I must admit, a few years ago I wasn't too concerned about food waste. So what, if I threw away some left over peas or a half used jar of pasta sauce.

Although not entirely happy with disposing half jars of good food, I was recycling the jar, thereby doing my bit for the good of the planet.

However, with the credit crunch hitting everyone hard, particularly families with children, it's time we all started examining our own food waste habits and working out how we can make improvements.



According to research published in May 2008 by the UK government-funded Waste and Resources Action Programme (Wrap), "the average household throws out one-third of all food bought." Even worse, it's not just leftovers we're discarding. Up to 60% of the food that's thrown out has never been touched. That includes food such as yogurts, ready meals, fruit and meat. Up to 17% of discarded food is made up of left-over food and vegetable peelings.

With these appalling statistics in mind, I decided to review my own household waste. There are five us, consisting of three children, my husband and me.

Being a careful shopper who rarely deviates from a shopping list, I felt sure we didn't waste too much food. So, over the course of one week I made a note of the food produce consigned to the rubbish bin. I was in for quite a shock.

Scraping the remains of uneaten children's meals accounted for about a quarter of our throwaway food. I figured there wasn't much else I could do with it aside from force feeding them.

My unused food list included a couple of yogurts past their sell by date bought on a buy 'one get one free offer', three small sprouting potatoes forgotten at the bottom of a cupboard, a quarter of a mushy cucumber, a wilted lettuce and half a tub of strawberries. The latter were purchased on a '2 for 1' offer which can be hard to resist. Strawberries have an incredibly short shelf life and unless you plan on eating the lot in a day or two, they'll just end up in the bin. (I now freeze them if I won't be using them in a day or two).

So all in all, I don't think we did too badly. However, householders can't take all the blame. The UK Government's independent watchdog for the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), reported that food retailers waste up to 1.6 million tonnes of food every year.

According to the Imperial College for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, retailers will often throw away food that's close to its sell-by date rather than sell it at a knock down cost. Retailers say it's more profitable for them to throw away stock that's unlikely to sell before it goes off due to the labour involved in cutting costs along with lost margins.

The European Union has stringent rules and guidelines pertaining to the size and shape of fruit and vegetables that can be sold to the public. We, as consumers, apparently prefer to buy perfect looking fruit. We don't want bananas and apples with bruises, skinny carrots or potatoes with bumps on them. We even want straight cucumbers!

However, it seems the tide could be turning as the European Commission recently announced it is considering relaxing its rules on non-conforming fruit and vegetables. This would allow retailers to sell flawed produce under the classification of second class. Obviously they'd be sold at a cheaper price while their unblemished counterparts would be sold as first class.

Such a ruling would have been welcomed by one disgruntled market trader in Bristol. In an example of food waste which was widely reported in the British press, Tim Down, the market trader concerned, was forbidden from selling his supply of 5,000 kiwi fruits because they were 1/25 of an inch too small in diameter.
The random spot checks were being carried out by Inspectors from the Rural Payments Agency who defended their actions, declaring that despite the fruit being perfectly fit for consumption, they did not meet the minimum standards required for EU grading.

Tim was unable to sell or even give his kiwi fruits away. If he did, he'd be liable for a fine of up to 5,000. His only option was to try returning the offending kiwi's back to his supplier.

While pondering my own situation, I was reminded of a trip to my mother-in-law's house in New Zealand a few years ago. I was fascinated by the fact that after every meal she would carefully place any remaining food from serving dishes into small tubs with everything neatly wrapped in cling film.

I'd open the fridge to see all these little pots of leftovers and wonder why on earth she did it. I really thought that was taking the whole conservation of food idea a bit too far and wondered, "who wants to eat leftovers anyway?"

Now I can see the wisdom of her ways. We've become so used to throwing out anything uneaten because food is so plentiful in the western world. I'm not quite as extreme as my mother-in-law but I do take care now not to cook too much food or I freeze anything extra.

The value of a freezer cannot be stressed enough. Freezing food in portions ensures you only need take out the amount you require at any one time. No waste at all. And even better, it will be as fresh as the day it was purchased. Additionally, frozen vegetables are likely to contain far more of their vitamins than the vegetables in your fridge.

Perhaps the credit crunch is a welcome wake up call for those of us who have become complacent over the food we toss in the bin without giving it a second thought. With careful planning of grocery shopping, making full use of the freezer and reuse of leftovers, householders can play a large part in minimising food waste. You'll likely end up with a bit of spare cash too!