Food! Glorious Food!

When David Attenborough was asked recently what he thought the one thing we could all do to help save the planet would be, he replied not to waste

anything. Don’t waste plastic. Don’t waste power. Don’t waste food.

We in the modern world have a strange relationship with food, don’t we? On the one hand we want it plentiful, varied and cheap enough so that we can throw it away if we want to. In the UK we throw away nearly 10 million tonnes of food each year. On the other hand some 8.4 million people in the UK struggle to eat and the proliferation of food banks everywhere are testament to this. Those two conflicting facts alone should give us pause for thought.

But what of the planet?

Producing food uses significant natural resources including land, water and energy. On a global scale the food system generates between 25%-30% of total greenhouse gas emissions and the agricultural supply chains uses 70% of global freshwater reserves. Every tonne of food waste ending in landfill produces approximately 4.2 tonnes of greenhouse gases.

At consumer level one of the key culprits is confusion around sell by/use by dates. And rightly so. Why is there a use by date on a pot of salt when salt cannot ever go off? That doesn’t mean we can just ignore the dates, but many foodstuffs keep much longer than the dates would have us think. So what do the dates mean?

‘Best before’ refers to quality: your food will be at its best before the date given. After this date, it might not be at its best, but it will still be safe to eat.

Depending on how your food is stored, it has the potential to be good enough to eat for a long time after this date. Here are a few examples of key food items and how long after the date they can be eaten:

Crisps – one month

Canned food – 12 months

Biscuits – six months

Confectionary – 12 months

Cereals – six months

Dried pasta – three years!

‘Use by’ refers to safety: you must not eat food past the ‘use by’ date. You cannot always smell the bacteria that causes food to spoil, so after the ‘use by’ date, the food may appear perfectly fine to eat, but could still lead to food poisoning.

Top tip: you can freeze food right up to and including the ‘use by’ date. If you’re not sure you will eat it in time, freeze it for another day!

‘Display until/Sell by’ are dates for the retailers use – not us at home. You don’t need to worry about these. 

So maybe we don’t need to throw away quite so much perfectly good food after all. For more info and tips on food waste, go to www.lovefoodhatewaste.com .

And why not buy an extra jar or can for the food bank collection bin at the Co-op in Lintot Square next time you shop there?