We have all heard a lot about how food and diets impact our planet. One of the things that used to be a topic of discussion but slowly has faded into a background has been the topic of food waste. Up to 4.5m tonnes of food are wasted in British households a year[1]. While the food waste has been declining in the last few years, there is still a lot of improvement to be done.
This is not to say that learning about seasonal cooking and the impact of plant based or vegetarian diet is not important. But in today’s world of easy access to relatively cheap food, you might not think twice about throwing away a slightly wrinkled pepper or a carrot that has gone a bit mushy. Whilst you should make sure that what you eat is always safe, there are ways you can incorporate food that might be less appealing into your cooking, so it avoids the food bin.
Avoiding food waste is important for another reason: it decreases CO2 emissions. According to Hannah Ritchie, food production is responsible for one quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions[2], and food waste makes 6% of all the world’s greenhouse gas emissions[3]. By wasting food, we are also wasting the energy investment.
Last year I had course on sustainability that has challenged us to change one thing about our behaviour. I have focused on making our flat more sustainable. One thing I have tried and learned quite a lot from, was trying to be more conscious about how I cook to avoid unnecessary food waste. Here are some tips I have taken away from this challenge that I would like to share with you:
1. Plan your meals
Even though this seems trivial, it can make a lot of difference. Before you go shopping it is
very helpful to figure out what it is that you want to eat in the next few days, and shop for that. This doesn’t necessarily have to be set in stone (it is quite nice to leave yourself some
wiggle room in case you change your mind on what you want to eat). This will also help with the mindless buying of whatever you fancy that evening, while the food you have at home is withering away in the back of the fridge.
2. Go through your pantry before you go shopping Before you go to buy new things, go through your pantry and fridge, and see what you already have. See what there is that you do not need to buy again, or what will fit the recipe you have in mind. Knowing what you want and what you have is the first step to not buying more than you need and throwing the rest away.
3. Using up what you have
Before going shopping, try to use up as much of what you have as possible. I would always
take what I have in the fridge out, put it on the counter and see what I can make off it. Often, I would be surprised of how many tasty meals would be hiding in my presumably empty fridge and pantry. With a little bit of creativity, you can make a meal out of the leftovers and postpone the shopping trip by one more day.
4. Label food in freezer and fridge
This might seem like a small difference but if you have a Tupperware with unidentifiable contents in the freezer, you will probably rather reach for the thing that you know for sure what it is. If you are like me and you keep food and condiments in random jars, they can all blend together. Labelling my leftovers with a painter’s tape and a sharpie has helped me a lot with knowing what is in my fridge and using it more cleverly.
5. Having pantry staples that you like
Keep some staple ingredients in your pantry at all times to make using up what you already have easier. Think rice, canned chickpeas, canned tomatoes, frozen veggies, nice olive oil – that kind of a thing. And when you have fresh vegetables that are about to go off, it will be easier to fashion a curry or a stew of some sorts.
6. Ingredient overlap
One thing I have learned that helps me throw away less food is not shopping according to
recipes, but according to ingredients. I have started shopping for ingredients that are very universal and can be used in many recipes. Of course, sometimes you need to buy specific things for certain recipes. In that case I would recommend making sure you can use up all of them for one recipe. And if not, plan another recipe that will use up the rest. So for example, if you are buying a big bunch of coriander for a curry and you will not use up all of it, plan a
meal in the next couple of days that will be tasty if you throw the rest of the herb in.
7. Take recipes as an inspiration, rather than a rule set in stone.
Look at the taste profiles and methods recipes use and learn to apply them to the ingredients you have at home. Learning how to combine flavours on your own will give you freedom from recipes and will allow you to use the food you have at home with more liberty.
In conclusion.. While a lot of these tips might sound trivial and obvious, it might be quite hard internalizing them and changing your habits around them. One great motivator that helped me truly adopt these changes was the difference in spending I noticed once I started. Buying only what you will consume can save you a lot of money, especially if you tend to forget about things in the back of the fridge, and then, a couple of days or weeks later, you have to reluctantly throw them out, even though you spent a couple of pounds on them. Some statistics claim to save up families up to £858[4] a year by reducing food waste. This is money you could be setting aside and saving by just being a bit more careful with your planning. Another effect this kind of cooking has had on me is that I became much more creative in the kitchen. In times of lockdown, we all have a bit more free time and are looking to invest our energy into something else than watching Netflix. In these times it feels like we are all a bit short for money and things to do, so these ways of reducing waste might be helpful both for you, your wallet and the planet.
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