This week we are celebrating food waste week for the tenth year in a row. So what is food waste?
It refers to edible food that has, for one reason or another, ended up in the trash. The most common cause for food waste is people’s poor foresight when it comes to food consumption. Either too much food has been bought or plans have changed, and lunch out with a friend is more appealing. Another common reason for food waste is in its preparation and storage. It’s not necessarily know how to use leftover food, or the best before and expiry date markings are mixed up. These biggest causes of food waste can be fixed if we want to!
The amount of household food waste has been studied in Finland, the results of which showed that up to 100 million kilos of food is thrown into the trash per year.
8 tips from members of Soteekki for saving food waste:
- Let’s start with the best motivator, saving money!! Imagine how much money will be saved when you only buy the amount of food you know you will eat.
- Don’t go to the store hungry! When you’re hungry, it’s easier to buy food that you can think you can eat at that moment, but in reality, you bought too much food.
- Feel free to try new taste experiences, you might be surprised! We found a salad recipe which idea is to use food, that otherwise would end up as waste, from the cupboard and get a tasty dish! Torstaisalaatti | Maku (meillakotona.fi) ps. Did you know that most of the food waste is vegetables?
- Plan the food for the coming week in advance and make a shopping list before going to the store. See what food ingredients you will need at home and what is already in the cupboards.
- Are milk cans or meat packages nearing their expiration date? Put them in the freezer and use them at a better time. However, if you don’t warm to the idea of freezing milk, here’s a recipe for the best pancakes in the world! Maailman paras pannukakku – Resepti | Kotikokki.net
- In all S-Kauppa’s and many K-Kauppa’s after 21:00 you get a -60% discount on products equipped with -30% labels. When making discoveries like these, remember to freeze the ones you dont use straight away! However, don’t buy unnecessarily just because of the cheap price.
- Make larger portions of food so you don’t have to go to the store every day. If eating the same food for many days bothers you, invite your friends to dinner!
- There are websites and applications for your phone, which you can use to save food waste at affordable prices! These include for example: fiksuruoka.fi, matsmart.fi and ResQ Club application which you can download to your phone. At the ResQ Club application you can see the day’s waste products from local stores, cafes and restaurants.
Come with us towards a more ecological tomorrow and give your contribution! The earth (and wallet) thanks you!
