The festive season is just around the corner and for the next few weeks many of us will be planning a gathering or two. There are Christmas dinners, summer barbeques and New Years parties and with that – plenty of food. Last year Steplight addressed the issue of e-waste, this year we’re focusing on wasted food.
Food waste is a major issue in Australia and around the world and during the festive season this waste increases. A national poll commissioned by ‘Do something’ found that 59% of Australians admitted to wasting more food than usual over Christmas. This is a lot of waste, especially when you consider that at any other time of the year we discard up to one in every 5 shopping bags of food.
In fact about 3 million tonnes of food is driven to landfill in Australia each year. This not only wastes our money (about $616 per household per year), it also wastes resources and generates methane (a greenhouse gas more potent than CO2) as it rots away in landfill.
Perhaps the biggest waste of all is that good food is being thrown away while others in our community will not have enough food to share with their families and friends. The good news is, if we all minimise our food waste it can add up to make a big difference and this festive season is a great time to start.
The Worldwatch Institute (USA) recently published an article addressing food waste and foodwise.com.au is a great resource for tips on how to reduce your impact. Below is a summary of some useful tips.
Shop smart
- Plan out a menu and try to get an idea of how many guests to expect so that you can prepare the correct amount of food. There are a few online portion calculators such as ‘Perfect Portions’ that can help you with this.
- Write out a shopping list and make sure you check for ingredients in your kitchen before you head to the shops to avoid doubling up. Make sure you stick to your list. Making a shopping list that corresponds to your menu also means you less likely to miss something which saves you from making several trips to the shops.
- There are plenty of ‘2 for 1’ deals and offers at Christmas time that could lead to purchasing more than what you need. Only buy the quantity you need.
- Never shop while hungry as you are more likely to make impulse buys.
Serve smaller
- The look of all your delicious food presented on the dinner table can lead your guests to feast with their eyes and pile loads of food (unlikely to be finished) onto their plates. The simple solution is to use smaller plates and utensils. Guests are welcome to seconds and leftovers remain in the serving plates and are more likely to be reused.
- Encourage guests to serve themselves. This reduces the amount of unwanted food on their plates.
Save leftovers
- Store leftovers safely so that they can be preserved for future meals. Leftovers are also more likely to be eaten if stored in several small containers that are convenient for quick meals on the go.
- Leftover meals and ingredients can also be used to make new meals. For example, Christmas eve ham and roasted vegetable leftovers can be turned into a delicious Christmas day cheesy bake.
- Compost your food scraps. This will stop your food from filling landfill and will instead fill you gardens with nutrients and fertilisers – read our composting blogs for more information.
- If your party is catered, donate leftovers to a food recovery program. There are several programs running throughout Australia such as ‘Oz Harvest’ that collect leftovers from catered events, restaurants and cafe’s and distribute it to those in the community that need it most. This service is usually free for the donor.
- While raiding your kitchen for ingredients for your party, take note of any non-perishables that you won’t need or use and donate them to your local charity. Those few forgotten cans of food can be donated to a charity that makes up Christmas hampers for the disadvantaged during Christmas. Contact your local charity for more information.
Many options now exist to reduce food waste at a commercial level (such as OzHarvest 'food rescue')
- Alegria Alano
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