7 Oct 2019
Tips to avoid food waste
As part of Love Food Hate Waste’s latest campaign, Spoiled Rotten, the University is encouraging staff and students to consider the impact food waste can have on the environment.
For example, did you know the average person in the UK throws away the equivalent of one in every five bags of food shopping? And that approximately 860,000 apples are chucked in the bin every single day?
Below are some simple tips to follow to reduce the likelihood of wasting food:
- Only buy what you need – overbuying can often lead to waste and cause you to be more out of pocket, despite how tempting the multi-buy offers may seem.
- Make your freezer your friend – did you know you can freeze products such as cheese, milk and chillies? Slices of bread can be toasted straight from the freezer, and it’s also cheaper to use frozen fruit for your smoothies.
- Use all the parts of a fruit or vegetable – leave on your potato skins and don’t forget carrot leaves and spring onion greens are not only edible, but also tasty and very nutritious.
- Understand your portions – sometimes we can miscalculate how much food to make for a meal, which can result in leftovers that are thrown away. Using gadgets such as Love Food hate Waste’s portion calculator can help you learn what the right amount is.
- Check your fridge – make sure your refrigerator is set to five degrees or lower to make the most out of your fresh food.
Planning your meals ahead of time can also make you a much savvier supermarket shopper. Earlier this year, academics and the University’s Sustainability team worked together to create a food planner to help people think more carefully about their meals in a bid to tackle food waste.
To download the planner and find out more, click here.
For more information on how to live a greener lifestyle, check out our existing articles with contributions from Loughborough academics and the Sustainability team below: