If the world’s food waste was a country, it would be the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after the USA and China. One third of all the food produced globally goes to waste.

In the UK, potatoes are the number one most wasted food. British households chuck out a whopping 4.4 million potatoes each day. So, what can we do to reduce the waste?

The way you store potatoes can make a huge difference. It’s best to store them in a cool, dry, dark place. The low temperature in the fridge can convert the starch to sugar and may turn the flesh grey or black. I grow my own and store them in thick brown paper bags in my porch. This is a cool spot that gets no direct sunlight.

I also never wash them before storing. The soil on them can prolong their storage life and help maintain their flavour. The same goes for carrots. Some supermarkets have started selling unwashed potatoes with the aim of minimising waste. I would definitely recommend these over washed ones.

I’m still working my way through the potatoes from my allotment that I harvested last October and they have lasted remarkably well. Although they have sprouted and are distinctly softer and spongier, the taste and texture when cooked is the same as if they were fresh. I just make sure to remove all the shoots and cut off any green patches, as these are poisonous.

There are many ways to cook potatoes – boiled, baked, roast, chips, rostis, Hasselback and Dauphinoise to name but a few – so it’s easy to ring the changes. There are many ways to use up leftovers, other than just re-heating. Roast potatoes are great cold in a salad or as crudité with a dip. You can mash them with leftover cabbage and/ or other spare vegetables to make bubble and squeak. Boiled potatoes can be sliced and fried, added to a frittata or made into potato salad.

Recipes for leftover potatoes

Here a few recipes for leftover mashed potato. The ingredients are all very similar but the end results are quite different!

Potato gnocchi

1lb/454g mashed potato
1 cup plain flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 medium egg

Mix all the ingredients together until they form a soft dough. It shouldn’t stick to your fingers. If it does, add a little more flour.

Lightly dust your surface with flour and roll dough into long “snakes” roughly the width of your finger. Chop into pieces 2 – 2.5 cm long and gently press each one with a fork.

Dust the pieces with flour and leave them to dry for about 20 minutes. Bring a pot of salted water to the boil and add the gnocchi. They are ready when they float to the surface.

Drain the gnocchi and serve with pesto, flavoured oils or any sauce that you would use on pasta.

Potato cakes

1lb/454g mashed potatoes
1 medium egg
1 spring onion, chopped or half an onion, finely diced
Pinch of salt
1/2 tsp stock powder (optional)

Mix all ingredients in a bowl until they come together. If too wet, add a little more flour. Divide into four and shape into patties (burger shape). Fry over a medium heat until brown on both sides.

Potato scones

1lb/454g  mashed potatoes
4oz/100g self raising flour
2oz/50g butter, softened
Pinch of salt

Mix all ingredients together and kneed into a smooth dough. Lightly dust your worktop with flour and roll out a circle just under 1cm deep. Cut into six equal pieces, then fry over a medium heat until brown on both sides.

Enjoy!

Jane Mitchell, CLEAR Buckhaven & Methil

The start of the year is a good time for people and businesses to think about saving money and looking after both their own and the planet’s health.

Research by Zero Waste Scotland highlights that food waste is a billion pound problem. In Scotland’s hospitality and food services sector the equivalent of 106 million meals, a startling one out of every six, are thrown in the bin each year. Food waste is not only bad for business, it’s bad for the planet. Food sent to landfill creates methane, a greenhouse gas that is contributing to global warming.

The Scottish Government’s Climate Change Plan contains an ambitious commitment to reduce food waste by 33% by 2025. But how can the food and hospitality sector realistically help to reach this level in the next two years? Here are three ways businesses can tackle food waste.

Offer doggy bags

As a diner, I know just how easy it is to order with eyes bigger than your belly. It can be especially tricky to order the right amount of food for your appetite when many restaurant menus consist solely of sharing platters. I always over order here.

Of course, this is not something that restaurants have any control over. However, I’m very happy to report that any time I’ve found myself with a groaningly full tummy and plates still containing the most delicious food, a handy doggy bag was readily available. When Zero Waste Scotland piloted these bags through the Good To Go scheme, participating restaurants reported their food waste was reduced by a fantastic 42%.

It used to be embarrassing or unusual to ask to take home leftovers. These days it doesn’t raise any eyebrows and a doggy bag is often offered as standard by hospitality staff. Not only does this reduce food waste, it also results in an extremely delicious packed lunch the following day. Win-win.

Take the Food Waste Challenge

Last year Greener Kirkcaldy took part in Zero Waste Scotland’s one-month Food Waste Challenge to allow us to monitor food waste and identify where was scope to reduce it. Jackie Arreaza, Senior Development Worker within the Community Food Team, worked with staff, volunteers and people from our community who attend our activities to complete the challenge. You can read more about how we got on by reading Jackie’s blog.

The key task is for businesses to record every time they add wasted or unavoidable food items to their food waste bin, identifying what was wasted and why. For time poor businesses this challenge may sound like too much work but it is something the whole kitchen and waiting team can be involved in, which lightens the load. The data gathered from this exercise is also priceless and can ultimately help to reduce costs.

As Greener Kirkcaldy’s Community Food Team learned, the challenge pinpoints exactly where food is being wasted and why. Are portions too big, or are certain components in the dish always being left, for example trimmings and garnishes?

One of my own bug bears in cafés is when I order a baked good and a slice of lemon or orange randomly appears on the side. I imagine most of that ends up in the bin. Is the same true of the side salad that inevitably accompanies a lunchtime toastie? Taking part in the Food Waste Challenge can really help businesses hone in on the exact whys and where’s of their waste.

Sign up to food sharing apps

Another fantastic tool for restaurants and cafes to save both money and food waste is sharing apps such as Olio, or Too Good To Go. It’s simple to sign up to these platforms and it’s convenient for businesses to upload what they have to offer at the end of the day, arrange for a customer to pay for and pick up the unwanted goods at a time that is convenient for everyone.

When I worked as a baker in an Edinburgh café, I found this was a really great way of passing on delicious scones and cakes that may not taste as fresh the following day. Customers paid a small fee to collect these products and they were always happy to collect at the end of the day. I’ve heard from many parents of students who eat very well on a daily basis solely using these apps.

So, why not pledge to stop wasting food to reduce the impact of your business on the planet and improve your bottom line? For more information or help with reducing food waste within your business please get in touch with me. Email louise@greenerkirkcaldy.org.uk.

Louise Oliver, Business Outreach Coordinator, Greener Kirkcaldy

Reducing food waste is an easy way to reduce your carbon footprint. If you would like to learn more about making climate-friendly food choices in your daily lives you can take part in our free two-part Plate Up for Fife cooking workshops taking place in February and March. 

After a frenzy of shopping over the Christmas and New Year period, we tend to calm down a bit in January and buy less (we’re usually skint anyway!), while we use up what we have in the cupboards or freezer.

I was using up potatoes for the first few weeks in January and still have extra chipolatas in the freezer but the one thing that’s still lurking now that we are in February is the extra jar of cranberry sauce that was bought ‘just in case’.

The worst thing we can do with leftover food is put it in the landfill bin. Methane gas is produced from food waste, which contributes to global warming. If you do have to throw food away then using a food waste bin or your own compost is better (make sure to recycle the packaging too). But the best thing we can do is use the leftovers to make something else, especially if we think about all the resources that went into producing the food, transporting it and sometimes storing it.

Cranberry sauce

Some ideas for using up cranberry sauce include adding it to plain yoghurt or serving it with pancakes. It can also be baked in a muffin or used to make a fruity flap jack or granola oat bar.

I’ve also used cranberry sauce as a glaze for a caramelised exterior. You can brush it on to chicken wings just like barbeque sauce, before cooking in an air fryer.

