New Year Resolutions – Healthy Eating

As 2012 comes upon us many people will be making resolutions to make themselves fitter & healthier, especially after a Christmas binge.

The good news is that a healthier diet can also help to reduce food waste. The basic principles are the same for both targets.

1.       Portion control. By measuring the size of your meals properly you can avoid over catering and the problem of what to do with the excess. Here is a useful tool for planning your portion size. Perfect portions.

2.       Plan Your Meals. Rather than fill your fridge with random items, some of which will go off before they are eaten, plan your meals for the next few days. This also gives you a chance to make sure that your diet is well balanced.

3.       Stick to your shopping list. As well as avoiding all the sweets and cakes think twice about all the other extras that you may be tempted to put in your basket, especially if it has a short shelf life. A bargain isn’t a bargain if it ends up in the bin!

4.       Eat more fruit and vegetables. By eating your five portions of fruit and vegetables a day you will be turning over your veg store, salad tray and fruit bowl regularly, before they get a chance to spoil.

5.       Don’t Skip Breakfast. A breakfast containing at least 3 food groups, sets your metabolism up for the day. This reduces the craving to binge on high calorie snacks & raid the supermarket on the way home.

6.       Drink more water. Water is a natural appetite suppressant, in fact we often feel the urge to eat when actually we are dehydrated. Tap water is virtually free, just as healthy as bottled water, and avoids all the empty calories that come along with so many other beverages.

So, if you have set a goal to eat more healthily in 2012, good luck and as a bit of a boost, remember you will also be cutting down on your food waste.



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Christmas Eve

Time to relax and enjoy yourself in the kitchen.  As the saying goes, ‘I like to cook with wine, sometimes I even put it in the food.’

Hopefully you have planned ahead & all the food is there waiting for you. Some adrenalin junkies will be playing Russian roulette & leaving the shopping until the last possible minute, hoping for bargains. I prefer to do that just after New Year, if there is space in the freezer.

Where possible, rely on K.I.S.S. ‘Keep It Simple Stupid. Keep the portion sizes small, the dishes down to a reasonable level, and the food out of the bin.

After the meal , strip the turkey carcase & freeze what you are not likely to use in meal sized portions. Boil up the bones to make stock or the basis for a soup.

Otherwise, get creative with the leftovers. Guests needn’t feel like they are getting warmed up seconds if you put a little imagination into the preparation.

This year I’m taking the easy way out & heading over to my brother’s family in Kent.

Happy Christmas, Poppadom.



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Time to talk Turkey – you need to be thinking about it NOW!

Cooking your turkey to the correct temperature is essential to avoid food poisoning. An internal temperature of 73C is a minimum, but try not to go too far over that as the taste deteriorates.

Cooking turkeys that are still frozen is a recipe for disaster. Instead of cooking your bird you will just be breeding bacteria at a nice cosy temperature.

If your turkey is frozen you will need 24 hours per 5lb/2.5Kg in the fridge to defrost. Place the bird in the bottom of the fridge in a pan to collect any juices. Make sure that the juices do not contaminate any other food. Especially ready food like meat and desserts.

Alternatively, if your bird is big & time is short, defrost in COLD water. Place the bird in a sealable bag to stop it becoming waterlogged & spoiling the texture. Allow 2.5 hours per 5 lb/2.5 Kg  but change the water every 30 mins.

Finally, leave your turkey outside of the fridge in a cool room, away from any pets, for 8 hours before cooking. This goes for the stuffing as well. This means that the turkey will start to come up to temperature from the moment it goes inside a pre-warmed oven.

If you are buying a frozen turkey on Christmas Eve you are best saving it for New Year.

The other benefit of removing the turkey from the fridge is that you now have more space to store pre-prepared food the night before.



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Spare Booze

In the unlikely event of leftover alcohol it pays to have a contingency plan up your sleeve.

If wine is still fresh then you have a number of options:

Marinades

Wine can be used to both flavour and tenderise meat. Simply add crushed garlic, olive oil, ground pepper and herbs to red wine for a delicious marinade for red meat. Do not add salt before cooking as this can dry and toughen it.

White wine, olive oil, lemon juice, garlic and oregano works well with chicken or pork.

Gravy/Sauces

Use the wine to deglaze the cooking pan, boil off the alcohol and use as the basis for your gravy or sauce.

