Celebrating Stop Food Waste Day 2022
It’s National Stop Food Waste Day and #TeamAlice is sharing the top tips we’ve taken on board since working with our client the Environmental Protection Agency on the #StopFoodWaste campaign.
In partnership with M.CO, we’ve been working with the EPA on their #StopFoodWaste campaign since the summer of 2021. As well as raising awareness of food waste through social media and digital campaigns, we’ve also been swapping top #StopFoodWaste tips around the office!
There are countless ways you can reduce food waste in your own home and on National Stop Food Waste Day, #StopFoodWaste is asking you to focus on just one simple thing – Make use-by dates work for you!
In a recent National Food Waste Attitudes Survey, the biggest reason why people throw food away is because it has passed its use-by date. But did you know that food can be frozen right up to its use-by date? So if you’re not going to use something before it passes that food safety deadline, you can pop it in the freezer to use on another day. It’s a simple action that can have a big impact to reduce food waste.
Here are some of the other simple actions that #TeamAlice has adopted over the last year to #StopFoodWaste in our own homes:
- Martina has started putting pre-sliced bread in the freezer on the day she buys it, defrosting as she needs it, in order to eliminate waste and make a loaf last longer. She has also started growing her own herbs. When she does need to buy fresh herbs, she’s learned to treat them like flowers (as demonstrated by Laura de Barra!)
- Kate says she always checks what’s in the cupboard and fridge before a food shop to ensure that she doesn’t double up on any ingredients. She also says that making a list has been a gamechanger, helping her to avoid over-buying which always leads more to food waste.
- Emma and her housemates have embraced a ‘share shelf’ to cut down on food waste when everyone is cooking their own meals. The share shelf in the fridge is where anything that needs to be used first is stored. This means no more chopping up half an onion only to discover one already going to waste in the vegetable drawer! Emma says her favourite working-from-home lunch is a ‘leftover omellette’, using up whatever vegetables are to be found on the share shelf that day!
- Dani uses up any fruit nearing the use-by date to make smoothies. She’s found that this can be a treat that keeps on giving and that by chopping up fruit, bagging it up and popping it in the freezer for another day, she’s always got a steady supply of smoothie ingredients!
- Ciarán has embraced meal planning and creates a menu for the week ahead. This way he also makes sure that he is only buying what he needs when he goes on the weekly food shop!
- Susannagh makes soup with any leftover vegetables, making sure that nothing goes to waste. She also buys all her herbs in pots which means they keep growing and stay fresh, so Susannagh doesn’t have to buy and throw anything away!
What are your top #StopFoodWaste tips?
For top tips to #StopFoodWaste and make use-by dates work for you, check out the National Stop Food Waste Day blog and make sure to share your own tips using the hashtag on social media!