How to Reduce Food Waste

There are many ways to reduce food waste. These range from the methods used to grow food on farms and make cakes in bakeries to storing products in supermarkets and preparing meals in restaurants and at home. Different ways to reduce food waste effectively depend on where the waste is occurring.

These are some general tips to reduce food waste whether you run a business or want to cut down on your waste food at home:

• Only buy food you need – homes and businesses should avoid overbuying foods that then go off and are thrown away. Take a regular inventory and check your fridge, freezer, and store cupboard before buying more food items.
• Use ugly fruit and veg – most misshapen and slightly bruised fruits and vegetables still have the same flavours and consistency. More supermarkets and companies are selling ‘wonky’ foods, which prevents them from being wasted.
• Rotate your food stock – use the ‘first in, first out’ strategy at home or work when buying food. Move any existing items in your fridge, freezer, or storage space to the front and place new ones at the back to avoid items expiring or going off before use.
• Store food properly – ensure fridges and freezers are running at their optimum temperatures and that any cupboards don’t get too hot. Store food in the right places to prevent it from going off too quickly and regularly check them.
• Donate food – many charities, food banks, and other good causes accept food from businesses and households. Dry goods and tinned items are popular even if they’re close to their best-before date, while some may take fruit, veg, chilled, and frozen leftovers if you won’t use them.

Reducing food waste in schools is important as it can be a big source of waste food. There are more than 10 million pupils at over 32,000 schools in the UK with between 80 and 90% eating school meals. That means a lot of dishes served up every day across the country in our schools, but also plenty of waste.

Many factors lead to waste food in schools. These include unappealing meal choices, extra large portions, long queues, and poor eating environments. School food waste reduction is essential as waste food from schools is responsible for around 13% of all non-household food waste, according to WRAP. Their research found that 77% of school food waste was avoidable too.

A few ways of reducing food waste in schools include to:

• Monitor the menu – record the type and amount of food waste from the school dining hall as accurately as possible. Store data about what dishes are the most and least popular and adapt the menu based on what pupils like while ensuring you provide balanced and healthy options.
• Serve smaller portions – increase portion sizes as children get older rather than serving up the same amounts to every child. Pupils should return for an extra portion (which the school provides) rather than leaving piles of leftovers.
• Teach kids about food waste – educating children about the impact of wasting food on the environment may help with school food waste reduction. Covering the importance of nutrition might ensure pupils try more foods and find they like them, leading to lower levels of waste food.
• Streamline queuing – the longer children have to wait for their lunch, the quicker they’ll shovel it down or leave half of it so they can get back to playing during their break. Studies have shown kids need around 20 minutes to sit down to eat, so operate an efficient dining hall system that ensures this and minimises queueing.
• Reuse and donate leftovers – some waste in the school kitchen is unavoidable, like in any commercial kitchen. Have a system in place to freeze or use any leftovers in future dishes where possible or donate them to a local charity or cause.

Every household in the UK could save £700 a year by reducing its food waste, according to WRAP. In some cases, wasting food may be unavoidable. Composting it at home rather than throwing it away with your general waste is a good alternative where possible. Otherwise, the best action is to reduce and eliminate waste food at home.

Use these food waste reduction tips at home:

• Freeze leftovers – simply sticking any leftovers in the freezer (if you have space) is an easy way to avoid wasting food. Cooking and freezing food before it goes off if you don’t have time to eat it is a great way to prevent domestic food waste. Most frozen food retains its nutritious value.
• Use overripe fruit – if you’ve got fruit or vegetables that are starting to wilt they should still have plenty of flavour. Use them in a different way such as blending in a smoothie or soup. This way the texture isn’t as important, so it doesn’t matter if they’ve gone a bit soft or miscoloured.
• Get creative – there are many websites and apps offering recipes where you simply tap in the leftover foods you’ve got for some good ideas, like Epicurious and Allrecipes.
• Ignore ‘best before’ dates – ok, don’t fully ignore them but if anything says ‘best before’ use this as a guide. Give the item a smell and visual test and if it seems fine it probably is. Any items with use-by dates on should be eaten before then.
• Preserve your food – pickling, fermenting, and conserving fruits, vegetables, and meats is a great way to extend their life. This helps reduce waste food at home as you can store them and eat them over a longer period while adding a new flavour in some cases.