Salad Dressing

Boil the wine and reduce to about 1/3 the original volume, cool and use to flavour a traditional vinaigrette.

Cider and Mustard Sauce

You will use this time and again. Add some English Mustard and reduce the cider in a pan to about 1/3. Stir in some double cream, warm and serve. Simple but very good.

Beer Batter

Use as part of the liquid in a classic coating batter recipe.

Advocat

The bottle that you bought for Grandma/Great Aunt, who had one tiny glass. Here’s a recipe for Advocat Mousse.



Twelve Days 'till Christmas Day 9

Eat your scraps

Sad but true but often the most nutritious bits of fruit and veg get thrown away. Properly treated they can actually add to a dish or even stand alone. Why not plan them into your Christmas feast?

Peelings

If you havn’t tried potato peelings cooked as crisps you havn’t lived. Not only are they incredibly tasty but they are a good source of fibre and contain a higher proportion of nutrients than the rest of the potato. Be sure to avoid green potato skins as they are actually mildly poisonous.

Carrot & parsnip peelings can also be fried and served instead of shop bought crisps.

Onion Skins

The papery skins contain more antioxidants than the onion itself. They are also especially rich in quercetin which is said to reduce blood pressure, ideal at Christmas. Simmer the skins in stock to extract the goodness & discard before serving.

Celery Tops

These leaves contain five times more magnesium than the stalks. They are also a rich source of vitamin C & phenolics, potent antioxidant and anti-inflammatory compounds. Finely chop the leaves and use as a garnish instead of parsley.

Carrot Tops

Carrots at Christmas are often available with the tops still attached, these are highly nutritive, rich in protein, minerals and vitamins. The tops of the carrots are loaded with potassium. They have a slightly bitter taste and can be used as an alternative to bitter herbs or leaves in salads.

Citrus Peel

The peel contains more than four times as much fibre as the fruit.  & more tangeretin & nobelitin, flavenoids with anticancer, antidiabetic and anti-inflammatory  properties. A 2004 study suggests that these nutrients may even reduce harmful LDL cholesterol  better than some prescription drugs. The peel can be grated & sprinkled over carrots or green beans, added to cake mixes or candied or covered in chocolate.

Not only will you feel  good about cutting down the food waste but you will also be doing your health good at the same time.



Twelve days 'till Christmas Day 8

Portion Control is probably the simplest way to avoid wasting food at Christmas.

It also makes a lot of sense in so many other ways. 

·         Less peeling and chopping.

·         Enough room in the pans and the oven.

·         More even cooking.

·         Less cost.

·         Less to carry home.

·         Less fuel to cook with.

·         More time. 

·         Less stress.

·         Convinced yet?

Remember that you will probably be serving far more different types of vegetables and accompaniments than usual. So if you have twice as many dishes divide the portion size by a half, three times, then by a third. Four times as many, you are just showing off.

Don’t forget that the average calorie consumption on Christmas is 6000!! Three times you’re daily requirement.

You also need to take into account the extras like nuts, crisps, sugar mice, chocolates, mince pies and cake. And perhaps some alcohol.

When you do your shopping avoid the pre-packaged fruit and vegetables:

One, they encourage you to buy more than you need.

 Two, you actually pay more for the ‘convenience’ of having them pre-bagged.

Three, by choosing them yourself, you can judge the quality. As with all Christmas goods the pre-packaged ones may have been stockpiled in advance to meet demand and might not be so fresh.





Twelve days ‘ till Christmas Day 7



Entertaining with leftovers

With guests turning up between Christmas and New Year the temptation is to go out and buy more food while you still have mountains of leftovers to get rid of.

Here are a few suggestions for feeding your guests well without adding to your food mountain.

1.       A warming bowl of soup always goes down well – add left over vegetables to stock made from the turkey carcase and blitz with blender or in a food processor, heat (but don’t boil), season and serve.

·         Winter vegetable (carrots & parsnips)

·         Broccoli & stilton

2.       Festive canapés

·         Turkey meat balls made with chopped turkey, stuffing, cranberry jelly & gravy.

·         Mini bubble & squeak cakes. Add beaten egg & plain flour to mashed potatoes & chopped sprouts. Roll into small balls & fry until golden.

