As the number of plastic bags we use falls dramatically (down 80% since October last year), Justin Tomlinson MP is encouraging constituents to continue to cut waste by reducing the amount of food fellow local residents send to landfill.
The ‘Love Food Hate Waste’ campaign aims to give households simple tips to cut food waste and save money. UK households alone waste £12.5 billion worth of food and drink each year, costing individuals £260, the average family with children £700 a year, or around £60 a month. Most of this food and drink waste could have been avoided if we’d known how to prepare it or use it properly.
The campaign has six top tips for making the most of your food, reducing waste and saving money:
- Plan meals in advance to help to use up all your food; check cupboards before shopping
- Write a shopping list, take it with you and stick to it; only buy what you need
- The ‘Use By’ date is about food safety; ‘Best Before’ just refers to when a product is freshest
- Keep your fridge below 5 degrees as food stays fresh for longer
- You can freeze food right up to the ‘Use By’ date, ideal if your plans changes
- Keep your apples in the fridge, not in a fruit bowl, to keep them crisp for two weeks longer
Justin Tomlinson MP said: “Cutting packaging, and the number of plastic bags, is vital to protecting the environment, but so is reducing food waste. Every day, across the country, we throw tonnes of food worth millions of pounds which was perfectly good and could have been used. The Love Food Hate Waste campaign has put forward six excellent ideas which could hugely reduce waste and save local residents money.”
