll start saving yourself money straightaway!

 

Frozen food will help you here. Not only can its quality and convenience make shopping, and cooking, a whole lot easier, it will also help you cut down on a lot of the unnecessary wastage that our modern lives generate. Find out more about the top environmental aspects of frozen food.

 

 

1 The food we waste, A study of the amount, types and nature of the food we throw away in UK households, Waste Resources and Action Programme (WRAP), 8 May 2008.
2 www.thedailygreen.com
3, 4, 5  "Waste not..." Laura Barton and Jon Henley, The Guardian 08.07.08
7 www.usnews.com

Page last updated at 20:04 Europe/London, Tuesday, 12 April 2011