Boris Misses The Point

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has launched a major initiative to convert London's food waste into eco-fuel to cut landfill rates and carbon emissions.

Every year, London produces  nearly three million tonnes of organic waste, mainly from food. Nearly two thirds of this waste is currently burnt in incinerators or buried in landfill, which produces potent climate change gases. £31million has been earmarked for projects that will create energy from waste. It is hoped that the Olympic Games will also offer opportunities to convert its food waste into energy.

Boris Johnson, said: London is currently throwing away valuable food waste that could be used instead to produce an eco-fuel for businesses and homes. Whilst we can all take steps to throw less food away in the first place, it is extraordinary that we are losing this resource by simply chucking it out.

BAA and Sainsbury's are working with the Mayor to investigate the possibility of developing anaerobic digestion facilities in and around London. Heathrow airport produces around 8,000 tonnes of food waste each year and BAA is keen to investigate whether it is feasible to convert this into bio-gas to generate low carbon energy or as a fuel for vehicles. Sainsbury's is keen to help deliver an anaerobic digestion plant in the London area, as part of a planned wider portfolio of waste facilities that will help the company deliver its zero waste to landfill goal.

It is no surprise that Sainsburys is backing this project. While you continue to buy excess food from them and feel no guilt when it is wasted they are on to a winner.

So Heathrow wastes 8000 tonnes of food each year, BAA owns another 5 British Airports, what does that make their total?

Consumer food waste is the visible tip of the iceburg. Up to 40% has already been lost in the production process, 

Current waste to energy schemes recover only 49% of the energy available, which is a fraction of the energy required to produce it.

More energy is then required to process and transport the waste products left over by the processes.

Surely, the £31,000,000 would be better spent on avoiding food waste in the first place?



Morph My Food



Five students from Imperial are taking part in a competition, called ‘Thought For Food’, against 9 other leading European universities. The aim of the challenge, set up by Syngenta, is to find innovative ways to help feed the world’s predicted 9 billion people by 2050. Each team must create a project that can be implemented at a local level.

The team was selected from multiple disciplines from across the university, with two undergraduates and three postgraduates involved.

The Imperial team has chosen to focus on reducing food waste by creating a Smartphone application called ‘Morph My Food’ to help students reduce their food waste. It works by the user inputting the food items they have left in their fridge at the end of the week (which they would otherwise throw away) into the application which will then generate recipes that use those food items. This will help students reduce their food waste and save money!

‘The issue of food waste is crucial as, in the UK alone, 30% of food is wasted every year. If we can reduce this staggering figure, we will be able to increase the amount of food and help reduce hunger. We need all Imperial students to help us turn our idea into reality by sending us simple, creative and fun recipes that we can use for the application. The more recipes we receive, the more effective our application will be. Send us your recipes through the ‘Morph My Food’ Facebook page, Twitter@MorphMyFood, and website http://www.morphmyfood.com/ ‘



Ratatouille

This classic French dish is ideal for using up vegetable leftovers. It is a simple vegetarian stew but one of those dishes that fills the kitchen with aromas that will have diners chomping at the bit.

The classic recipe includes onion, tomatoes, courgettes, aubergines and peppers with garlic, olive oil and herbs. The vegetables should not be cooked so long or chopped so small that they lose their integrity. I also throw in celery, broccoli stalks, carrots, sweet corn, green beans, cauliflower and mushrooms, depending on what is needing to be used up. I’m sure there are numerous other veg that would also work well.

As essentials I would include the onions, tomatoes (tinned work well), and peppers, with garlic, olive oil and oregano.  After that, anything goes but avoid brassicas (cabbage and the like) as that will give you the old skool dinner aroma of sulphur.

Sauté the soft vegetables in the oil with the garlic. Add liquid and/or tinned tomatoes and the harder veg like carrots and herbs and seasoning. Cook until all are soft but not over done. Reduce the liquid if necessary or add tomato puree to thicken. Taste, season and serve with almost anything.

Ratatouille can also be used as a base for many other dishes, often reducing the amount of expensive meat required.  Think about chillis, pasta sauce, moussaka or shepherds pie, for example.



Eat Breakfast Like a King



Each year we waste 183,000 tonnes of cooked starchy foods (rice, pasta & potatoes) – suggesting that we cook too much.

Out of all the food we waste 43.45% is left over on our plates.

With all this surplus of food it is not surprising that the country has an obesity epidemic. We no longer eat what we require, we eat to capacity and then some.

Ironically it is often our busy lifestyles and skipping meals that causes both the waste and the over eating.

A classic eating pattern is to skip breakfast and lunch and then make up for it in the evening. This is a recipe for disaster on a number of levels:

·         We are ravenously hungry and ‘eyes bigger than our stomachs’ kicks in.

·         We over cater for ourselves when cooking at home.

·         We over order at the take away.

·         We grab fast food rather than the good food going off in the fridge..

·         We eat too fast so that we over consume before our bodies can register that we are full.

·         Our bodies have gone into starvation mode and store extra calories as fat.

·         We end up with wasted food left over.

The old adage, ‘eat breakfast like a king, lunch like a prince, and dinner like a pauper,’ has never been truer to make you ‘healthier, wealthier and wiser.’



Asparagus Tips

The British asparagus season which only lasts 8 weeks is well underway. Delicious, nutritious and healthy, what is there not to like?

The first tip is how to avoid the woody ends without loosing any of the delicious stems. Simply bend the asparagus close to the cut end and it will snap at the point where the stem starts to go stringy. You can now cook the vegetable knowing that everything that goes on the plate will be soft and succulent.

So what to do with the ends that you have removed?

·         Asparagus Soup

·         Asparagus Sauce

·         Asparagus Stock

·         Asparagus Mousse

Cook the ends and then blitz with a blender or food processor. If the ends are quite woody then pass the pulp through a sieve before adding to the other ingredients..

A little later in the year you can do the same with fresh pea pods.