10 simple ways to reduce food waste

To celebrate Food Waste Action Week, we’ve come up with 10 top tips to help you reduce food waste at home.

Last week, students from Westminster Kingsway College’s (WestKing) School of Culinary Arts took part in events to celebrate Food Waste Action Week, which ran from 18 to 24 March.

Each year, UK households throw away 4.7 million tonnes of edible food. A quarter of this is down to people cooking, preparing or serving up too much food. This inefficiency is not only costly to the planet, but it also costs UK households £4.9 billion each year.

With 60% of food waste coming from UK homes, it’s more important than ever to try to minimise what gets thrown away and improve on our ability to save edible food! There are a range of approaches you can take – here are our top 10 ideas!

1. Make a list and plan ahead

Planning your meals ahead can help you budget and make sure you’re only buying what you need. Before shopping, check your fridge, freezer and cupboards so you don’t end up buying duplicates, then make your list. Writing a list helps you stick to the things you need and reduces the temptation to impulse-buy as you go round the supermarket.

2. Check your fridge

Your fridge should be set to between 0-5C – any warmer than this and some perishable items, such as milk, can spoil more quickly than they should. It’s also good to remember that some items are better stored outside the fridge. Bread keeps better in a bread bin or cupboard, and bananas, pineapples, onions and potatoes don’t need to be refrigerated.

3. Store things sensibly

Following on from our last tip, did you know that potatoes and onions shouldn’t be stored together? They both need to be stored somewhere cool and dark and so they often end up on the same shelf, when in fact they should be stored separately as they cause each other to sprout faster. 

Also, you can keep vegetables such as broccoli, celery and asparagus as well as herbs fresher for longer by storing them with their stems in water. Leftover herbs can be chopped and stored in an ice cube tray, ready for when you need them!

4. Stop peeling (or at least save them)

It’s not necessary to peel most fruits and vegetables, and by peeling them you’ll miss out on fibre and nutrients. Save time and energy by simply washing them well before cooking or eating. If you do opt to peel veggies, there are still lots of waste-reducing options – you can use peelings to make a range of recipes or as the basis for a tasty stock.

5. Revamp your leftovers

Some leftovers can fill you with joy while others may leave you reaching for the take-away menu.

There are lots of simple solutions and ideas for using up leftover food, from lunchbox creations to baked goods. Reshaping a previous meal can make it more appealing, whether it’s by reinvigorating yesterday’s chilli in a burrito or sprinkling leftover chopped veg or meat onto a pizza.

It’s not just meals that have leftover appeal. Cooked pasta sauces can be transformed into dips, soup or casseroles, and leftover dips like tzatziki or houmous work well as salad dressings. 

However, if you don’t have the mental or physical energy to revamp your leftovers right away, simply pop them in the freezer until a later date.

6. Get label-savvy

It’s important to understand the difference between best-before dates and use-by dates to avoid wasting edible food. 

Use-by dates relate to food safety and you’ll usually see them on the packaging of meat, fish and ready-to-eat salads. Eating food after midnight on this date has the potential to make you ill. However, some foods can be cooked, cooled and refrigerated on the use-by-date, giving you a little more time to use it up. Once cooked, you should eat the food within 48 hours or freeze it.

Best before dates, also known as BBE (best before end) dates, relate to the quality of the food rather than safety. You’ll often see best before dates on frozen food, tinned goods, dried food and cheese. After this date, food is still safe to eat if it’s been stored correctly, but it might not be of the same quality.

7. Make friends with your freezer

You might be surprised by the things you can freeze! You can freeze dairy products like milk, hard cheeses (be sure to cube or grate if first) and eggs (separated). Bread is one of the most wasted foods in the UK, but it can easily be frozen as it is, cubed for crunchy croutons or blitzed into breadcrumbs.

If you’ve got an excess of fresh fruit and vegetables, then why not pop them in the freezer too? Some fruit and veg such as apples, strawberries and tomatoes will lose texture once frozen, but if you stew or puree them first they can easily be used for sauces, pies, or smoothies.

Batch cooking and storing food in your freezer is a great way to reduce food waste. Leftovers make a great ready-meal for a busy day, and you can freeze cooked pasta or rice, just store them separately from any sauces.

8. Portion with pride

While it’s sometimes fun to guess quantities, it can lead to an excess of cooked food. Take the guesswork out of cooking by calculating and measuring portions, especially when cooking things like rice or pasta.

9. Buy wonky fruit and veg

Funny-shaped apples or wonky cucumbers have just as much goodness as their symmetrical counterparts. Look for ‘wonky’ fruit and vegetables in your local supermarket and embrace their individuality while helping reduce food waste.

10. Pass it on

This one’s simple. If you’ve got too much of something, share it with a friend, neighbour or your colleagues. If you still have too much on your plate, apps like Olio give you the opportunity to help reduce waste while providing other people with something they may want or need.

As we celebrate Food Waste Action Week, we hope you’ll embrace these ideas and help turn food waste into food wins! 

Our Hospitality Hub is one of the Mayor of London’s Skills Academies, providing free training and support packages to help learners find a job within the hospitality sector. We also offer an impressive range of Hospitality and Culinary Arts Courses for learners of all levels.

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