Food Savvy

It’s time to get #FoodSavvy!

Your family could save over £60 a month whilst doing your bit for the environment, by eating more of the food you buy. Sounds simple? It is, below are our tips to get you started. 

Plan like a pro

Planning your meals and your shopping is one of the easiest ways to save food as well as money as you only buy what you need to make your meals. 

Here are some tips on how you can plan your meals:

• Use a simple meal planner to plan your meals.
• Check what you already have at home and plan what needs eating up first
• Label foods that need using first so it’s easy to spot what you’ve got
• Keep a list of what's in the fridge and cupboards before you go shopping so you don’t over buy.  
• Buy foods that can be used for several dishes. Set aside some time to batch cook for the week so that you have meals that can be put in the fridge or freezer
• Eating seasonal fruit and vegetables will keep the cost down
• When shopping look for the food with the longest “Use By” dates
• Don’t overcook - use a measure to get the right amount of food
• Ensuring you have the right portion sizes helps.  

Shop smart

Once you have planned your meals and written your shopping list the inevitable trip to the supermarket can create extra food (and money) if you are not careful, so here are some tips to help you shop a bit smarter:

• Always shop with a list and stick to the list unless you have to make an alternative
• If you feel tempted by a bargain in store that’s not on your list, think about whether that item can be used, frozen or stored for a later date;
• It might be cheaper to buy in bulk
• Buy fruit and vegetables loose if possible as it not only gives you control of the quality of the food, but you also only buy what you need.  
• Don’t buy food with a fast-approaching use-by date unless you know you are going to eat it
• Online shopping is great if you have meal plans that you keep going back to, save a list for each plan

Storing your food

One of the most important things to do once you have bought your food is to store it as best you can to extend its life. 

Having a good selection of tubs and bag clips will also help keep food fresher for longer. Takeaway containers make ideal storage tubs for batch cooking as they tend to hold one portion of food. Bag clips keep crisps, bread, cereal and frozen food fresh, but you can use pegs if you don’t have any bag clips!

Make sure your fridge is set at the correct temperature – most fridges are set too high and that will contribute to food going off. Your fridge should be between 0 and 5°C. 

Here are the best places to store fruit and vegetables:

Potatoes and sweet potatoes – best kept in a cool, dark cupboard. Don’t worry if they start to sprout – cut these off and use the rest of the potato

Apples – put these in the fridge in their original packaging. If you buy them loose put them in a container in the fridge

Bananas – keep them in a  cool, dark place ideally, but not the fridge. Keep them away from other fruit as they emit ethanol, which makes other fruit ripen more quickly

Avocados – store in the fridge or on the counter to ripen them quickly.  If you only need half, keep the stone in the half you are not using and sprinkle with lemon juice

A full A-Z of storage is available at www.worcestershire.gov.uk/lets-waste-less/reduce/z-food-storage-tips-and-advice

Freezing your food

Freezing food is one of the easiest and quickest ways to hit the pause button and most foods can be frozen – even bananas! 

Using your freezer will certainly help you cut the amount of food you throw away by up to a third and with the average family now throwing away nearly £1000 of perfectly edible food away every year, it will bring some massive savings for your too. 

Here’s some tips to help you make your freezer your friend:

• Check your freezer regularly to ensure you are using up the food that has been there the longest
• Write on tubs what the item is and the date it was put in the freezer to avoid “UFO’s” (Unidentified Frozen Objects);
• Change to frozen vegetables - picked and frozen at is prime and has no less nutritional value than fresh. They are usually prepped so you can use as much as you want and are ideal for stews, curries or soup.  
• Set aside a day for a “freezer forage” and cook up meals that day using just your store cupboard ingredients and stuff from the freezer
• Try and fill your freezer as much as possible to enable it to work more efficiently
• Allow hot food to cool down naturally before putting it in the freezer – this is particularly important if you are batch cooking
• Check the temperature – freezers should be set at -18°C
• Foods that can be easily frozen

How to eat seasonally

It's sometimes hard to know which foods are in season in the UK, particularly when there's so much available on supermarket shelves throughout the year.

