Waste Not, Want Not

I suppose it was inevitable that a TV programme titled the Great British Waste Menu was going to be run on the same lines as Great British Menu. Notwithstanding, it was good to see the subject of waste food being highlighted because we really do waste so much of it from source to end user.

Whose to blame? Well, a bit of everyone but in the end we all pay, and in these times of financial hardship we would be crazy not to accept a free meal if we can get it. I am old enough to remember pig food when food waste was sold to a local farmer who boiled it up and fed it to his pigs.

This doesn’t of course solve the problem of why we waste so much food but it seems that we demand perfectly formed, customised, standardised, clean fresh and frozen food and if it turns out otherwise it is rejected either by the supermarket/retailers or the prospective buyer but somewhere along the line we end up paying for it. Perfectly good food is ploughed back into the land. Our obsession with sell by dates is bizarre as it is for the benefit of the supermarket/retailer but doesn’t mean to say it is inedible after that date. If it looks ok, smells ok and tastes ok, then there is every chance it is ok.

So next time you whinge about prices in the supermarket, or in the restaurant, remember it is your so called demands and unwillingness to accept a less than beautiful looking, variable size product that is hiking up the price. Think local, think ugly!

Advertisement