·         Stilton & toasted walnut balls

3.       Turn left over bread sauce into a savoury bread pudding by adding beaten egg and slowly cooking in the oven. Chill, slice into squares, and serve with toppings like smoked salmon or brie & cranberry sauce.

4.       Coronation Turkey – use turkey, cream, mayonnaise & curry powder, then add sweetness with chutney and dried fruit, sprinkle with chopped almonds to serve.

5.       Keep some puff pastry in the freezer to turn a variety of leftovers into mini-pies, tartlets & twists.

6.       Chop & mix turkey & roast potatoes as a basis for croquettes.

7.       Core apples and stuff with left over mincemeat and crushed nuts. Bake and serve with cream.

8.       Pannettone makes delicious bread & butter pudding.

9.       Turn leftover Christmas cake or pudding into a trifle. 

If you are stuck for inspiration checkout http://www.supercook.com/ and simply put in the ingredients you have for inspiration.



Twelve Days 'till Christmas Day 6

Time to go through the herbs & spices.

Not so much to make sure you have what you need, so much as to remind yourself of what you do have so that you don’t make the just in case purchase and buy a fifth jar of cloves or cinnamon sticks.

 Here is an inspirational video from Michael McIntyre

The good news is, spices do not spoil. The bad news is, they lose their strength. A lot of cookbook writers tell you to purge your cupboards and drawers once an herb or spice is about 6 months old, but the spice companies are not so reckless. They tell you to keep and use the spices as long as they appear to have flavour.

Stored in an airtight container, in a cool, dry place, spices retain their potency longer than you'd think — as long as 4 years for whole spices, 2 to 3 years for ground spices, and 1 to 3 years for leafy herbs, depending on the herb. Whole peppercorns, nutmegs and cinnamon sticks hold on to their flavour for ages. Particularly potent whole spices, such as cloves, cumin, and cardamom will also last for a long, long time.

Herbs lose their flavour faster than spices. Dried herbs that have no colour and little or no smell when crumbled in the palm of your hand are probably too old for practical use. Yet even if they don't look all that green anymore, but still have some oomph when crumbled in your hand, use them freely.

For ground spices, shake the jar, let it settle, and give a sniff. If there's essentially no smell, it should be thrown out. If the spices have a bit of fragrance left but are not as potent as you remember or think they should be, just use more in the recipe. Then you'll run out sooner and have a reason to start fresh with a new batch.



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Unexpected Guests

Christmas often means unexpected guests and the temptation is buy too much food, just in case. Great if your extra  guests turn up but a potential for food waste if they do not.

Instead, why not stock up with a few long life store cupboard extras that will stretch a meal if required.

1.       Add a soup course, this will mean that the mains will go further.

2.       Stock up on cake mix. These can be prepared quickly and either served as snacks or as a warm dessert with ice cream, straight out of the oven. It’s also a great distraction for keeping kids occupied to give the adults a bit of peace.

3.       Make up some dried stuffing & mix into mashed potatoes to bulk them up.

4.       Chop vegetables as crudités and serve with a simple dip like mayonnaise & ketchup (Marie Rose).

5.       Turn a tin of tomatoes into a quick salsa with chopped onions & herbs to serve with crisps or bread sticks.

6.       Keep some part baked bread as a stand by.

7.       Add a salad using tinned beans or pasta.

8.       If people are still hungry at the end of the meal serve cheese & biscuits

9.       Make red wine go further by adding orange juice, sugar & spices to make mulled wine.

10.   White wine can form the basis of a fruit punch.



Twelve Days 'till Christmas Day 4

Buy ahead

Buy ahead and make the most of bargains. Also make sure that items don’t run out before you get there. This avoids last minute dashes from shop to shop on Christmas Eve.

Retailers get very competitive running up to Christmas and will often have special offers to persuade you to shop with them. As always, a bargain is not a bargain if it ends up in the bin.

As you run down your freezer fill the space with Christmas fare.

Where possible buy ready frozen items, the supplier will have done a much better job than your domestic freezer and the quality will be better when it defrosts.

Check the use by dates. Don’t be afraid to take from the back of the shelf to get an extra couple of days if it means you are more likely to use it rather than bin it. Also, Christmas starts so early each year that some festive specials will actually go out of date before the big day. Supermarkets get them on the shelves to get the products into your mind ahead of time.

