Food Waste Action Week: get involved.


Food Waste Action Week: get involved!

Food Waste Action Week is upon us and we’ve teamed up with national sustainability body WRAP to help raise awareness of food waste and how it contributes to climate change.

If food waste was a country…

To truly understand the issue, we need to know where we currently stand. According to DEFRA, if food waste was a country, it would be the third largest producer of greenhouse gases, behind China and the USA.

Closer to home, UK households throw away 4.5 million tonnes of perfectly good food each year that could have been eaten. That’s the same weight as 355,000 double decker buses!

 

Be part of the change

Here at Approved Food, we’ve been campaigning for years to reduce food waste through a better understanding of food labels – specifically best before dates. Food can be perfectly good to eat for weeks, months or even years after the best before date has passed.

We believe that better education on food labelling terminology is vital in the fight to reduce the amount of food thrown away. While use by dates are generally applied to fresh produce such as meat, salad and vegetables and concern food safety, best before dates – sometimes marked as BBE on packaging – are discretionary and refer to quality, not safety. Best before dates should be viewed as a guide rather than a rule.

Help from home

The problem of food waste won’t be solved overnight, and it will require effort from people around the globe to make a change. Food Waste Action Week is aiming to do just that by encouraging households across the nation to get involved. The action week will encourage households to significantly reduce the food they throw away, with a different theme each day, from food storage and portion planning to creative ways to use up food, and practical steps such as setting the fridge temperature correctly. Check out the full schedule here.

As a strategic partner of Food Waste Action Week, Approved Food is giving away 12 months’ supply of rescued food and drink worth £720 (and significantly more at original RRP) and is offering spot prizes each day of the week, bringing the total giveaway to more than £1,000.

Other prizes on offer include:

  • A Hisense new PureFlat fridge freezer worth £1500 RRP (note delivery cannot be made to Northern Ireland or Jersey)
  • A signed copy of Nadiya Hussain’s book
  • 1 x £250 Waitrose & Partners gift card / e-voucher – see full T&Cs here [link]
  • A year’s supply of Cravendale milk (2x2L bottles per week) and a Smeg blender
  • One of three signed, personalised Michel Roux Jr cookbooks, courtesy of Albert Bartlett.

 

To find out more, and for the full terms and conditions, go to the Food Waste Action Week website.

There are some small changes to our attitudes and behaviours that we can make in our very own kitchens! Our managing director, Andy Needham, has rounded up his top tips for tackling food waste from home, check them out below:

Andy’s top tips:

  • Check your dates – if food has passed its use by date, don’t touch it. If it has passed its best before date, use your common sense – if it looks, smells and tastes okay, it’s fine to use.
  • Make a list and stick to it – we’ve all been tempted by offers in the supermarket that encourage us to buy more than what we need. This can lead to food waste, be mindful when filling your trolley!
  • Consider buying tinned or frozen products as they last longer than fresh – even if they go past their best before date.
  • Love your leftovers – store them properly and get creative! We love to use sauces from around the world to jazz up our leftovers. If you don’t use it, freeze it.

Our customers are already being part of the change just by shopping with Approved Food. Since we were established 12 years ago, together we have saved over 25,000 tonnes of perfectly good food and drink from going to waste! Our ethos is all about avoiding waste where we can, and that’s exactly how we source our products. Every product on our website has been redistributed, saving it from being thrown away unnecessarily. That means when you place an order with us, you’re helping to tackle food waste.

We recently reached our one millionth order milestone which is an incredible achievement. Just think, every single one of those orders could have been wasted, but thanks to our amazing customers, we’re fighting the good fight with every order that is placed. Thank you.

We’d love to know what you’re doing to reduce your food waste and get involved with Food Waste Action Week. Share you tips, advice and photos on Twitter using the #ApprovedFoodWasteActionWeek.

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