Words by Smiley Team
Cook, TV presenter and author Nadiya Hussain (pictured) has teamed up with environmental charity WRAP for the UK’s first-ever Food Waste Action Week. Together they are spreading the message that “wasting food feeds climate change”, by sharing tips and tricks to reduce household waste from 1st to 7th March.
Delivered through WRAP’s brand Love Food Hate Waste, the event is supported by Hussain who said: “Being at home more this last year has given many of us – including myself – an opportunity to reassess our relationship with cooking. Most of us don’t realise it, but wasting food is a major contributor to climate change. And it isn’t just the leftovers on our plate to consider but the many resources that go into producing our food, like water and land.
“If we each make small changes we’d dramatically reduce the amount of food that ends up in the bin, and really can make a difference. From avoiding buying or preparing too much to storing food correctly, Food Waste Action Week is about helping people make the most of their food, and through our actions – help protect our planet.”
Few people realise that food waste poses a bigger problem for climate change than all commercial flights combined. In fact, if food waste were a country, it would have the third-biggest carbon footprint after the USA and China.
To help tackle this problem and participate in the awareness week, take their Food Waste Action Challenge of getting as close as possible to zero waste throughout the week. Download their action pack for more information and to get involved here.
You can share your top tips on how to avoid food waste and let everyone know how the challenge is going for you via your social media platforms. Include the hashtag #FoodWasteActionChallenge and tag @lfhw_uk in your posts.
The Love Food Hate Waste website offers a range of tools and advice to help with the challenge, from the moment you buy food to the way you store it at home. At the buying stage, their portion planner offers a calculator to work out how much you need to buy on your weekly grocery shop.
Once home and tidying your shopping away, they advise keeping your fridge to 5°C or lower in order to keep food fresh for longer. Keeping an eye on your use-by dates, you can minimise waste by planning your meals around what will go out of date first.
By eating everything that’s edible, storing food correctly and freezing anything that might go off, you can save what might otherwise end up in your bin, wasting your money as well as the food itself.
For more information visit the Food Waste Action Week webpage.
