OT. 50% of food wasted?

[harry]

Anybody here chuck out half the food they buy? We don't throw out any of it.

[Dom Ostrowski]

Throughout the whole process. Stuff left uncropped in the field, wastage in processing, stuff rejected by supermarkets, spoilage at every stage - as well as waste in the home.

[Brian Gaff]

No, not until its gone off, and these days that is rare. Brian

[Huge]

Although WRAP reckon that 30% of the food brought into the home is wasted.

This is, of course, utter crap.

[Tim Watts]

On Saturday 12 January 2013 08:59 harry wrote in uk.d-i-y:

I ate a micromeal 2 days past its use-by date and I had no ill effects.

Generally I will add about 25% extra time to stuff, eg lives for a week, add

2 days, lives for a month, add a week.

I would have to say I have a good fridge that holds down to 4C reliably and that has made a noticebale difference over the old crap fridge I had.

I also noticed a significant jump switching to Waitrose food. It's not all perfect, but the official shelf live is longer than it was with Sainsburys online shopping (I'm sure the bastards just palmed the old stuff onto internet shoopers, whereas in the shop I would di for the new stuff).

Waitros veggies keep longer before going wilty or gooey.

One other thing I have learnt is if cooking proper meals, have some micro meals or single portion things in the freezer.

If you have leftovers, serve a portion or portions reheated the next day and give micro meals to the rest of the people. OK, someone whines about getting recycled food, but otherwise it ends up getting chucked because its not enough for everyone and the new meal is already enough for everyone (propogating the problem another day).

Works for me..

[Tim Watts]

On Saturday 12 January 2013 09:30 Dom Ostrowski wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Lack of sensible guidance is a problem too.

All anyone knows thesedays is "use by the useby date".

I was brought up drinking slightly sour milk, cutting the mould off cheese and bread (and sometimes eating it!) and trimming dodgey vegetables.

I'm pretty sure pickles and salad type jar food stayed in the larder for months.

Trouble is, even I cannot definitively say how long I would keep an open jar.

Jam - pretty much until mould appears. I *guess* scraping the mould off is OK.

Pickled in vinegar - if enough to cover the product, pretty much forever AFAIK. Olives hoever seem to go weird after a few weeks even in the fridge and covered in brine.

[polygonum]

An awful lot of micro meals are no better than reheated leftovers - that seems to be exactly what many are. But they start out not as good as decently home-prepared food so they end up worse.

[Bob Eager]

My wife has always scraped the mould off jam - as she says, it's only the bit in contact with air (or crumbs etc.) that is a problem.

And she's healthy enough, as you've seen!

[Dom Ostrowski]

It's only meat/fish/shellfish that I would discard if the slightest bit suspect.

I don't think "use by" dates are terribly reliable, even for those playing it safe.

Plenty of chilled supermarket goods are mishandled and not kept properly chilled - either by the store, or by customers picking them up, and then discarding them back into the shelves some time later.

[Nightjar]

Use by dates should only be used on food that can present a health hazard when it goes off and, because of that, they have to include a margin of safety. Even then initially only a small percentage will actually present a hazard. Other foods should have a best before date, which can safely be ignored as the food will, at worst, only be less palatable after that date.

Colin Bignell

[John Williamson]

From what I've seen of some families and what I find left behind on the school bus, that might not be too far off as an average. Children are a major source of food wastage.

[Tim Watts]

On Saturday 12 January 2013 11:03 Bob Eager wrote in uk.d-i-y:

The other thing I noticed is "proper" jam keeps well. Low sugar pseudo-jam does not keep at all well (for obvious reasons).

[Tim Watts]

On Saturday 12 January 2013 11:24 Dom Ostrowski wrote in uk.d-i-y:

^^ white meat or minced/processed products

You can get away a lot more with red meat - and game (which afterall is "hung" until it goes whiffy anyway. Mince (etc) is an exception because crap-bugs from the skin and guts get mixed into the meat so breed like buggers.

These days I check the store fridge thermometer - I've seem a few running way too warm (IMO). Also, they are prone to overloading, with products protruding from the air curtain on modern open fridges, and even if the shop does it right the customers bugger it up.

[Tim Watts]

On Saturday 12 January 2013 11:34 Nightjar wrote in uk.d-i-y:

Does vinegar ever "go off"? Seems like a stupid question, but I was looking at some 2-3 year old stuff in my kitchen and it has a visible brown sediment.

[tim.....]

They were even trying to claim that people routinely threw away stuff

*before* its sell/use buy date, including tinned food.

I can't believe that even the scattiest of shopper does that. The only reason that you throw out tined food is if you don't like it after you have bought multiple cans (or been given them by someone)

[tim.....]

and on that subject, can anyone tell me why I have to "use" up my pack of beetroot within two days of opening?

What can possibly happen to it that will harm me if I keep it open longer? I accept that it will go hard and dry and might not be as nice (FSVO nice).

tim

[tim.....]

30% (of the 100%) is that which is left in the farmer's field.

So that's 60% of the waste doesn't even reach the retail chain and they have the nerve to suggest that the problem is caused by customers buying BOGOF promotions!

Sorry the food "industry" needs to get its house in order before blaming the customers. There must be plenty of opportunity for food which doesn't reach the main supermarket's (ridiculous) size and shape stands to be used elsewhere in industry, soup manufacturers, animal feed or worse case, burnt as bio fuel.

tim

[Bob Eager]

Exactly that.

[Tim Watts]

On Saturday 12 January 2013 12:41 tim..... wrote in uk.d-i-y:

I am very surprised that wobbly spuds and willy shaped carrots cannot be diverted into the ready-meal factories. Most meals, it's all chopped up anyway.

[RJH]

Do you have any evidence of that? Things like curries certainly taste pretty good to me.

I'd have thought the supermarkets have quite a lot of control over the standards of these things. The risk of scandal makes putting 'leftovers' into the dinners makes the risk too great?

Rob