How to reduce food waste

 Issues of packaging, food waste and sustainable practices are complex. At Good Food, we are trying to find realistic solutions to the problem of food waste and packaging generated by our test kitchen and members of the team are taking on green challenges at home.

Find out the main things we’ve learned with some realistic suggestions for how you can reduce your own household food waste. If you only do one thing – try not to buy too much, and when you choose produce, don’t overlook the wonky fruit and veg. We’ve also got plenty of ideas for how to use your leftovers.

Where food is wasted

• Misshapen, marked, discoloured or oddly sized fruit and vegetables that don’t
 meet the standards of the marketplace (up to 20-40%) are thrown away before even leaving the farm.
• Some food goes off when transported.
• Offcuts and foods past their use-by dates are binned by both retailers and by us at home. (In developed countries, this kind of waste is the greatest proportion of food lost.)
• Cooked, uneaten food is binned.

How we can waste less food

• We should eat all shapes and sizes: ‘Ugly’ fruit and veg is sold by box schemes like London-based Oddbox who also give their surplus to food banks via City Harvest and wonkyvegboxes.co.uk do something similar in the Leicestershire area.
• Companies can use ‘ugly’ fruit and vegetables in their products: Imperfect fruit and veg is used in drinks, jams, chutneys, hummus and snacks by companies such as Rubies in the Rubble, Waste Not, Rejuice, Snact, ChicP, awesomedrinks.com, Dash Water and more.
• We should use it to make other resources: An increasing amount of food waste is being sent to be composted – so it’s put back into the soil – or to anaerobic digestion facilities where it is broken down and converted into gases, creating a source of renewable energy.

According to the latest figures from WRAP, by weight, household food waste makes up around 70% of the UK post-farm-gate total. They estimate that by cutting food waste each household could save up to £700 per year as well as making less waste.

Top 5 ways to cut down on food waste

1. Don’t over buy. Keep track of what you’ve bought and used. WRAP suggests taking a ‘shelfie’ – a photo of your fridge and cupboards to remind you of what’s there.
2. Check the use-by dates of fresh food when you buy it. These are the dates to take notice of, rather than the best-before dates. Only buy what you can use before it expires.
3. Plan ahead. Think about what you’re going to cook and how you’ll use the leftovers.
4. Get to know your grocer. They will have plenty of advice on how to use up leftover veg.
5. Love your freezer. Use your weekends to batch-cook and freeze. There are plenty of freezing tips in our guide.

You can also consider home composting.

How we’re tackling food waste at Good Food

We test around 80 recipes a month as well as making videos and taking pictures of food and products that come in all sorts of packaging, and we also make waste as we cook.

To tackle this, we eat all of the food that comes out of the test kitchen within the company, so when we talk about waste, we mean peelings, offcuts and – on the rare occasion that a recipe goes horribly wrong and is inedible – a complete dish. Each Friday staff take unused ingredients home and we challenge our cookery assistant Liberty to make lunch using as many leftovers as possible.

Here’s how our magazines editor got on when challenged to reduce his household food waste over two weeks…

How I reduced food waste

Keith Kendrick, magazines editor: “As a dad and a foodie, I’m used to cooking family meals. I batch cook the kids’ meals, but prefer to cook on a whim for my wife and me. We normally throw out three small caddy-sacks of food waste a week. My strategy was two-fold: planning meals and creative use of leftovers.”

Week one

“I wrote out two plans for the week – one for kids, one for adults – and ordered lots of ingredients. At the weekend, I cooked the kids’ weeknight meals, plus a dozen jars of soup for my wife and me to take to work. Ever tried roasting a whole cauliflower, stalks and all, then blitzing it with coconut milk and spices? Delicious! I used the stalks of kale and broccoli, too – lovely when roasted with Marmite. Our Sunday chicken provided enough leftovers to make a curry, a salad and sandwiches for the kids. We still had a fair bit of waste, but none of it could’ve been eaten.”

