7 million tons of food is wasted each year domestically in UK, according to a study carried out by WRAP. Out of this huge figure, 3.5 million tons of the food wasted is perfectly edible. 33% of the food is wasted worldwide each year. In a time when many are living in food poverty, this is very worrying. Here are some tips for saving money on food, while helping cut down on waste.
Know more about the expiry dates
A lot of people simply look at the date mentioned on the packaging of a food item and throw it in the garage if its passed the mentioned date. What many people don’t know is that there are different types of dates that are mentioned on the packaging. When you talk about the ‘use by’ dates, these indicate food safety and consuming a food passed this date can be dangerous for our health. On the other hand ‘best before’ dates represent the quality of a food item. You can safely consume an item days after this date. ‘Sell by’ and ‘display until’ dates are only for the sellers which let them know how long they can display or keep an item on their shelf for the purpose of selling it.
Freezing helps saving money on food
Many people does not use their freezers as efficiently as they should. The meat or any food item that is kept in the fridge stays there for a long period of time, and is then thrown away because it gets expired. You can save a lot of food and your money by keeping an eye on the expiry dates mentioned on their packaging. When you find out that the expiry date of a meat packaging is near then you can freeze it in the freezer and simply defrost it whenever you want to cook.
Go for Foods with longer shelf life
If you don’t like to visit the grocery store too often, then storing canned and dried food items can be really helpful. Go for products that offer longer shelf lives. Some of the powered foods even offer a shelf life of more than a year.
Get creative with leftover food
You can learn how to cook and revive a leftover dish for saving it from going into waste. There are a lot of dishes that were created from leftover foods. All you have to do is be creative on this one. Make ways to utilize the leftover dishes and food items by combining them or recooking them with another meal. Internet is there to help you on this one too. You can find a number of dishes that you can make from the leftover food ingredients that might be present in your fridge.
Use freebie sites
You can get free food and drink on websites like JustFreeStuff. They offer lots of food and drink samples from the biggest brands in the world. They also provide coupons which you can use in supermarkets.
Love Lilla xx