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    Home » Recipes » Blog

    20 Ways To Waste Less Food

    By Dannii · Published 22nd February 2017 · Updated 3rd September 2020 · 115 Comments · This post may contain affiliate links and generates income via ads · This site uses cookies · Post contains 1657 words. · About 9 minutes to read this article.

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    * This is a sponsored post for Love Food Hate Waste *
    If you hate wasting food and essentially throwing money in the bin, then take a look at these 20 Ways To Waste Less Food. No more throwing away mouldy bread or over ripe bananas and definitely no throwing away bunches and bunches of herbs. We have tips to help you reduce your food shopping budget and to help the environment too.

    A bowl of potatoes with an apple and a text overlay saying "20 Ways To Waste Less Food"

    We have teamed up with Love Food Hate Waste to share with you 20 Ways To Waste Less Food. With it being the beginning of lent in a few days, instead of promising yourself that you will give up chocolate and wine (that sounds pretty boring to me), why not commit to giving up wasting so much food. Not only will you be doing something great for your wallet, it is something good for the environment too.

    Do you want to be kept up to date on delicious and healthy recipes like this? Please subscribe to the blog mailing list (it takes 30 seconds). You will get sent the new recipes straight to your inbox. Your email address won't be passed on to anyone and you will never be spammed. Click here to sign up.

    The Love Food Hate Waste logo

    Love Food Hate Waste is a charity that encourages people to love and enjoy their food, and also to try to waste less of it at home. It's a positive initiative which helps with useful tips, recipes and advice about ways to better plan, prepare, portion and store food - like that eternal dilemma of where should you store ketchup??

    Over the next 40 days, they are challenging you to make small changes at home, like using up leftovers, portioning better, meal planning, preparation, longer lasting storage, etc. Each week they will have a different theme to help you waste less food, so head over to their website and take a look at their tips and stay on track over lent with giving up food waste! "Give Up Binning Food Instead!"

    Take a look at our new video that shows you how to put these tips in to action!

    In the UK in 2015 alone, £13 billion of edible food was thrown away from our homes. In total 7.3 million tonnes of food was thrown away, which if prevented, would have the environmental benefit of taking one in four cars off the road. Wow! Don't you want to be a part of that environmental impact? Take the 40 day Love Food Hate Waste Challenge and over the next 7 weeks they will help you with meal planning, storage, how to make the most of your fridge and food labels. Here is the focus for each of the weeks:

    1st March (week 1) Meal planning – when’s this for?
    8th March (week 2) Storage – where should I put this?
    15th March (week 3) Fridge focus – how do I make the most of my fridge?
    22nd March (week 4) Portioning – how much should I use?
    29th March (week 5) Food labels – what does this mean?
    5th – 13th April (week 6/7) Leftovers – what can I do with my ingredients?

    In the mean time, take a look at our 20 Ways To Waste Less Food:

    Plan Your Meals

    I know that not everyone is big into meal planning and it can be difficult if you have an erratic schedule, but I have found that if I know exactly what I am going to be making throughout the week, then I know exactly what and how much I need to buy, so there is not extra food leftover.

    Treat Asparagus and Celery like flowers

    By storing asparagus and celery root end down in water will help to keep them crisper for longer. They also make a great modern alternative to a bunch of flowers!

    Asparagus and celery stood in jars

    What to do with stale bread

    Any bread that has gone a bit stale, but is still free from mould, can be turned into croutons. Simply cut the bread into cubes, drizzle with oil, season and bake at 200°C/Gas 6 for 10 minutes. Use them on salads or in soups.

    A baking tray with crutons on

    Know What The Dates On Food Mean

    When looking at when your food goes off, make sure you know the difference between sell by, best before and use buy. However, I think that sometimes those dates are used by supermarkets to create more waste, so you have to buy more. So, I always use sight and smell.

    What to do with left over coconut milk.

    Pour into an ice cube tray and freeze. The frozen cubes can be dropped into curries and soups while they are cooking to add a bit of creaminess.

    An ice cube tray filled with coconut milk

    How to store a cut pineapple

    By turning the pineapple upside down it will redistribute the sugars, that have accumulate at the bottom of the fruit during shipping to flow through the fruit. This will make it sweeter all the way through, so no more bitter parts to throw away.