Week two

By week two, we had a rhythm – whatever my kids didn’t finish for dinner, my wife had for lunch the next day. The problem? She wasn’t eating the soups I had so lovingly prepared! I thought about freezing them, only my freezer was already full. It was time for an inventory. I took everything out, which provided the meals for the week. Overall, there were only two disasters: a lasagne declared ‘inedible’ by my wife, and a vegan, gluten-free pie that tasted like plasterboard – a total of 263g of food that we could have eaten. All other waste was unavoidable, and we went from three caddy-sacks to two per week.

The verdict

A success… sort of. Planning was fun, and knowing that 96% of what we threw away was unavoidable made me feel good. However, as a spontaneous cook, it was stifling to plan meals so far in advance. The way forward for us is balance – planning the kids’ meals ahead, with more educated portion sizes, and deciding on the day what my wife and I fancy for dinner, with one eye on the leftovers.

Top 10 tips for food photography and styling

 

Top 10 tips for food photography and styling from Sam Linsell

Samantha Linsell is a bright light in the South African food blogging and food styling world. Her beautiful and totally inspiring new book, Drizzle & Dip, is out now and to celebrate its launch we asked Sam for her top 10 food photography and styling tips. Over to you, Sam.
If you want to take a really good photograph of food, you have to take a number of factors into consideration. There are the skills required to master the technical aspects of the camera; the understanding of light and how it affects your subject; the overall mood you want to create through your props and styling and, of course, the best way to present your food. Much like any creative endeavour, there are skills which can be mastered but the rest is an art and an expression. Find your own style and voice.

1. Learn as much as you can about your camera

This is the more technical aspect of the process and can easily be learned. I am a self taught photographer and have read numerous books and tutorials on the subject. I continue to read as there is always room for improvement. You can find everything you need online. Just keep looking, reading and learning. Read your camera manual. Shoot in manual mode if you are not already, as this is the only way you will learn about setting up your exposure and having control over your shot.

2. Understand light

Start developing an understanding of light and the relationship it has with your subject. Play around with trying to find the best light you can in the place where you shoot. I only shoot using natural light as a source because I prefer it. You can achieve excellent results using artificial light and can set it up so that it mimics natural light. It can also be more convenient if you are not able to shoot in the day.
3. Consider the mood you want to create in the shot

Decide on the overall style and mood you want to create and work towards composing it. Do you want it to be casual or formal? Do you want it to be dark or light? I find that the seasons and the type of food will often dictate how you present it. So, for example, if its winter and you are shooting a bowl of thick comforting soup, you may prefer to set it up so that it looks warm and cosy rather than a shot with a very white and ‘cool’ mood. If its summer and you are shooting fruit and ice cream, you may want to show it looking light and refreshing.
4. Subject placement

Decide what the focus area of the shot is and place your subject in it. Use the rule of thirds as a guide. You can either have it centred or it can look more interesting off centre. Don’t pull the eye away from the subject through props that are bold and stand out, rather have a clear focus area and ensure that your food is always the primary focus. Decide where you want the viewer’s eyes to go and direct them to that area. So if the best part of the food is the topping, make sure that when you shoot it, the topping is the focus area. If you want the inside of a dish to be the focus, ensure that you make that part the focus area of the shot.
5. Depth of field

This is the amount of subject matter in a shot that retains focus. A photograph with a shallow depth of field has a small part of the subject in focus and the background out of focus. This creates a lovely mood and can work really well with food photography. Medium depth of field has more of the subject in focus. A deep depth of field has everything in focus. Think about the food you are shooting and what sort of depth would suit it. My advice is to mix it up.
6. Choose your perspective and angle

How close up do you want to go to the food? Do you want to show a whole scene or just a specific part? A lot of this will depend on the type of food and what you want to say. Some food can look very good close up and some dishes look better shot from a greater distance.

