As foodies we love everything about food, buying it, cooking and most importantly eating it! However there is one aspect of food that we will never be able to enjoy is the waste of un-eaten food. According to recent statistics* the average family with children will throw away £470 worth of food a year with over half of that still being edible.
One of the biggest problems in the fight against food waste is that many people don’t understand the difference between ‘best before’- when the manufactures think the food will start to deteriorate in quality but is still safe to eat and ‘used by’ dates- which are before the food could become harmful if eaten.
However a new trend seems to be sweeping the internet and hoping to tackle the amount of food we throw away. Websites such as approved food are taking tinned or packaged food which are close to or past their ‘best before’ date and sell them at a reduced cost, making it both frugal and good for the environment.
This isn’t the only new idea that is helping to reduce the amount of food waste us brits throw away, an industrial design student at Brunel University has begun work on a ‘bump mark’ which could revolutionaries the way we use tell if a product has gone off. The label, which can be attached to all food packaging, goes from a smooth and curved label to bumpy when the food has decayed, giving the consumer a better indication of the quality of the food a not having to rely on the often very conservative dates provided by the manufactures.
If you do end up throwing away a lot of food waste, and let’s admit it we all do it, then we should at least be trying to get rid of our waste in the best possible way, using sites like the Gloucestershire based anaerobic digestion plant, Andigestion, allows food waste to be turned into gas which is put back into the national gas grid and liquid fertiliser which is sold onto local farmers, meaning your unused food has not been a complete waste.
*Love food, hate waste- http://england.lovefoodhatewaste.com/node/2472