Food Waste

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Mick F
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Food Waste

Post by Mick F »

Cycling the other day, and went past a place with their recycling bins out.
Amongst them, was a bin marked Food Waste.
It put me in mind of a previous thread of mine about Chicken Tonight and rubbish processed food.
viewtopic.php?f=15&t=147807

Why do people have food waste?
I can understand restaurants and places having food waste, but not a private dwelling, surely?

Any leftovers we have get frozen and they can be used for and with other meals.
I can understand peelings and cuttings not being put into a compost bin because not everyone has a garden or the space.

Food waste?
Don't cook so much, or freeze what you don't eat. Add it to another meal!

The other day, there was a chap on the radio saying that 'pigs in blankets' will be in short supply this Christmas. I detest the "pigs in blankets" expression as they were always cremeskies (not sure of the spelling) as in a sausage wrapped in bacon. Simple, easy, and put on a tray in the oven. Wrap bacon round a sausage - job done - why buy them like that?

We seem to be in a system nowadays that people buy stuff ready-made to shove in the cooker. Whatever's left, gets chucked out.
Daft in the extreme.

End of rant! :lol:
Mick F. Cornwall
Oldjohnw
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Re: Food Waste

Post by Oldjohnw »

I recognize your rant. You can buy ready roast potatoes - that need roasting for 40 minutes. I guess you don't need to peel them. Such hard labour.
John
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simonineaston
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Re: Food Waste

Post by simonineaston »

There are quite a lot of charities working hard to save food from waste, like the one I do shifts for, FareShare - see here.
The prcessed food industry spend millions trying to stop us buying basic ingredients and instead seeking to persude us to buy ready-made foods with the express intent of charging us more for less. Their methods often tempt us into valuing the ingredients less & less. To take your example MickF, of the p-in-b, if proud mum can whip out a whole Xmas dinner with seemingly little effort and without expending any energy what-so-ever in the creation of the ps-in-bs, and if their cost - often just pence per unit - is almost invisible in the total bill for the christmas shop then perhaps we should not be surprised that they are considered without value and any left over are simply swept into the bin without a second thought.
While I'm thoroughly depressed by the actions of so many of us - we throw away uncountable tons of perfectly good food !! it's the factory food industry that's at the core of this. Believe me - they try very hard indeed to bend our spending habits their way...
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
Jules59
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Re: Food Waste

Post by Jules59 »

OMG don't get SWMBO on the dying art of cooking properly- not the rubbish you see on TV but more like how to make an apple pie, make soup from leftovers or cook vegetables without destroying any goodness.
The other day my neighbour and I were noting that we couldn't remember when we last saw anybody (other than ourselves) picking blackberries. We have lots in the hedgerows around us. I pick some every time I take the dog for a walk and have them with ice cream or scones or in my breakfast. Ive also got 10L of blackberry and blackcurrant wine fermenting.
Do people not do this sort of thing any more ?
Jdsk
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Re: Food Waste

Post by Jdsk »

Mick F wrote: 3 Oct 2021, 3:15pmI detest the "pigs in blankets" expression as they were always cremeskies (not sure of the spelling) as in a sausage wrapped in bacon.
They have a lot of different names around the world, but does anyone know what this one is, please?

But why "detest" a name that other people use?

Thanks

Jonathan
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661-Pete
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Re: Food Waste

Post by 661-Pete »

One word. Children.

It's inevitable that small children will leave some of their food uneaten. "Mummy, I don't like this, it's yucky!" being the usual excuse. I'd be prepared to bet that in a lot of households with kids, there's plenty of food waste. Not all Mummys will want to finish off what's on their child's plate...

Composting is good. We put all vegetable waste in the compost bin. But there's a downside to that. Rats. My argument is, so long as the rats are mainly interested in the rotting food and don't come near the house, we can tolerate them. Mrs P isn't so sure. She doesn't care to lift the compost bin lid and have a rat leap out at her! My suggestion, give the bin a good solid kick before lifting the lid, doesn't cut much ice...

We don't eat meat, but we do sometimes eat fish, and the waste from that does have to go in the landfill bin. Some people employ a wormery but we haven't gone that route yet. If ever. Rats again!
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Jdsk
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Re: Food Waste

Post by Jdsk »

Our enclosed wormery works fine. They all died once but it hasn't happened again. Lots of rats around the garden, but not particularly near the wormery.