    A pineapple with its top cut off

    How to keep bananas fresh for longer

    Bananas naturally emit ethylene gas during ripening. To slow this process, wrap the stems in foil. It is important to be aware that bananas can hasten the ripening of fruit that they are stored with, so keep them separate to prolong the life of other fruit.

    Four bananas with their end wrapped in foil

    What to do with too many bananas

    If you do end up with too many bananas, you can either add them to your smoothie bags, or make banana bread with it and freeze it. Also, try making my 2 minute health chocolate ice cream.

    How to use left over herbs

    Finely chop any left over herbs and put them in ice cube trays. Fill the trays with olive oil and freeze. Like the coconut milk cubes, these frozen oily-herb cubes can be used in many dishes like stews, risottos, soups and pasta dishes.

    A selection of herbs on a chopping board

    Have a few grapes left?

    If you have grapes in the fridge that will go off before you get chance to eat them, place them in an ice cube tray and freeze. Use them to chill wine without diluting it. They also make a great cold snack.

    A glass of wine with a bowl of grapes

    How to store carrots

    Carrots can spoil very quickly if left out of the fridge. You can keep fresh, raw, peeled carrots wrapped in foil in the fridge. Stored like this, they will last up to two weeks.

    Two peeled carrots on foil

    What to do with vegetable peelings

    All those vegetable peelings and cut tops and ends can be saved. Put them in a bag and freeze. Keep adding to the bag each time you cut/peel your veg and when the bag is full, you can use it all to make vegetable stock. After all, all those peels and ends are full of nutrition.

    Parsnip, carrot and potato peelings on a chopping board

    Use frozen fruit and vegetables

    If you find yourself always wasting fresh fruit and vegetables, then try buying it frozen. Not only does frozen usually work out cheaper, but it is just as nutritious. Frozen veg lasts for months and months in the freezer, you only use what you need and because it is frozen there are no preservatives needed for them.

    Make Smoothie Bags

    You buy some strawberries and 30 seconds later, or what feels like it, they are going bad. I feel your frustration. If I know I am not going to be able to eat all the fruit I have, then I chop it up and separate it in to portions in freezer bags and then freeze. Then, in the morning I can just throw it in my blender with some milk/water and some kind of protein like nut butter and I have a fast and delicious smoothie and no waste!

    How to stop avocados from going brown

    Liberally rub the flesh of an avocado with lemon or lime juice to prevent the oxidisation which turns avocados brown.

    An avocado cut in half with a wedge of lime

    How to prevent potatoes from sprouting

    Potatoes can start sprouting quite quickly. However, if they are stored with an apple, the ethylene gas emitted by the apple, will slow down the sprouting process. If you do have potatoes that have sprouted beyond help, throw them in a bucket half filled with compost. When shoots appear, cover with more compost. Repeat covering the shoots until the bucket is full. After a few months, when the final shoots have flowered and wilted, get digging! Your one, old, sprouting potato will now be lots of new potatoes!

    A wooden bowl with potatoes and an apple

    Use up all those spring onions (scallions)

    Chop up the onions and put into an empty water bottle. Store in the freezer and simply pour some out the next time you make a stir-fry.

    Spring onions on a chopping board

    Best way to store open jars

    Jars of all kinds of things can sit in the fridge for months as the contents don't always need to be used immediately. This means that when you come to use it, mould could have formed and the whole jar gets thrown away. By storing jars upside down, the contents sink down and it creates an airtight seal, preventing mould from growing.

    Four jars standing upside down

    Love Food Hate Waste app

    Use the Love Food Hate Waste app. It creates recipes based on the food you have in your kitchen. You can keep track of your shopping - when you bought it and when it needs using by. It has a 14 day meal planner and handy portion planner, plus easy to use shopping lists.

    An iphone with an app showing

    Shop smart

    Make a list of what you need and stick to it. Don't fall into the 'bulk buy' trap. That huge box of banana might be on offer, but if you can't use all of them, they will go to waste. Shop more often. Rather than doing one big shop each week, do a smaller one every few days. You will end up with less waste as you are only buying things for the next couple of days

    Let’s stay in touch!