Supermarkets have to manage a huge spike in demand at Christmas & do so by freezing some stock to build up reserves. This will be clearly, if subtly, labelled, generally ‘this product may have been previously frozen and defrosted under controlled conditions, can be refrozen.’ It is safe but there will be a difference in quality in a lot of products.



Twelve Days 'till Christmas Day 3

Make a list and stick to it,

…… always sound advice & never more so.

The easiest way to do this is to shop online.

Book early so that you get the delivery slot that you want.

Avoid the crowds and queues at the tills.

Compare prices on line and make the most of discounts, especially if you are a first time user.

Set a budget & stick to it.

One delivery van uses less fuel than a dozen or more individual cars, especially in heavy traffic.

Have someone else carry all your heavy items to your door.

The one draw back is when something gets substituted. I would go for a 23rd Dec delivery, just in case something vital doesn’t arrive.



Twelve Days 'till Christmas Day 2

Plan ahead but don’t be a slave to tradition.

If your family hates brussel sprouts & Christmas Pudding and the Christmas Cake gets fed to the birds after it sets rock solid in its tin – don’t do it.

Plan a meal that your family will enjoy. There are plenty of ways to give family favourites a festive touch.



How about Christmas pizza? Topped with turkey, Brie, chipolatas & stuffing.

Make your own festive burgers including cranberries and Camembert cheese.

Mince pie ice cream is now widely available for a lighter dessert.

Here is a recipe for Chocolate Chestnut Cupcakes, fashionable & seasonal.

Also, do you need all the trimmings? Do you really want to feel bloated, uncomfortable, guilty, overworked; with a kitchen looking like a disaster area on Christmas afternoon? Rein back your plans and give yourself an easier ride.

Keep it simple, give your family & friends a meal to remember for all the good reasons, and enjoy Christmas yourself.

Twelve Days 'till Christmas Day1

Christmas is coming, time to empty the freezer

Christmas can be a nightmare for the cook in the family. There is the pressure to produce a feast, unexpected guests and then a mountain of leftovers.  After  Christmas an average 230,000 tons of food worth around £275 million is thrown away in Britain.

In the weeks leading up to the big day start to run first the freezer and then the fridge down to a bare minimum. When it comes to Christmas food the one thing you are bound to be short of is storage space.

As you make room fill it up with freezer blocks and bag up ice cubes. This will give you extra cool storage on the day and keep the freezer running efficiently.

The cooler weather at this time of year is ideal for soups and stews which are great for using up frozen leftovers. Hopefully you won’t find anything lingering at the bottom from Christmas last year.



Global Warming Warning

With food waste contributing directly to global warming the issue is becoming a two edged sword.

Species are becoming smaller as warmer and drier conditions affect early development and growth, according to Singapore-based scientists writing in the journal Nature Climate Change.

The scientists say average temperatures could rise by as much as 7C (45F) by 2100 but research showed that for every degree Celsius of warming, plants of various types shrank by up to 17 per cent and fish by up to 22 per cent.

The trend could make the Earth’s growing human population harder to feed and may lead to extinctions as ecosystems are thrown off kilter.

Smaller fish and crustaceans could affect the nearly one billion people who get their main sources of protein from the sea, warned the researchers.

And feeding the billions of additional people expected on the planet by 2050 will become increasingly difficult as crop plants are unable to grow as large in drier climates, they wrote.

The consequences of species getting smaller were ‘not yet fully understood but could be far-reaching for biodiversity and humans alike’.



Healthy or Not?

Food shopping is something we do almost instinctively. We don't have time to carefully consider every purchase every time, so we buy things we feel must be the healthier, without actually considering why.

Supermarkets rely on these instinctive purchases in order to sell us expensive 'healthy' foods. By falling for the healthy food myths, we are wasting a fortune at the supermarket and can actually be damaging our health.

1. Sea salt is better for us

Sea salt can be up to 20 times more expensive than standard table salt, and researchers for Which? found that a third of people think it's better for you. However, the same study, carried out alongside Consensus Action for Salt and Health (CASH), found that it contains exactly the same amount of sodium chloride - which is the stuff you need to worry about.

It has also been found that using flakes of sea salt encourages us to use more, which is even worse for us than a quick shake of 25p table salt.

