Planning too much food is a common problem during the Christmas season. It is hard to know how much everyone will eat and we always prefer to have too much than too little.
Some staggering numbers show that Britons waste 263,000 turkeys, 740,000 Christmas puddings and 17.2 million Brussels sprouts during the holiday period just because we can’t finish what is on our plates.
Save money and enjoy a less-wasteful holiday season with these 7 handy tips to reducing food waste:
- Take a tour of your cupboards and freezer – see what is already there and can be used.
- Plan your meal carefully – pick some of your favourite seasonal vegetables & fruits and create a shopping list planning each ingredients carefully. See if you can combine recipes that use similar ingredients. A detailed shopping list will help keep your budget on track and prevent you from buying unnecessary quantities.
- Portion control – don’t go over the top and be realistic on how much everyone will eat. Keep track of food planning with Love Food Hate Waste Perfect Portion Tool and their new app. On the day it will not really matter if you run out of a few dishes. Using smaller plates will prevent guests serving themselves excessive amount of food they will not be able to finish.
- Plan what to do with leftovers – turkey leftovers can be used to make soups, pies or risottos. Stale bread makes wonderful croutons while cranberry sauce is perfect for sandwiches.
- Give the extra food – if you have too much food left, why not send your guests home with some of the left overs.
- Donate – excess non-perishable, in-date food (such as cans or dry food) can be donated to your local food bank.
- Don’t bin it . . . compost it! Check if your local council offers food recycling. Alternatively, a wormery or a home composter such as the Green Cone are perfect solution to reduce the amount of food going to landfill
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