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Some Kent households are wasting up to £400 a year on
perfectly good food which ends up being thrown away - that could
buy several meals out or pay the next credit card bill."
The 14 local councils in Kent, are offering residents tips on
how to save that money and help the environment with their Love
Food Hate Waste campaign.
The campaign gives advice on how to make the most of the food we
buy. Around a third of all food being brought in the UK ends up
being thrown away and most of that is perfectly good food that
could have been eaten.
The advice is available on the
Love Food Hate Waste page and includes the following tips:
- most ripe fruit can be kept in the fridge to make it last
longer
- your freezer really is your kitchen hero - many fresh foods can
be frozen: check the label
- if things are approaching their "Use By" date and you won't get
round to eating them - pop them in the freezer for another day
- sliced bread can be frozen and then used for breakfast
toast
- grate cheese in small portions and freeze - take it out in the
morning to make lunchtime sandwiches, no need to defrost
- to freeze tomatoes, remove their stalks and freeze whole in
freezer bags. They can then be used in place of canned tomatoes, in
a tomato or Bolognese sauce or chilli con carne
In the UK, 6.7 million tonnes of food are thrown away each year
and most of it ends up in landfill sites. This contributes to
climate change because food waste emits methane, a very powerful
greenhouse gas.
Celebrity Chef Ainsley Harriott is supporting the Love Food Hate
Waste campaign and says: "You don't have to be a chef to know how
to cut down on food waste, you just need to care about your pocket
and the rest will follow."
Peelings and cores can be dealt with in an eco-friendly way too
- home composting prevents unavoidable food waste such as peelings,
cores and teabags ending up in landfill, and can do wonders for the
garden. Kent residents can buy subsidised home compost bins by
visiting the recyclenow website (link opens in a new
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