2. Bottled water is a vital part of a healthy lifestyle

There has been a bit of an uproar recently because the EU has banned manufacturers of bottled water from claiming it can combat dehydration. The reaction has come from those who point out that anyone who has ever drunk water knows it helps with hydration. However, the scientists were concerned that the manufacturers were trying to imply that bottled water was more hydrating than any other kind - which they point out is untrue.

In fact, water is just water. You might want to filter tap water, but after that, you're pretty much drinking exactly the same thing. Of course your bottle of water might have a pretty picture on it, and you may have seen the adverts, but in the end it's still just water.

3. The premium rangers are healthier

In theory this should be true, as with more money to spend on the raw ingredients they shouldn't have to fall back on things like salt to improve the taste. However, things like more meat and more cheese in these products mean that this is not necessarily the case.

In reality it all depends on the exact dish. Take lasagne. Which? recently did a study looking into the healthiest supermarket options. It found some things did conform to the 'premium is healthier' stereotype, so the Tesco Finest Lasagne had a third of the salt of the basic one. However, one of the lowest fat levels it found was in Somerfield's Simply Value Beef Lasagne, with 1.8g of fat, compared with Marks & Spencer's Beef Lasagne with 9.5g

4. The 'healthy' ranges are healthier

Research by Which? has shown that there are plenty of instances where the healthy range is actually worse for you than the standard one.

Its study found Somerfield's Simply Beef Lasagne had less fat than its Healthy Choice Beef Lasagne. Meanwhile Waitrose's Perfectly Balanced Lasagne was higher in salt than its standard one.

Many snack foods are advertised or packaged as healthy options because they are reduced fat, low fat, lower fat, very low fat, light or even lite. But these marketing messages are meaningless, as they don’t tell you the actual fat or calorie content, or whether it is lower in fat than the ‘less healthy’ alternative. So you have to check that food label. For example, Tesco’s own brand digestive biscuits have 19.1g of sugar per 100g, whereas the ‘reduced fat’ option does have less fat as stated, but more sugar - 21.1g per 100g.

The answer, therefore, is not to take these things for granted. We need to be prepared either to cook from scratch or to read the labels beyond the brand message.



Congratulations

The latest figures from WRAP show how that the amount of household food waste has fallen from 8.3 million tonnes a year to 7.2 million. However, we are still throwing away more than seven million tonnes of food and drink away every year. The cost of which is still £12 billion as food prices have been rising. 

Back in 2006/07 we were throwing away over 8 million tonnes of food and drink a year, just from our homes, most of which would have been perfectly edible if only we’d managed it better. This has now reduced by around a fifth of all the food we buy, to 7.2 million tonnes!

The reduction of 1.1 million tonnes has saved councils up to £80 million a year by sending less food to landfill.

We still throw away enormous amounts of food and drink and due to the price of food going up it is still costing us £50 a month, around £680 a year for families or £480 a year for the average household!

The recession has of course helped. Shoppers are now more careful about what they buy and shopping lists are coming back into fashion with people actually sticking to them! Hopefully when the bad times end the good habits we are re-learning will continue as they did after the World Wars.



No such thing as a free lunch?

FOOD campaigners have hit out over the millions of tons of fruit and vegetables dumped each year — because they are misshapen. Supermarkets insist that shoppers will not buy them.

Campaigners say nearly 50 per cent of UK carrots end up in the bin and they claim the scandalous waste helps keep prices artificially high.

Food industry analyst Tristram Stuart said stores must start letting shoppers decide whether to buy wonky produce.

He added: "We've got to stop this madness. We must tell shops we want to buy good-tasting fruit and veg regardless of how it looks."

On Friday 19^th Nov 2011, campaigners will highlight the scandal by cooking a meal for 5,000 in Trafalgar Square using discarded fruit and veg.

The event will feature guest speakers such as Tristram Stuart, and activities including apple pressing and wonky veg sorting. You can even visit the enclosure of real waste-eating pigs!

Feeding the 5000 will show how easy it is to reduce the unimaginable levels of food waste in the UK and internationally, and how governments, businesses and individuals can help.



Welcome to the Anthropocene Era

As the human population of the Earth hits 7 Billion, welcome to the Anthropocene era. Scientists are no longer classifying our timescale on geological criteria but instead using the long-term alteration of the natural world by humanity.

