Did you know that food can be clutter too? 70% of UK food waste comes from households, that’s 6.7million tonnes.* The average household spends £470 on food each year that is thrown away. These statistics are crazy!
During declutter sessions we are regularly identifying unwanted food which we are giving and throwing away. We give to foodbanks where we can, give away on Olio where we can’t, and throw when it is no longer possible to rehome it.
But could we get to a point where there is less to have to throw?
The biggest food waste we see is when people buy an ingredient for a new recipe that they only ever make once. It’s so easy to do. So if the recipe is delicious, we recommend making it again really soon, and yet again so it becomes part of your repertoire. That way, the strange-sounding spice or sauce will not be relegated to the back of your cupboard and forgotten about. Didn’t like the dish you made? Then give that item away there and then on Olio, or to a friend who cooks a lot, then it won’t be wasted.
If you’re like me you also probably have ingredients you bought for a recipe you saw, liked the look of, and then couldn’t find again. In this case, google for recipes and just start to use it in something! It will be worth doing that!
Spices in general are a problem as often they’re only used for one thing or they are hard to see in your cupboard and get forgotten about. We regularly see multiples of the same herb or spice because people didn’t know they had it already. If this is the case, you need to think about making your spice storage more accessible! We can help here!
The most common food waste is fresh food. We are going to cover this in next week’s blog, so do come back and have a read then!
*https://www.wastemanaged.co.uk/our-news/food-waste/food-waste-facts-statistics/