Wednesday 28th April 2021 is #StopFoodWasteDay! A day dedicated to driving awareness about the global food waste issue, as well as sharing practical, creative and impactful ways we can all change our behaviour to minimise food waste. Here at Mindful Chef, we’re committed to zero food waste every day and want to help ignite change.
Did you know that 1/3 of all food produced globally (about 1.3 billion tonnes) is wasted every year? In the UK alone, 15 million tonnes of food is wasted a year, 4.2 tonnes of which is edible! That’s the equivalent to the average family throwing out £700 of food every year. Not only is this burning a hole in our pockets, but it’s negatively impacting the environment. In London alone food waste is contributing more to climate change than packaging waste!
When we throw food away we’re not only wasting food, but also all of the Earth’s resources that have gone into growing, transporting and packaging it. This means that food waste is responsible for over 7% of greenhouse gas emissions. If food waste were a country it would be the 3rd largest contributor to climate change, after China and the USA.
Reducing food waste is one of the most important things we can do to prevent climate change. But this is a social problem as much as it is an environmental one, as 820 million people go hungry every year and this is on the rise as the global population grows. Yet all of these people could be fed on less than a quarter of the food that is wasted in the US, UK and Europe.
Recipe boxes are great because:
- They eliminate food waste completely
- You’re sent all of the ingredients pre-portioned – no leftovers you forget to eat and end up throwing out
- They can help save you money – you won’t buy unnecessary extra ingredients
4 easy tips to use up your leftovers & reduce your food waste
1) Harness the power of the freezer
Freeze leftover vegetable, beef, chicken or fish stock into ice trays and pop these out whenever you need to add a boost of flavour to a dish. You can do the same with spinach that’s about to turn and use the frozen cubes in your smoothie for an added nutrient boost.
2) Don’t chuck vegetable peelings
Vegetable peelings from potatoes, carrots and parsnips can be roasted to make vegetable crisps, just be sure to wash them before cooking. We like baking them with a sprinkling of Cornish sea salt and some fresh rosemary. Carrot peelings can also be used to add flavour to a homemade vegetable stock.
3) Store your seeds
Reserve the seeds from your pumpkin or squash and make these into a tasty nutrient-rich snack. Simply rinse the vegetable, pulling off any remaining flesh from the seeds. Then bake at 160C for 30 mins with a pinch of smoked paprika and tamari, for a healthy afternoon treat.
4) Root to shoot
Many people are in the habit of throwing away parts of vegetables that can actually be used. For example, when using cauliflower, try thinly slicing and stir-frying the leaves, like we’ve done in our beef skewer recipe with cauli mash. Or when using herbs, use the stalk too for some extra flavour, as we have in our delicious West African chicken, coriander and peanut stew recipe.
Want to cut your food waste further? Get £10 off your first two recipe boxes by entering code BLOG20 at checkout. Mindful Chef healthy recipe boxes provide you with the tools to cook delicious nutritious meals, in under 30 minutes. Each box contains recipe instructions, pre-portioned ingredients and fresh produce sourced from small award-winning British farms.