06 October 2011 04:44

Food news

Students encouraged to Love Food!

As a new academic year begins, students are being encouraged to Love Food, Hate Waste – making the most out of their food shopping and cash.

With research indicating that half of all students miss lunch at least once a week and around £50 a month of food wasted per household, the Love Food, Hate Waste campaign website www.lovefoodhatewaste.com has plenty of top tips on how to shop smarter, cook better, keep food fresher for longer and cook just the right amount including:

· Use a mug to measure uncooked rice – ¼ mug equates to one adult portion

· The humble tablespoon is good for measuring portions of beans, lentils, sugar and dried fruit

· To freeze cooked pasta simply rinse it in a colander, divide into meal-sized portions and store them in the freezer.

Executive Member for Waste Services and Green Issues, Councillor Lewis Strange, said: “Many university students do feel the pinch financially, however there are ways in which you can save up to £50 a month on grocery bills by looking online at the Love Food, Hate Waste website.

“You can find out lots of excellent information about shopping wisely and only buying what one eats. You can also find out the difference between use by and best before dates, so you don’t throw food away unnecessarily. Enjoy your time in our lovely city and surrounding county. With very best wishes and good luck with your studies.”

£12 billion worth of food is thrown out every year in UK homes.

Householders are throwing out on average £480/year. This increases to £680/year for families with children – or £50 per month.

We throw food out for two main reasons:

1) We let food go off, either completely untouched, or opened/started but not finished, costing £6.7 billion per year.

2) We cook or prepare too much, costing us £4.8 billion per year

Wasting food has a huge environmental impact – if we stopped throwing food away, it would save the equivalent of at least 20 million tonnes of carbon dioxide. That’s like taking 1 in every 4 cars off our roads.

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