THE council’s recycling team is backing a national campaign to encourage residents to plan their festive food in advance.
During the Christmas period, catering for friends, family and unexpected guests can be difficult to plan, resulting in a lot of extra food waste and “Love Food, Hate Waste” is helping people to prepare.
The council is encouraging the idea to plan ahead and consider how much food will be needed for Christmas meals and festive parties. Residents are encouraged to use up leftover food, be aware of the use-by dates and know how to store food to make it last longer.
To help reduce food waste, a helpful Christmas Portion Calculator can be found atlovefoodhatewaste.com.
Here are some top tips from the Love Food, Hate Waste campaign:
- Plan your meals for the week, take into consideration days you may be out or cooking for more people.
- Take a shopping list with you when you go to the supermarket and only buy what you need
- Don’t give in to special offers if you know you won’t use it all
- Store a supply of long life foods in the cupboards e.g rice, pasta, flour, grains
- Keep your fruit in the fridge (except bananas and pineappes) as they will last longer
- Label food with the date you put it in the freezer so that you’ll know how long it will last when it is defrosted
Cllr David Keane, executive board member for environment and public protection, said: “When it comes to the festive period, planning meals and food shopping is crucial to helping reduce food waste and also saving money. In the UK, we throw away 7 million tonnes of food and drink every year – the majority of this could have been eaten!
“Residents can avoid wasting food by cooking new meals with leftover food and knowing how to properly store it. At a time when we all trying to save money on energy bills and rising food prices, it makes sense not to waste good food.”
For great tasting recipes and for handy tips and information, visit lovefoodhatewaste.com.
