Waste not want not! Top tips on how to use your leftovers

Waste not want not! Top tips on how to use your leftovers
Tip

Are you looking to reduce your food waste? If you commit to cutting back on leftovers, it can have huge benefits – for both the environment and your wallet!

The average UK household wastes around £470 worth of food each year. In addition to this, through careful meal planning and reducing leftovers, you could save the equivalent carbon dioxide of taking one in every five cars off the road!

Here are some top tips for reducing food waste:

Buy with care

1. Shop wisely by using shopping lists and by taking note of what’s already in your kitchen before leaving the house. Don’t buy on impulse!
2. Buy exactly what you need and no more. Get loose produce when you can, and this will also help to cut down on excess packaging.
3. Check the use-by-dates of fresh food and only buy what you can use in the available time.
4. See what ingredients are available in community fridges, which take the surplus food from supermarkets to redistribute them to the local community. See www.hubbub.org.uk/the-community-fridge for your nearest location.

Plan ahead

5. Plan your weekly meals and use leftovers for lunches the next day. Recipes can use surplus ingredients from the previous meal too.
6. Preparing meals from scratch means you can use every piece of the food you’re cooking with wherever possible.
7. Monitor what you throw away regularly to work out what you need to be more careful with when buying next time.
8. Measure your portions and cook only the amount you need.

Store leftovers

9. Preserve your leftovers and use weekends to batch-cook and freeze.
10. When unpacking your shopping, move older food to the front of the fridge or freezer and put new products in the back, so that you’re more likely to use up the older items first.
11. Keep a freezer list detailing when each item was frozen. This can be used for easy reference when deciding what needs using up first.
12. Check the fridge and make sure it’s at a low enough temperature to keep food fresh for as long as possible.
13. Compost! Food scraps can be rotted down and turned into garden nutrients.

While you’re at it, remember to look at reducing the packaging waste associated with your food purchases too. On 18th March Global Recycling Day helps to raise awareness and celebrate the importance recycling plays in securing the future of our planet.

Got some extra top tips on reducing food waste? Share them with us on contact@coolfood.net

PECT
Publication date:  25 March 2019
This tip is proposed for the commitment(s):
  • Reduce your food waste
  • Make your own meals
COOL FOOD is a Franco-British project created under the INTERREG FRANCE (CHANNEL) ENGLAND Programme.
It supports the transition to a low-carbon economy in the food sector.
Interreg