How Lovefoodhatewaste can cut your food bills

A food writer friend of mine Caroline Marson tipped me off on Facebook about a great new site she was involved with called lovefoodhatewaste.com which aims to cut down the amount of food we throw away. It’s sponsored by a government organisation called WRAP (Waste and Resources Action Programme) whose aim is to encourage us to minimise waste, recycle more and reduce carbon emissions

According to WRAP we throw away a staggering third of all the food we buy - an unbelievable £8 billion worth of food a year. Apart from the obscenity of so much food going to waste while millions are starving it’s bad for the environment. Most of the food thrown away ends up in landfill where it produces methane, a highly potent greenhouse gas. And WRAP also reckons that the energy used to produce, package, transport and deliver the food to our homes produces the equivalent of at least 15 million tonnes of carbon dioxide every year.

There are plenty of good ideas on the site for cutting down your food waste such as a portion planner to help you work out how much food you actually need to buy, meal planners (although a two-week period is, admittedly a bit hard to adapt to the average student lifestyle*) and some excellent recipe suggestions from Caroline based on the foods you need to use up. There are some clever Cook Once, Eat Twice recipes too which will also save you time and money. It’s a great resource so do use it.

* you can find 3 and 4 day food planners in Beyond Baked Beans Budget