Eating seasonally is when you are eating foods that are ready to harvest at the same time of year that you are eating them.

We've put together this simple month by month guide, delicious seasonal recipe ideas and quick tips on foraging and growing your own salads to help.

Locally produced seasonal food is tasty and healthy as nutrients and flavours have fully developed, we've also often found it more affordable.

Eating local foods in season offers an environmental bonus as the produce will have travelled fewer miles and it is less likely to be found in plastic packaging.

It will also have needed fewer pesticides and inorganic fertilisers to grow. Buying directly from a farm shop or a veg box scheme can be a handy way to help you munch month by month.

Know your dates

According to waste agency, WRAP, approximately £5.7 billion worth of food is wasted each year as it is ‘not used in time.’

Confusion around what date labels mean and storage guidance is a major contributing factor.

Whilst food waste has implications for our hard earned cash, wasting food also puts a strain on our natural resources and increases greenhouse gases.

The biggest source of confusion is the difference between Best Before and Use By Dates. 

What the dates mean

Use By Date is about safety 

Use By Dates relate to the food’s safety and are the most important date to remember! Foods can be eaten (and most can be frozen) up until the Use By Date, but not after. You will see Use By Dates on food that goes off quickly, such as meat products or ready-prepared salads. For the Use By to be a valid guide, you must carefully follow storage instructions. 

Best Before Date is about quality 

Best Before Dates relate to the quality of the food, not its safety, the food will be safe to eat after this date but may not be at its best in terms of texture or flavour.

However, in many instances, food will taste the same after its Best Before Date. In some cases, these foods can be given a new lease of life with a quick culinary transformation.

For example, vegetables that are bendy or withered can be cooked. Bread that is a little stale can be toasted. Biscuits that are a little soft can be put into puddings and cheese can be trimmed down or melted. 

The Best Before Dates appear on a wide range of fresh, frozen, dried and tinned foods. Like the Use By Date, the Best Before Date will only be accurate if the food is stored according to the instructions on the label and your fridge is at the correct temperature.

Five common foods with best before dates

Batch cooking

Batch cooking is a great way to have meals already prepared and in the freezer so that you always have something to eat. 

For people who live alone it allows you to buy regular sized portions of meat etc and not let it go to waste. 

Here are our top tips for meal prepping like a pro - the simple way:

• Pick dishes that have common ingredients so that your shopping list doesn’t become too long
• Get creative if you are missing something, and identify another ingredient you do have that could offer a similar texture, flavour or nutrition profile
• Make sure you have an hour or two free to cook your meal prep
• Cheating is ok - frozen vegetables, ready-made pastes and delicious jar sauces can all save you time
• Cooking should be fun, put some music or a podcast on to cook to
• Mass chop - garlic, onions and some other vegetables will feature across each of your dishes
• Clean as you go, a big pile of washing up can seem more daunting
• Cook in a way that suits you and your abilities, if you can cook two dishes at once, then great, that will save time
• Make sure you have enough containers for everything you are going to cook
• Make sure you have enough space for your tasty meals in your fridge or freezer, as food in the freezer will keep for much longer

Eat what you buy

Using up all the food you buy is the most important way to reduce the amount that is wasted and learning to love your leftovers along with shopping and storing food are the easiest ways to do this.

Turning leftover food and meals into a delicious new meal or a tasty snack will save you money and make your shop last longer. 

Ideas:

• If you have leftovers from a Sunday roast try out a leftover Sunday lunch pie
• Try a fridge forage stir fry - a great way to use up things just before you go shopping
• How about using up cabbage and other vegetables and make your own kimchi 

For a full range of recipes visit www.letswasteless.com/foodsavvy/recipes.