Food waste

MorellaRat

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Had a quick search on the forum and I don't think there's been an actual thread dedicated to food waste, so I thought it might be a useful one to start up.

Maybe just add your best tips for saving food waste? I'd be interested to know just how much it drives everybody else crazy as well- it's one of my pet peeves!
 
Anyway, let's get the ball rolling with......butternut squash. If you're preparing one of these, scoop the seeds out, wash them, sprinkle on your favourite spices and a bit of seasoning and roast them. They're delicious, whenever I make these, everybody crowds around as soon as they're cooked and scoops up a handful.
You can also make a soup out of the peel.
 
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Had a quick search on the forum and I don't think there's been an actual thread dedicated to food waste, so I thought it might be a useful one to start up.

Maybe just add your best tips for saving food waste? I'd be interested to know just how much it drives everybody else crazy as well- it's one of my pet peeves!

There is already a similar thread which is more general as it is called zero waste home.

 
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When food waste ends up in landfill, it decomposes anaerobically and releases methane emissions, a greenhouse gas that is 28 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Food waste also exhausts our natural resources like the water, gasoline, energy, labor, land, and fertilizers used to produce it.
 
I'm always horrified when I read how much everybody throws away. According to research, 50% of all salad items are thrown away or left to rot. The next favourites for wasting appear to be potatoes, bread and apples. Everybody calls me the food waste police in this house because I'm really strict on rotating food and using left overs. Dad's the same, some of his best dishes are created when he throws together everything out of the fridge.
 
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How does everybody stand on best before dates? In my opinion they tend to be a lot more flexible for vegan products, since things like milk and meat products are so much more dangerous if they do pass their use by date. I'm still using up some sour cream and chive chickpea crisps that expired last December and they're as fresh as the day I bought them. Chocolate is the same, I only buy short dated or over date chocolate when it comes on sale on various vegan websites, that way it reduces what they throw away (and usually a charity is selling it, so it helps them get some funds back) saves me money, and tastes perfectly fine. Dark chocolate, if unopened, is good for 2 years past expiration.
 
Compost heaps are a great way of reducing food waste as well. Since we try and grow as much produce as we can, we can't find vegan compost without paying a premium, so we make all of our own. Our heaps stretch for more than 20 metres over the back of our land.
 
If something is gone past its "best before" date, then I feel like I can use my own judgment and taste it to see if it seems OK or not. If on the other hand something is gone past its "use by" date, then I'm much more likely to throw it in the compost.

My wife volunteers at the local Community Fridge, which is a volunteer group who collects food near the expiry date from local grocery shops for free and gives it away to people in the community. Grocery shops in the UK (or at least England) are penalised for throwing away food, so there's an incentive for them to give away food they can't sell to groups such as the community fridges.

You can also use certain apps (I forget what they're called) to claim food near the expiry date at local shops.
 
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I only use vegetable scraps if they are organic as thy are highly concentrated in chemicals. I usually throw them onto the shrub land as compost.
Most of my veggies are organic.

in a little good news department, many organizations and governments are working on reducing food wastes.


France has a law banning throwing away food if it can be donated.

 
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Has anyone watched Prue Leith's new programme on food waste? Episode 2 features a vegan family.
 
I like to not waste food. I cut the broccoli trees off the stalk, then I dice the stalk because it tastes better than the trees and I use them in my oatmeal or in stir fries like the one I made today. They take a little longer to cook than the trees.

I reached my limit of not wasting food with kale stems. I have a good friend that ferments them and uses them, I CANNOT find a way to make them palatable. I've ground them, sliced them, cooked them to death....nothing works for me.

The newest one is watermelon rind. Peel it then slice it like zucchini, in strips or cubes, cook it with the onion in a stir fry, it softens up and takes on whatever flavor you are using. It gets kind of clear (like watermelon rind pickles) when it is cooked, and has the texture of zucchini. It's good!
 
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How bout this?

Scraps vegetable broth

Ingredients
    • 3-4 cups trimmings from carrots, celery, onion, fennel, turnips, potatoes, or other vegetable trimmings
    • 2-3 cloves garlic crushed
    • 10-12 whole peppercorns
    • 2 bay leaves

Steps
    • Place the vegetable trimmings in a large stock pot or dutch oven. Fill the pot just above the trimmings with cold water and add crushed garlic cloves (skins and all), peppercorns and bay leaves.
    • Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 25-30 minutes.
    • Place a large sieve over a bowl and pour the contents of the pot through the sieve. Press on the solids to squeeze out any extra liquid. Discard the solids.
    • Broth will last a week, refrigerated or three months frozen.
 
