If you’ve read our blog on the problem with food waste, you’ll know how much of an issue food waste is for climate change. Over seventy percent of food waste comes from people’s homes according to the eco experts. At The Pantri, we’re on a mission to lower this. At The Pantri, we encourage you to shop little and often. We redirect usable food, destined for landfill, through our partnerships with Fairshare and Blakemore & Sons every single week. In this blog, we highlight ten ways you can help reduce your food waste. Through planning, organisation and smarter shopping you can not only lower you impact on the planet but also save money.
Tips for Reducing your Food Waste
You might think you don’t waste a lot of food but everyone could make more of an effort to cut back on the amount of food they waste. Here we have worked with our team at The Pantri to put together to compile ten ways you can reduce your food waste : –
Get Prepped…
- 1. Meal plan – Being organised is key when it comes to not wasting food. When we buy our shopping without planning out our meals first there is a tendency to over-buy and then food unfortunately goes to waste. Check what you already have in your fridge, freezer and cupboards before making your meal plan to see what ingredients you can use up.
- 2. Buy seasonal fruit and veg – Buying in season produce means the food is fresher and as obviously has a lower carbon footprint. Another advantage is because your fruit and vegetables haven’t been shipped in from other countries they’ll last longer.
- 3. Research – Sick of the same meals? Research recipes on Pinterest or Tik Tok and you might find new ways to enjoy your leftover ingredients in the fridge! Our check our community cookbook section on our blog some some inspiration.
- 4. Buy only what you need – You’ve been organised and made a list so stick to it! Being strict with what you need to buy and only buying what you need every week will not only save you money but will stop you buying too much.
Shop Little
- 5. Shop at The Pantri – The Pantri is set up to encourage you to buy what you need. For just for £4 a basket you will shave a significant amount of money off your weekly food bill.
- 6. Invest in good Tupperware and use your leftovers – Leftovers are one of the main causes of food waste. We recommend you invest in some good air-tight containers and get your leftovers in the fridge. As an added bonus; your lunches are made for the next few days and you save money on supermarket sandwiches.
- 7. Shop more often – If you shop little and often you avoid food in your fridge reaching use by dates and going off before you have a chance to cook it.
Fridge Maintenance
- 8. Use by dates – make notes of when your use by dates are on ingredients for your meal plans – you may have to change some recipes around.
- 9. Donate to a Community Fridge – At The Pantri we have a Community Fridge which is an initiative to help fight food waste. You can donate your unwanted unopened items to our community fridge. On average every community fridge saves 21 tonnes of food going into landfill every month.
- 10. Check your fridge temperature – Is your fridge a little too warm? This could be causing issues for your meat and dairy. Your fridge should be between 0-5 degrees, this will keep your food as fresh as possible.
An average shop with us can save you £15-£20 on each basket. So not only can you reduce food waste but you can absolutely reduce your food bill too. If everyone made more of an effort to reduce food waste we could make a huge collective impact to lower carbon emissions.
Have we missed any tips? What do you recommend for cutting down on your food waste? Remember that if you are wasting food make sure you dispose of it via a food composter or a food waste bin.