You can add a lot of interest by adjusting your angle too. Think of which shows off the food the best: an overhead angle or a 45 degree or 3/4 angle (or varying degrees of this). For example, a pizza looks best shot from above and food with intricate layers will always look better shot side on.
7. Plan your props and garnishes

Think of the recipe and ingredients and use these elements as garnish to make the picture more interesting and to tell a story about the food. Choose the right colour props to match the food – contrasting colours work well. Build your shot, move things around, compose and add to it. Use fresh herbs as garnish or small leaves, whole spices etc. Think of ways to make the picture more interesting to look at and choose props that are linked in to the style of dish you are presenting. Ensure the props do not dominate the food – just  like make-up on a fashion model, they are there to enhance. You could start with a basic selection of props and white crockery which always looks good for food. Colour adds vibrance and life. Vintage cutlery, crockery and textured backgrounds make the image more interesting and help make it richer to look at than just white linen.
8. Colour

The colour wheel shows which colours work together and which are opposite each other. Sometimes contrasting colours work really well to make food pop out. Play around and explore which colours look good next to each other. Look at food photographs that you like and notice the colours that are used.
9. Create texture in your food
At the end of the day the food is the most important part of the shot so you need to make sure it looks delicious and has big appetite appeal. Using herbs as garnish – from ingredients in the recipe is an easy way to lift the look of a dish and add colour. It is  important that the food does not look flat and lifeless. Smaller plates allow it to look fuller. Give the food height if it needs it and as much texture as possible. Salt, pepper, other spices sprinkled on and around the food works really well to achieve this. This can be added at the end, like croutons on the soup, a generous dollop of cream or a dusting of cocoa or sugar on a dessert.
10. Practice

The only way to become better at anything is to practice and then practice some more. Don’t be afraid of making mistakes, it’s through the mistakes that we learn the most.

A big thanks to Sam for these tips. For more food styling inspiration, check out Sam’s new book, Drizzle & Dip and her blog.

Top 10 Tips For A Healthy Diet

 Need to get back on track with your healthy eating? We have rounded up 10 of the best quick tips for a healthy diet that will instantly kick-start your daily diet to a more healthy state.

1

Drink Lots Of Water

Take a 1.5-litre — that’s over 2.5 pints — bottle of water to work with you, and try to finish it all by home time. It might involve a few extra toilet breaks in the day, but it’s worth it.

2

Eat The Recommended Portions Of Fruit And Vegetables Every Day

If you find this difficult, then remember that smoothies, juices and dried fruit all count. Although advice on how many portions of fruit and vegetables a day can vary from country to country, average recommendations tend to be between 5-10 portions a day. 

3

Never Skip Breakfast

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day! Opt for something that will release energy slowly — porridge and a handful of blueberries are a great option!

4

Plan Your Meals For The Week Ahead

Write a shopping list and stick to it — and never shop when you're hungry, as this is a fatal error that inevitably leads you to stuffing your shopping trolley full of junk!

5

Keep A Supply Of Healthy Snacks To Hand

Snacks can include fresh and dried fruit, wholesome cereal bars, rice cakes, low-fat fruit yogurts and wholemeal pitta and hummus.

6

Remove All Visible Fat From Food Before You Cook It

Take the skin off chicken and trim the white fat off any meat. Also, try to avoid eating too many processed meats such as sausages and burgers (the fat's not visible from the outside, but it's certainly there).

7

Limit Your Intake Of Stimulants

Caffeine, alcohol and refined sugar are a few to limit in your diet.

8

Limit The Number Of Times You Eat Out To Once A Week

Take your own packed lunch to work or choose (non-creamy) soup in the canteen.

9

Eat Properly

Don't cut out food groups — such as carbohydrates — altogether in a bid to lose weight quickly. Your body needs balance, so make sure you eat properly. And don't do denial — you'll only end up cracking!

10

Only Eat Things You Like The Taste Of

 Find what works for you, and don't force yourself to eat things just because they're good for you.