We now occupy or manipulate most of the land in nearly every continent except Antartica and are steadily killing off or emptying vast tracts of the oceans. We appropriate anywhere from 24 percent to nearly 40 percent of the photosynthetic output of the planet for our food and other purposes, and more than half of its accessible renewable freshwater runoff.

Space is not the problem, we could all fit into Greater London with room to move. It is because our population is so large and growing so fast that we must care, ever more with each generation, how much we as individuals are out of sync with environmental sustainability. Our diets, our acquisition of new technology, our means of transport, and our urge to keep interior temperatures close to 22C no matter what is happening outside, doesn’t make us bad people, but the collective effect on our planet is simply not sustainable.

Action means doing a lot of different things right now. We can't stop the growth of our numbers in any acceptable way immediately. But we can put in place conditions that will support an early end to growth, possibly making this year's the last billion-population day we ever mark.

Simultaneously, we need a swift transformation of energy, water, and materials consumption through conservation, efficiency, and green technologies. We shouldn't think of these as a sequence of efforts, dealing with consumption first, because population dynamics take time to turn around, but as simultaneous work on multiple fronts.



www.whatsinmycookbooks.com



When was the last time that you searched through all your recipe books? Most people will have a couple of books that they flip through for specific recipes but who has the time to check a number of books for inspiration of what to do with your leftovers?

Whatsinmycookbooks.com is a search engine that works with your own book collection. Simple to use, you click on the books that you own to personalise your own library. Then type in an ingredient and it comes up with all the relevant recipes with the book and the page numbers of where to find them. All for FREE.

It really is a useful tool to make the most of cook books that have been sitting on your shelves, untouched and unloved, for too long.

Bid for your supper





Hopefully you are all saving the left over portions from meals and if they are not incorporated in the next day’s menu then they are being frozen.

So what to do with a family to feed and lots of individual portions?

Well, if you serve them up to people’s choice you have the extra work of the individual servings. Extra dishes to wash up, etc..

Probably there will be certain dishes that are more popular than others. This could lead to arguments.

So how do you come out of the situation on top?

Why not auction off the dishes in exchange for chores?

Write out a list of the food available and then take bids for each. Someone might be happy to clear the dishes and wash up for their choice. Another might be happy to sort out the recycling, mow the lawn or clean the windows.

You might find a regular weekly evening for leftovers?

Five alternative toilet cleaners

Before you tip flat Cola down the sink, why not use it as a toilet cleaner? Pour into the bowl and leave overnight to remove lime scale. Even if you don’t have flat Cola, a fresh bottle of an economy brand is not only cheaper than bleach but also more environmentally friendly. Quite what it does to your insides is anybody’s guess.

Here are some more natural cleaning products without all the harmful chemicals you find in your typical toilet cleaners.

Sodium bicarbonate – helps control odor and prevents clogging. You’ll need roughly 100g a week to make a real difference. If you’re looking to buy in bulk try a  swimming pool equipment store or chemists.

Borax and lemon juice – this is a good solution for getting rid of stubborn stains. Mix together 100g of borax and 2 fluid oz. of lemon juice until you have a paste. Leave it for an hour, then scrub clean with an old toothbrush. Be careful however with the borax though. Be sure to avoid contact with your eyes and be sure the room is well ventilated and wear rubber gloves.

Sodium bicarbonate and lemon juice – instead of using borax, you can also use sodium bicarbonate in the same way, although it may be slightly less effective.

Vinegar – pour vinegar into the toilet instead of bleach and leave it overnight, this will help remove limescale from hard water. To clean the bowl, use 3 parts water and 1 part vinegar.



Fareshare for a Fair Share

FareShare is a national UK charity supporting communities to relieve food poverty. FareShare is at the centre of two of the most urgent issues that face the UK: food poverty and food waste.

The charity addresses these issues in three ways:

Providing quality food - surplus ‘fit for purpose’ product from the food and drink industry – to organizations working with disadvantaged people in the community

Providing training and education around the essential life skills of safe food preparation and nutrition, and warehouse employability training through FareShare’s Eat Well Live Well programme

Promoting the message that ‘No Good Food Should Be Wasted’

New figures released by FareShare show a sharp rise in demand on charities for food as people all over Britain struggle to put dinner on the table. 42% of charities surveyed reported an increase in demand for food in the past year as food prices soar and the recession bites, putting additional strain on families and people on low incomes.