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Here is another good article.


And just a few of the highlights

Researchers have found that “expiration” dates — which rarely correspond to food actually expiring or spoiling — are mostly well-intentioned, but haphazard and confusing. Put another way, they’re not expiration dates at all. And the broader public’s misunderstanding about them is a major contributor in every single one of the factors I named above: wasted food, wasted revenue, wasted household income, and food insecurity​

Everything you assume about date labels is probably wrong

There are two vital facts to know about date labels on foods in the US: They’re not standardized, and they have almost nothing to do with food safety.​
until there’s a better solution, the best thing we can do is try to educate ourselves and change the way we shop for food.​
The UK has done a series of campaigns toward that end, with the slogan “Look, Smell, Taste, Don’t Waste,​
 
Just got this in my inbox. Not really relevant to vegans but something else that we can feel good about - not throwing out meat.

----------------------------------------------
You may have heard the grim statistic by now: Around one-third of food produced in the US is never consumed, ending up in landfills as waste.



The biggest benefit of reducing food waste is self-evident — over 10 percent of US households are food insecure, and diverting food that’s safe and edible but destined for those landfills to those in need could help millions lead healthier, better lives.



There’s another benefit of reducing food waste that’s starting to get more attention, and the EPA just shined a spotlight on it in a new report, "Farm to Kitchen: The Environmental Impacts of US Food Waste."



“This uneaten food results in a ‘waste’ of resources — including agricultural land, water, pesticides, fertilizers, and energy — and the generation of environmental impacts — including greenhouse gas emissions and climate change,” the authors write in the report.



According to ReFED, an organization that fights food waste, food waste accounts for 4 percent of US greenhouse gas emissions — a little more than aviation.



Even though meat, dairy, and eggs compose just a little over a quarter of US food waste, the EPA report authors argue that there are disproportionate environmental benefits to reducing such waste. That’s because animal products typically require much more land, water, and energy — and emit more carbon and methane — than plant-based foods.



But there’s another potential major benefit to reducing animal product wastage: preventing hundreds of millions of animals from entering factory farms in the first place.



The animals we raise and kill — only to throw away



Harish Sethu, a data scientist and author of the blog Counting Animals, estimates that Americans throw out 26.2 percent of animal products as of a 2011 USDA report. This translates to around 1 billion chickens, more than 100 million other land animals (mostly turkeys, pigs, and cows), as well as 25 billion fish and 15 billion shellfish (mostly shrimp), all raised or caught only to wind up in a landfill. (This estimate only includes food waste at the retail and consumer levels, and excludes waste during processing, shipping, and on-farm production — more on this later.)

...............

In 2015, the USDA and EPA set a goal of halving food waste by 2030. If the US can achieve this goal, it stands to reason that hundreds of millions of land animals might be spared a lifetime of suffering on a factory farm each year, and tens of billions of fish and shellfish could be spared the suffering entailed in capture and slaughter.



We hear a lot about eating less meat — I even wrote a newsletter series about it. But I think it’s time for an additional slogan to enter the conversation: Waste less meat.





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I would not have guessed it was that high - but thinking about it, yeah, meat goes bad quickly :bang:
I hardly ever throw food away, and when i do it's often not my fault, but like finding a moldy orange. Maybe the last handful of spring mix in a pound carton.
I just put a tray of cauliflower in the oven--I believe I've had that head in the fridge two weeks, and it's organic!
 
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I would not have guessed it was that high - but thinking about it, yeah, meat goes bad quickly :bang:
I hardly ever throw food away, and when i do it's often not my fault, but like finding a moldy orange. Maybe the last handful of spring mix in a pound carton.
I just put a tray of cauliflower in the oven--I believe I've had that head in the fridge two weeks, and it's organic!

I learned a hack for keeping the spring mix or arugula fresher longer.... put a paper towel so that it is trapped between the lid and the contents and then store it upside down in the fridge - the moisture drops onto the paper towel and wicks away... works well.

Emma JC
Find your vegan soulmate or just a friend. www.spiritualmatchmaking.com
 
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