Banana Bread & Other Ways to Prevent Food Waste

Thinking ahead about what you want to cook each week is one of the easiest things you can do to take the hassle out of cooking and shopping.

Taking just 10 minutes to write a short plan could save you several trips to the supermarket, last-minute dashes to the convenience store for missing ingredients and will also help you feel on top of things.

Storing foods correctly can extend their lifespan dramatically. Some foods don’t get on very well with other foods.

For example, pineapples don’t like the fridge and apples are great companions with potatoes to stop them from sprouting.

Keeping food in the right company, in the right place and in the right conditions can really help keep them fresher and crisper for longer.

One of the greatest contributors to the UK’s food waste problem is the perishables that need to be kept in the fridge.

Sadly, many fresh foods are not chilled correctly or aren’t chilled at all, so they don’t last as long as they should. If they don’t last long, you have less time to eat them and then they get binned.

Saying that, be mindful not to overuse your fridge either. Some foods won’t flourish or ripen in the fridge, like tomatoes and avocados – these need to be stored at room temperature. Pineapples, potatoes and citrus fruit also prefer to be kept out of the fridge.

Bigger is not always better. In fact, it’s very much the opposite when it comes to food.

Food waste is heavily impacted by the lure of ‘bigger’. It starts with overbuying as we fall for the endless, seemingly good value supermarket deals; continues in the kitchen with portioning errors during cooking; and ends with oversized meals that we just can’t finish. 

Food labelling should and can be simple but is often made to be quite confusing.

Across the wide range of food products available there are so many different codes, labels and standards that it can be difficult to know what we’re looking for and what it all means for us at home.

Getting to grips with three key date labels is very important and can significantly help reduce food waste in the home.

Many people throw food out based on how it looks but unless it’s mouldy or smells bad, it is often perfectly usable.

Wilting herbs can be used up or frozen for later, soft vegetables are great for cooking and yesterday’s meal can either be eaten again or reconstructed to take on a second life.

Let your creativity run wild or simply look up recipe ideas online. Cooking this way saves time and money, and helps reduce food waste too!