FareShare is helping to take some of this strain by providing surplus, good quality food from the food industry to a network of grassroots community organizations all over the UK, saving them almost £8 million a year in food and other costs.

Lindsay Boswell, Chief Executive of FareShare says: “At a time of unprecedented demand we want the food industry and the general public to increase their support.” Last year, the food industry redirected 3,600 tonnes of surplus food to FareShare enabling the charity to provide 8.6 million meals for vulnerable people. The food is distributed to community organizations providing not only food, but other essential support services.  Fareshare distributes daily to organizations such as homeless hostels, day centres, breakfast clubs, and women’s refuges.

FareShare’s survey found that 41% of respondents are unable to buy food on a regular basis, meaning that they are more reliant on charities for help. Boswell continues: “We’re asking anyone who works in the food industry in any capacity to look at what is happening to their surplus food and to ask themselves a simple question, ‘Could this food stop someone going hungry?”



Throwing Our Aspirations In The Bin

Celebrity Chefs have been accused of promoting exotic and novel ingredients that consumers buy on a whim and end up throwing all or part of them away as they either don’t know what to do with them, or only use them for one off recipes.

Sociologist Dr David Evans, of the University of Manchester, argues that families would be better off sticking to simple ingredients, eating the same meals several days a week, and using frozen vegetables.

He even suggested Delia Smith should be the model to follow with her cheat recommendations that include convenience foods such as tinned mince and frozen potatoes.

“The pressure to cook and eat in the ways celebrity chefs advise means a lot of food is already at risk of getting thrown out,” he said. “A lot of so-called proper food is perishable and needs to be eaten within a pretty narrow time frame.

“Our erratic working hours and leisure schedules make it hard to keep on top of the food that we have in our fridges and cupboards. “It is understandable that people might forget or be too tired to cook the food they have at home and so end up going for a takeaway and throwing out food they had already purchased.” Dr Evans, who studied cooking and eating habits in 19 households in Manchester for eight months, suggested a return to batch cooking, where dishes are created and frozen to be served as needed.

“The pressure to cook meals from scratch using fresh ingredients while enjoying a variety of dishes throughout the week can actually lead to waste,” he said. The current levels of food waste should be viewed as the fall-out of households negotiating the complex demands of modern living.
“People with influence - like celebrity chefs - should acknowledge these issues and think about ways of making it socially acceptable or even desirable for us to eat the same meal several nights in a row or use frozen vegetables,” he said.

Delia Smith was criticised when she launched her book and TV series How to Cheat at Cooking because her recipes relied heavily on ready-made items, but Dr Evans said this “is exactly the sort of thing that might help to reduce household food waste”.

He added: “It would be foolish to ignore nutritional considerations, but it is worth noting people will not reap the benefits of healthy food if they end up throwing it away.”

Jam Jar Wasp Trap

I’ve always been fond of creepy crawlies from a very young age. However I have an ambivalent attitude towards wasps. During the summer they perform a useful function, preying on pests and generally going about their business, occasionally becoming a nuisance when their nests are in close proximity to humans with food.

Some people may suffer an extreme reaction, going into anaphylactic shock from a single sting and there have also been cases where multiple stings have brought on heart attacks. If you are stung once, wasps release a pheromone that marks you as a target, and unless you back away from the beasties you are likely to be stung again. If you have been stung it is recommended to change your clothes and shower or you will be susceptible to further attacks.

As autumn approaches the workers become redundant and are booted out of the nest which goes into hibernation. Around the same time there are quantities of fermenting fruit to be found lying on the ground. This is when wasps turn nasty; homeless, drunk and belligerent.

Having recently been stung under the armpit by one of the little buggers my thoughts turned to my murderous youth when I would set about exterminating wasps with a passion.

The easiest method involves a finished jar of jam. Simply make a few holes in the lid with a hammer and large nail, half fill the jar with water with a drop of washing up liquid, and place somewhere away from people. The wasps have a superb sense of smell and will crawl through the holes in the lid to reach the remnants of the jam. The soap breaks the surface tension of the water so as they fall in they drown quickly. This might sound a bit grisly but it is far better than the neurotoxins found in aerosol wasp killers, and they are probably drunk anyway!!