Reducing Food Waste
Zero Food Waste Video
Watch this short 2 minute animated video on zero food waste practices for Cooking and Hosting FoodCycle Volunteers.
Learn how to make the most of your surplus food!
Reducing Food Waste- Tips
FoodCycle couldn’t create healthy and nutritious meals without surplus food. Our volunteers are helping to reduce food waste at every session by collecting surplus from local food suppliers and using it to create a meal, rather than it going in the bin. But it doesn’t need to stop there! We can reduce food waste in other ways in our FoodCycle kitchens too.
Prepping meals
When preparing your ingredients, just a few modifications can help reduce the amount going in the bin:
- Use your judgement as to whether carrots and potatoes need to be peeled - the skins are nutritious.
- Eat the whole broccoli, cauliflower or courgette… the stalk is also delicious!
- Use the stalks of herbs like parsley and coriander.
Extra surplus food
It's quite common to have more surplus than you need or can use in one session. In these cases, we recommend that guests receive extra food at the end of the meal. This means that we're able to make a greater impact on food poverty by allowing guests to utilise surplus food at other points during the week.
Surplus portions of meals
Extra portions of FoodCycle meals can be taken away by guests, but it should be made clear to them that this is at their own risk and the following guidelines apply:
- Cooked portions of FoodCycle meals need to be chilled as soon as possible.
- If food is to be reheated it must be piping hot throughout before it is served.
- Prepared FoodCycle meals must not be reheated more than once.
- Meal portions given to FoodCycle guests should be eaten on the same day to minimize Food Safety risks.
We recommended that you carry out regular ‘Tupperware amnesties’ – ask your volunteers and regular guests to bring in clean, empty take away containers, ice cream containers and butter containers to take extra portions of food away with them. Donated containers should be washed before use.
Surplus ingredients
Distributing surplus ingredients to guests at the end of the meal happens at many Projects, but should be carefully managed. We advise that you put a system in place to keep things fair – whether this is having a group of volunteers place an assortment of surplus ingredients in bags for each guest to take at the end of the meal, or inviting guests to take a selection one table at a time. Either way, encouraging a spirit of sharing and consideration of the needs of others is important.
Other suggestions
- Ask your volunteers to eat - if they can do this at the same time and at the same table as your guests, even better! This is a great way to say thank you to volunteers and is a fantastic way to make everyone feel more involved in the Project.
- Left-over love - ask your kitchen venue if they can use the left-overs for their lunch the next day. If so, this needs to be labelled with what it is and the date, cooled and stored in the fridge quickly, and staff need to be made aware it has been made from surplus food.
- Veg scraps - boil them down in water with some onions, garlic and salt - sieve this and you have a quick vegetable stock that freezes well.
- Bread - there are so many uses for old bread! If you have time, make croutons or breadcrumbs for next week; if you have access to a freezer, these can be bagged up and date labelled for freezing to add another texture to your food.
- Left-over fruit salad - cook it down with some sugar for fruit compote that will last until the next week in the fridge or freezer.
- Compost - see below for more information on this.
Freezing food
If you have the facility to freeze leftovers at your Project venue, check out the tips below:
General Freezing tips
- Make sure food is properly cooled before freezing – putting hot foods into the freezer raises its temperature.
- Food should be clearly labelled with what it is and the date it was made, and properly enclosed in an airtight container or cling film to prevent freezer burn or cross-contamination.
- Never re-freeze anything after it has been defrosted. This increases the amount of bacteria it contains to potentially dangerous levels – it could lead to food poisoning.
- Vegetables such as beans, broccoli and peas freeze better if they are blanched in boiling water for 30 seconds and then properly drained first.
- Eggs can be frozen for three months – either beaten, or separated into yolks and whites.
Freezing Timescales
- Bread – Breadcrumbs and croutons can be made from leftover bread and frozen for up to three months. They add great texture to dishes.
- Milk – this freezes for up to a month. Be aware that containers of milk will expand when they freeze, so store them upright if possible.
- Grated cheese – this keep for up to four months and can be used straight from the freezer.
- Vegetables – frozen vegetables begin diminishing in quality after six months.
How to defrost food
- Use a microwave – if there is one in your kitchen, this is the safest way to defrost foods thoroughly
- In cold water – immerse the bag containing the frozen food in cold water and change the water every 30 minutes – this works best if you have frozen in small quantities!
- Plan ahead – be aware that foods change in texture when they are frozen. Frozen fruits are best used in pies, crumbles and compotes after they have been frozen.
- First in, first out – always check before you defrost something, that it is the oldest supply of that ingredient that you have stored in the freezer. Good stock rotation is important in protecting the food safety of your kitchen.
Composting
Composting is a great way to reduce the amount of food waste sent to landfill (which produces methane gases harmful to the environment) and closes the loop in the food system by turning old food into nourishment for new food! It can also be a great way to build links with your local community.
Where?
Talk to your Project venue
- They may already have a compost bin or food waste collection on site, so ask if you can use it too.
- Make sure to check what can go in the compost bin, as they may have a strict policy.
- If your venue doesn’t have composting facilities, they may be interested in this so it’s still useful to talk to them.
Look into new composting facilities
- Contact local allotments, community food projects and recycling initiatives to see if they will take your Project's food waste/compost.
- Many food growers are always on the lookout for free compost, so you could make lots of friends this way and even swap your compost for locally grown food!
What?
Composting rules tend to vary so make sure to check with the appropariate local organisation, but some general guidance can be found in the table below.
| Compost | Don't Compost |
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