Redbridge Council serves up top tips for Food Waste Action Week challenge

Got a little too much on your plate? Lots of us do, with a large amount of the food we buy ending up in the bin. Wasting food feeds climate change. So, what can we do about it?

To raise awareness of the harmful impact of food waste Redbridge Council is throwing its support behind Food Waste Action Week taking place March 1 -7.

We’re encouraging residents to take part in a seven-day challenge to reduce the amount of food wasted from their homes to as close to zero as possible.

Everything we throw away has an impact on our environment and contributes to climate change. Because it’s not just the food we’re wasting – it’s the resources that go into producing it that get wasted too.

There’s lots of ways to cut back on food waste, and to help residents get off to a flying start for the challenge we’ve put together some top tips!

Portion planning and buying

Make a shopping list to help you stick to only buying what you need. When it comes to mealtimes, serve the right amount of food. Why not try this useful portion planner to help with serving sizes: https://lovefoodhatewaste.com/portion-planner

Fridge optimisation

Did you know that your fridge should be below 5°C? In fact, the average UK fridge temperature is set at a way too hot 7°C. This is terrible news for milk and other food items kept in the fridge, which can perish quickly when not stored at the right temperature. Find out more about fridge temperatures on: https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/article/chill-fridge-out?_ga=2.190044905.317125162.1612275985-2076548065.1588605611

Date labels

Do you know the difference between ‘Use By’, ‘Best Before’ and ‘Display Until /Sell By’ dates? Check this guide to clear up any confusion with date labels, and to make sure you’re not throwing away food unnecessarily:

https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/about-date-labels

Use it all

Did you know that you can eat broccoli stalks? And that you can leave potato skins on? Discover more food items that you can literally eat more of: https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/compleating

Using up leftovers

Why not explore lots of tasty recipes from Love Food, Hate Waste, many of which can be used from leftovers that you might already have. Save money and the planet by checking the recipes out on: https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com/recipes 

Food storage

Not sure where to store foods to make them last longer? Unsure of what you can and can’t freeze, and what the correct way of defrosting is? Find out this and much more in Love Food, Hate Waste’s A-Z of food storage: https://lovefoodhatewaste.com/article/food-storage-a-z

For more tips and advice on cutting your grocery bills and reducing food waste, why not join Redbridge Council's FREE online workshop: 'Love Food, Hate Waste' on Tuesday 18 May, 12.30pm-1pm.

It’s part of a series of new online workshops aimed at educating residents on how to reduce waste and become more eco-friendly. The sessions cover a wide range of topics from compost to community gardens, recycling and reducing food waste.

To register for the ‘Love Food, Hate Waste’ workshop, or others in the series, or for more information go to: https://www.redbridge.gov.uk/our-streets/campaigns/

Cabinet Member for Environment and Civic Pride Cllr Jo Blackman said: “Food waste is something we’ve all been guilty off, but there are some really simple steps we can all take that can help reduce food waste, have a positive impact on the environment and help cut those shopping bills. Why not start by taking part in the Food Waste Action Week challenge? It’s a fun way to get the whole family involved, and we have plenty of tips to get you started!”

By making small changes to the way we buy and use food in the borough, we can change the amount of food being wasted which will also have a big impact on the environment. Each small act can add up to make a big difference.

Don’t believe us? Check out these facts:

70% of wasted food comes from our homes - Each year, UK households throw away 4.5 million tonnes of food that could be eaten, with some of the most common products being milk, bread, potatoes, tomatoes, bananas and poultry. If every person stopped throwing away food for just one day in the UK, it’d do the same for climate change as taking 14,000 cars off the road for a whole year.

You should cry over spilt milk - We throw away the equivalent of 3.1 million glasses worth of milk a day - it can be from putting too much in our cereal or that unfinished cup of tea. It takes 358 million cubic meters of water to produce this milk, and 31,000 hectares of land used for production is also wasted. If we only bought the milk we needed, or always used every drop of the milk we bought, every year we could do the same for climate change as planting 5.9 million trees.

Ketchup on the facts about wasted tomatoes - In the UK we waste 1.2 million tomatoes a day, which generates 113,000 tonnes of CO2e through the labour that goes into the seeding, watering, the fertilisers, harvesting, and transporting of tomatoes just to get them on your plate to start with! Over a year, saving your tomatoes and the valuable resources that have gone into producing them would do the same for climate change as planting 1.8 million trees!

Food Waste Action Week is the first national event of its kind dedicated to raising awareness of food waste, and has been organised by leading sustainability charity, WRAP.