Unbelievably one third of all food purchased in Ireland is thrown away – on average this is equivalent to throwing €1000 away each year!
There are many common reasons why we purchase too much food; here are the top three:
- No shopping list – this means we go to the supermarket unprepared and end up buying perishable foods that go off before we can eat them – so make a list & stick to it.
- Shopping when hungry – its been proven that if you shop when hungry you will purchase more than you need leading to waste.
- Special offers especially BOGOF (Buy one get one free) these offers are great for non perishable items but avoid them for salads, fruit and bread. If you only needed 1 head of lettuce to start you will probably end up throwing out the second head in a few days time.
Food waste is bad for the environment – most importantly it’s a waste of resources – after all, the food had to be grown, perhaps processed, stored, purchased, stored again at home and all of these stages have an environmental impact so reducing your food waste burden will help conserve resources.
There are ethical issues around food waste as well – currently there is very little awareness of food poverty in Ireland but it is a growing issue, a study conducted in 2010 found that 19% of boy children and 14% of girl children “always or often” go to bed hungry. Wasting less food in our own homes isn’t going to change the national situation but it is the right thing to do and the more aware of food waste we are the more likely we are to waste less.