Are you passionate about preventing food waste?
Today is Stop Food Waste Day. ‘Food Waste’ has had a surge in awareness over the last year or so and with good reason.
A study conducted by SIK in 2011 suggested that the total global food waste to be around one-third of all food produced for humans, amounting to about 1.3 billion tonnes, and whilst these figures are slowly improving, there is more than needs to be done.
According to a detailed study from the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), UK households still waste 4.5m tonnes of food a year that could have been eaten, worth £14bn. This amounts to £700 for an average family with children.
Food waste can occur at all 4 stages of the food supply chain – producers, processors, retailers, and consumers.
So, what are we doing at RealFoodSource to play our part in addressing this issue?
Our Wee Eco Packs and our Community Packs were both created with this issue in mind. Our 250g Wee Eco packs offer the opportunity to trial new products and buy multiple varieties for all pockets and pantries for ease of use. Whereas our larger 2.5kg Community Packs are created to be shared with others.
Behind the scenes in the business, we also strive to make a difference. With a careful order process that minimises risk of surplus product, and when this is unavoidable offering heavy discounts when close to ‘best before end’ or giving away to charity.
We are an online retailer and we pack to order, so we cut out the middle man. Our products are never sitting on shelves in a shop but instead ready to use in your kitchen.
How can you play your part at home and at work?
1) Re-purpose food: don’t throw away wilting veg, use them for soups, blend them into pasta sauces, use the stalks from cauliflower and broccoli and not just the heads.
2) Freeze food: You can freeze almost anything, perfect for salvaging a glut of ripe foods or for cooking up extra portions.
3) Challenge the BBE: A ‘best before end’ date is exactly that – use it as a guide and if it looks and smells fresh then it is usually good to eat. See our blog post for more.
4) Share with others: Bought too much? Not loving the product as much as you hoped? Promotions and BOGOF deals are great only if you plan to use all of the products. If you end up with too much, instead of letting it sit on your shelf or go off in your fridge, share with friends and neighbours. Or club together with others in the first place to spread the pennies and the love a little further – our Community Packs were created exactly for this reason!
Our recipe ebooks also help with reducing food waste as we offer many ideas for using our products, grouped together by type of ingredient, in lots of different ways.