Jonathan
rjb
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Re: Food Waste

Post by rjb »

Food waste includes a lot of items which may be difficult to compost. Animal bones are food waste and go into the food waste bin. The council collect the food waste and recycle it turning it into compost which they sell to fund our council tax. :D
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axel_knutt
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Re: Food Waste

Post by axel_knutt »

simonineaston wrote: 3 Oct 2021, 4:38pmwe throw away uncountable tons of perfectly good food !! it's the factory food industry that's at the core of this.
No it isn't, 71% of food waste is in the home. The ability to afford food waste, like any other waste, is a status symbol. The Kwakiutl had waste as a status symbol honed to a fine art: they held potlatches, parties at which they would trash their belongings in front of the guests just to demonstrate they could afford to do so. Some of them culminated in entire villages being burnt. When did you last go to a dinner party where the table wasn't loaded with more food than people could possibly eat?

If the supply chain wasted as much as consumers, they'd go out of business.
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PH
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Re: Food Waste

Post by PH »

Why single out food? Is the waste in these bins any worse that the waste in the other bins?
I try not to waste food, or anything else, but I have no control over what's wasted before it gets to me. I know, it's food so it can get emotive, but it's the resources that are being wasted, land, fuel, packaging, time... I understand broccoli is one of the most consumer wasted vegetables because of it's relatively short shelf life. So, whats the difference between someone buying broc, putting it in the fridge till it goes off and throwing it away, and someone buying cut flowers, putting them in a vase for a few days and throwing them away? Or consider the large swathes of farmland going under solar panels, it it any worse to waste the electricity coming from them?
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simonineaston
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Re: Food Waste

Post by simonineaston »

No it isn't, 71% of food waste is in the home.
I did not make my point very well. I said that the food industry are at the core of the problem... I can see how you understood me to claim that the food industry wastes food, whereas what I meant to explain is how the food industry devalues product in the minds of the consumer, so that it becomes under-valued and that this under-valueing of ingredients leads to such colossal wastage. The retail sector engage in the same practices, not only disposing of unsold food - although they are getting better - but also setting the tone of the effort required relative to the actual cost of the food products that they sell, so-called bogoffs being just one tiny example.
In a way, it's irrelevant which specific sector is responsible for how much waste - it's as irrelevant as squabbling over who creates the most carbon gases... the outcomes are all based on Grand Totals !
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
audaxjk
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Re: Food Waste

Post by audaxjk »

As rjb has mentioned, there is a genuine recycling benefit here. We put “food waste” into our recycling. It comprises of surplus stuff like peelings, egg shells, animal bones, excess fats & oils (rather than clog up the drains), scrapings off plates before they go into the dishwasher etc.

As a result we have very little non-recyclable waste each week (mainly plastic wrappers) and manage easily with a 2 weekly collection.
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Hellhound
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Re: Food Waste

Post by Hellhound »

'Why buy them like that'?
It's for the same folk who buy:-
Ready to roast potatoes.
Ready made Yorkshire puds.
Ready chopped onions,garlic,ginger,carrots,suede etc,etc.
Grated cheese.....why????

Re 'pigs in blankets' is that not an Americanism that,like many,has crept into language recently?

The only food waste we have is the skins/peelings/shells etc.
Stevek76
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Re: Food Waste

Post by Stevek76 »

Mick F wrote: 3 Oct 2021, 3:15pm
I can understand peelings and cuttings not being put into a compost bin because not everyone has a garden or the space.
A family cooking their own meals would produce a fair old bit of that in a week even if they're not wasteful. Remember it includes things like banana skins & fruit peel, eggshells, bones, all the veg trimmings, plate scrapings and spare oil if you're good and don't just wash it down the sink.

Having a separate food bin allows councils to collect the smelly stuff weekly (and therefore justify less frequent non recycling collections) and recycle it via composting rather than have it incinerated or sat in a landfill giving off methane.

The bin I don't understand is the paid for garden waste bin. There's been some local paper aggro over that in Bristol as the driver shortage put the garden waste collections on hold for a bit. I can understand those with tiny gardens using the odd prepaid garden waste sack, but I don't get someone who does enough gardening to justify renting the full size green bins not just using a compost heap. They presumably must also go out and buy compost for their garden, paying twice for something they could've produced themselves for little effort.
The contents of this post, unless otherwise stated, are opinions of the author and may actually be complete codswallop
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simonineaston
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Re: Food Waste

Post by simonineaston »

'pigs in blankets' is that not an Americanism
I don't think so. I believe they're a traditional UK Xmas roast extra - although oddly, they do seem most associated with turkey, which of course is an import from across the Pond *.... I don't recall hearing the phrase 'pigs-in-blankets' until quite recently - the '80s maybe? I think our American cousins do use the term, but it refers to a hot dog in something fancier than just a plain bun - Wikipedia ref. canned dough :lol:
* edit - just read in Good 'Ol Wikipedia that turkey was "commonly served at English Christmas dinners" as early as the late 16th century - well I never ?!
S
(on the look out for Armageddon, on board a Brompton nano & ever-changing Moultons)
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