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Peterborough partnership: Love Food Hate Waste - ‘Feed the 1,000’ event
AN event at Ormiston Bushfield Academy on Saturday (21 January) aims to highlight the amount of food we waste - and what we could be doing with it instead.
EACH year 1,000 meals could be made with the amount of money the average family wastes by throwing away food that could be eaten.
In total we bin 7.2 million tonnes of food from our homes every year in the UK.
In financial terms, this represents around £680 a year, or £50 a month, per household simply thrown away. This has been likened to the cost of a good holiday, a month’s mortgage repayment, or the combined cost of utility bills. Across the whole of the UK over £12 billion worth of food ends up in landfill.
To highlight the issue, the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Waste Partnership have teamed up with Ormiston Bushfield Academy, Cross Keys Homes, Peterborough Regional College and Riverford organic to give Peterborough residents a free lunch at the ‘Feed the 1,000’ event.
The event is being held at Ormiston Bushfield Academy, next to the Ortongate Centre tomorrow (Saturday, January 21), between 11am and 3pm.
The event, which is part of the national Love Food Hate Waste campaign, will see professional and aspiring chefs from Peterborough Regional College create 1,000 meals for the event.
The majority of ingredients used are being supplied for free by local producers and supermarkets and include produce that may otherwise have been thrown away.
This includes food such as bread which although only baked the day before has not been sold, or items that have passed their sell by date but not their best before date.
Love Food Hate Waste is the ‘Waste Not Want Not’ of the modern day, providing recipes for using up leftovers and handy tips and advice to help everyone waste less food.
This national campaign is run by WRAP whose vision is a world without waste, where resources are used sustainably. Research carried out by WRAP has shown that the main reasons for throwing away food can be grouped into two categories:
n Cooking or preparing too much - for example cooking too much rice or pasta and it gets left in the saucepan or on the plate
n Not using food in time - having to throw out fruit and vegetables because they’ve gone off in the fruit bowl or in the fridge, or not eating food before it goes past its use-by date.
As well as the financial benefits of wasting less food, there are also important environmental benefits. When food is thrown away it rots and releases methane, a powerful greenhouse gas.
There is also the energy, water and packaging used in food production, transportation and storage to consider too. Cheese is a good example, feeding and milking the cows, cooling and transporting the milk, processing it in to cheese, packing it, getting it to the shops, keeping it at the right temperature all the time.
According to WRAP if we all stop wasting food that could have been eaten, the CO2 impact would be the equivalent of taking 1 in 5 cars off the road.
The ‘Feed the 1,000’ event is one of a number of events being held across Cambridgeshire to give people practical help to make the most of food and save money.
On Saturday, the Love Food Hate Waste team will be on hand with information, hints and tips. There will also be cooking demonstrations running throughout the day with industry experts from welfare friendly pork producers Dingley Dell Pork and students and staff from Peterborough Regional College.
Cllr Peter Murphy, Chair of the Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Waste Partnership, said: “There are loads of easy ways to save the amount of food you throw away, that’s why we’re holding this event, to help people find out more, save money, and do their bit for the environment at the same time.
“Whether it’s sticking to shopping lists, freezing leftovers or following use by rather than sell by dates we can all make a difference.
“The Feed 1,000 event has been made possible by a range of local partners working together – Riverford organic has donated delicious organic veg from their farm at Sacrewell, Wood Farm has donated free range eggs, Sainsbury’s is donating items that are past their sell by date, and Dingley Dell Pork is not only donating meat for the event but will also be on hand to offer cooking hints and tips.
“We’ve also had fantastic support from Cross Keys Homes, Enterprise Peterborough, and of course the fantastic young chefs from Peterborough Regional College.”
Terry Windsor, Curriculum Manager for Hospitality & Catering at Peterborough Regional College (PRC), said: “I’m really excited about this event. It’s unbelievable how much high quality, nutritious food gets wasted in UK homes every year. I hope to inspire people to make the most of their food with demonstrations on cooking and managing food in the kitchen.
“At PRC we teach our students to cook with resource efficiency in mind, carefully portioning the ingredients and using up leftovers.”
More on the event: Feed the 1,000 event – opportunitypeterborough.co.uk
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Saturday 26 May 2012
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Comments
There are 2 comments to this article
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rebel woman
Sunday, January 22, 2012 at 10:39 AMOnly this week I had to stop my hubby from throwing away some cakes just because they said best before the previous day on the box. People should adopt the policy - sniff it - taste it and if it's ok then eat it. Seafood is different but many things are ok for a couple of days after even if they say 'use by'. People should just use common sense as food does not go off at midnight
Zanni
Saturday, January 21, 2012 at 01:44 PMYou only have to watch the cookery shows on TV to see it in action, They start with 3kg of food and end up with something that looks great on the plate but is only takes a couple of mouth fulls to eat. 80 percent has gone in the bin as part of the preparation.
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