As you may already know, September 29th marks the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste. Or for short, Food Waste Day. Across the globe, the number of people affected by hunger has been slowly increasing since 2014. However, tonnes of edible food is wasted every day. This food then sits in landfills and creates large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions which contributes to global warming. Reducing food loss and waste is essential for us to be able to feed the world’s population and ensure our planet is livable. It’s not just the food that is wasted, it’s all the resources that go into producing this food too, things like water, land, energy, labour and money. The worldwide COVID-19 pandemic has only worsened this problem, creating disruptions in supply chains due to most hospitality businesses being closed. International Food Waste Day was created as a way to bring awareness to the importance of the issue of food loss and waste. Also, to help promote and implement our global efforts towards solving it.
Here at Foodprint, we believe Food Waste Day should be every day, so we turned Food Waste Day into Food Waste Month! Throughout the month of September we have been sharing tips and tricks on our Instagram to help you make the most of it. Check them out on our Instagram here, under the #foodwastemonth hashtag or keep reading and you’ll find them below.
Same leftovers, different dinner
A fun thing to do when planning meals, is to see how many different meals you can make out of the same leftovers. This month I cooked some mince to make spaghetti bolognese for dinner and the next night I reheated the mince and added in some beans, some extra veg and some spices to make nachos. The next week, I put leftovers from butter chicken into some flaky puff pastry and into the oven to make butter chicken pies, my personal favourite creation of the month. Homemade pizza night resulted in a few random bits of veggies - a few cherry tomatoes, half an onion, a few chunks of capsicum to name a few. Roast them in the oven and blend them up with some tomato paste and a can of diced tomatoes and you have a delish, veggie filled pasta sauce.
Fruit crumble
Fruit crumble is one of the best ways to use up leftovers. The crumble is made from everyday ingredients you probably have in your pantry, paired with some seasonal fruit such as rhubarb, berries, feijoa or kiwifruit, and you have a delish dessert! This particular crumble was made from a leftover bag of granny smith apples that had seen better days. I used this recipe for the crumble and put it on top of the diced apples which I coated in cinnamon. So good!
Tomato relish
Although tomatoes are not in season for Food Waste Month, Michal is still enjoying her summer crop with the tomato relish she made in March. End of season tomatoes just don't compare to the juicy red ones being produced at the peak of summer, meaning they are perfect for preserving.
Aquafaba mousse
As you may already know, aquafaba is the water that canned chickpeas come in. It has an ability to mimic functional properties of egg whites in cooking, making it perfect for vegan cooking and for things like meringue and mousse. This mousse was super easy to make and only used a few ingredients! Find the recipe here.
Share compost
ShareWaste connects people that have food scraps to people who have composts that need feeding with the aim to divert organic material from landfills and bring people together. If you have food scraps you want to compost, use the ShareWaste map to find a host near you. Similarly, if you have a garden and need more compost for it, you can sign up to receive donations from your community. Michal has been using this during her time in Wellington, she says it’s so easy to do and feels great knowing her scraps aren’t ending up in landfills.
These are only a few out of the many ways to reduce food waste, we’re always on the lookout for more so would love to hear any other tips or tricks you might have!