    Find me on Facebook at Hungry Healthy Happy. On Instagram at @hungryhealthyhappy. On Twitter at @HHH_Dannii. And on Pinterest at hhhdannii. Or you can also subscribe via email.

    **This post about Ways To Waste Less Food was commissioned by Love Food Hate Waste, however, all opinions are my own**

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Ali

      April 17, 2017 at 11:44 am

      Hello, I've a school project, about to find a way to waste less food, and I would like to use this video, because I think this is so good and well done, obviously I'll mark the source of this video. Thank you, for your reading!
      Ali Imidr

      Reply
      • Dannii

        April 17, 2017 at 9:41 pm

        Yes, happy for you to use it as long as you do credit Hungry Healthy Happy as the source.

        Reply
    2. Hannah

      March 06, 2017 at 4:32 pm

      Love these ideas! thanks for sharing.

      Reply
    3. Laura H

      February 28, 2017 at 9:21 pm

      I'd never heard of this initiative before but it sounds like it promotes a great message! Think I need to put my dad in touch with them..

      Reply
    4. Charli Bruce

      February 28, 2017 at 8:24 am

      The app sounds great, I'm definitely going to download it. We seem to waste so much in our house x

      Reply
    5. Helen Costello

      February 27, 2017 at 12:39 pm

      Ah spring onions are my nemesis! I always find forgotten soggy ones at the bottom of the drawer. The upside down jar tip is genius. Can I advise that grapes are chopped in half before being frozen to prevent choking on them when frozen?

      Reply
    6. Valya @ Valya's Taste of Home

      February 27, 2017 at 6:55 am

      I absolutely cannot watch food go to waist. With having big family it's hard not do have that. So we decided to raise chickens and they eat all that food. Great post!

      Reply
    7. Medical Tourism In India

      February 25, 2017 at 3:08 pm

      Thanks for the tips to store food and use to for longer time. Great sharing and i will share in my network.

      Reply
    8. Leah Lander-Shafik

      February 25, 2017 at 12:39 am

      The app looks amazing!I love food and hate waste so this is ideal for me. I love the Jar idea - I never ever thought to do this. x

      Reply
    9. francesca

      February 24, 2017 at 10:07 pm

      I love the suggestions and tips you gave us!! I'm great for using up food and making sure things don't go to waste, if you're on a budget you don't have much of a choice anyway!! I love the jar idea I didn't realise turning them upside down can save the day!!

      Reply
    10. nicol

      February 24, 2017 at 5:13 pm

      ive jotted some of these down. i end up freezing everything lol ive never thought of some of these so will try them myself

      Reply
    11. Fashion and Style Police

      February 24, 2017 at 3:41 pm

      Lovely ideas here. Going to try them especially the banana bread one. I always have too many bananas.

      Reply
    12. Lianne

      February 24, 2017 at 3:00 pm

      Some great tips here, I really want to start meal planning better! I waste so much food by letting food go out of date!

      Reply
    13. Julie @ Running in a Skirt

      February 24, 2017 at 1:14 pm

      Good stuff! I hate to waste food! I need to save my peelings for stock-- great idea!

      Reply
    14. Baby Isabella

      February 24, 2017 at 10:55 am

      This love food hate waste campaign sounds great. Fab tips and tricks too. We're going to make a smoothie bag x

      Reply
    15. Beth Owen

      February 23, 2017 at 10:53 pm

      This was such an interesting page. Going to save it to read to my partner tomorrow. Learnt a few things reading it.

      Reply
    16. The London Mum

      February 23, 2017 at 8:15 pm

      Such a great campaign with some really smart ideas.

      Reply
    17. Monica Mahoney

      February 23, 2017 at 8:10 pm

      These are some great tips!! I really love your page, so many nice recipes! I just started my own blog about healthy and affordable eating.
      I'm looking forward to your next posts! :) Monica x

      Reply
    18. Daniella Keating

      February 23, 2017 at 5:30 pm

      Love Food Hate Waste sounds like an amazing charity! Great post and tips.

      Reply
    19. Rachel

      February 23, 2017 at 4:55 pm

      You have given me so many ideas about not wasting food, which I hate doing anyway x

      Reply
    20. danasia fantastic

      February 23, 2017 at 4:47 pm

      Okay so I had no idea that's how people keep bananas fresher longer! This post is so helpful!

      Reply
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