Think ingredients, not leftovers

If we start to think about leftovers as ingredients they sounds more appetising and help us get creative! Mix things up a bit by trying a savory pancake or using left-over vegetables to make a cake. The most commonly-known dish is carrot cake but you can also grate courgettes. I have even made a beetroot and chocolate cake that was delicious!

Using food that needs used up in a sandwich, stir-fry or omelette are classic way to help reduce food waste, especially if you have things in the fridge that are approaching the use by date. And then we often have the bits of veg in the drawer or cupboard that are going limp and can be turned into soup. Another idea is to cook any vegetables with onion and garlic and blend them with a can of chopped tomatoes to make a pasta sauce or salsa. If you like a bit of spice you can add chilli, or you can even make a curry sauce and eat the cooked veg along with rice.

Transform a leftover meal

Having something for lunch tomorrow or repeating the same evening meal can be boring so it’s good to think about what else we can make with what we have left. How can we repurpose a meal and transform it into a new dish? Some of the ideas I have tried involve using chilli con carne from the night before to cover nachos and cheese for a new meal, or as a topping for a baked potato. And using a tortilla wrap is a bit more interesting than a sandwich and you can add mayo or harissa and some tomatoes and lettuce to fill it up with whatever you have.

There are lots of good recipes and ideas on websites like the ones below so I encourage you to think twice about throwing food away and get creative with leftovers!

Find out more

Hubbub 

Love Food Hate Waste

Greener Kirkcaldy food and growing blogs

Jackie Arreaza, Senior Development Worker, Greener Kirkcaldy

As Christmas looms ever closer, my thoughts inevitably move to food and what to have for Christmas dinner and other meals over the festive period.

Unfortunately Christmas is the time of year when food waste reaches shocking levels, which is definitely not something to celebrate.

In the UK, a typical Christmas will see Brits throw away:

• 2 million turkeys
• 5 million Christmas puddings
• 17 million Brussel sprouts
• 74 million mince pies – 42% of those purchased
• 2 million kilos of cheese

If all of the country’s Christmas food waste was recycled into energy, it could power an average UK home for around 57 years. Besides food waste, huge amounts of food packaging will also be discarded. This includes 300 million plastic cups and straws and in total, around 125,000 tonnes of plastic wrapping used for food will also be discarded.

So what can we do to minimise the waste?

• Remember most shops are only closed for one day, so you don’t have to do a massive shop.
• Make a shopping list and meal plan to avoid buying excess food, (and stick to it).
• Buy a smaller turkey!
• Always check the use-by dates on food to make sure they will be in date for the meal you planned.
• Freeze any food that you won’t use before it goes out of date.
• Keep your fridge below 5˚C to stop food spoiling.
• Don’t just eat, ComplEAT! It’s about eating the whole ingredient or food and letting no edible parts go to waste.
• Serve smaller portions on your plate, you can always go back for seconds.
• Use Olio, the free food-sharing app.

You can also make the most of your leftovers by:

• Turning dinner into lunch by using a smaller quantity of leftovers.
• Freezing them.
• Using them in soups, curries, sandwiches, omelettes, pastas, pies and tarts or salads.

Here are a couple of my favourite really easy recipes that incorporate leftovers.

The Ultimate Christmas Veggie Traybake

Ingredients

600g leftover roast veg, such as potatoes, carrots and parsnips
1 tbsp olive oil
A few leftover woody herbs such as rosemary, thyme and sage (leaves removed) or a teaspoon of dried mixed herbs
Salt and pepper
2-3 cloves of garlic (optional)

Optional additions

You can add any combination of these extra ingredients according to your taste

150g cheese
3 tbsp leftover cranberry sauce
1 tbsp pine nuts
Pesto sauce
Spices such chilli flakes; curry powder; any spicy seasoning mix

Method

1. Heat the oven to 200°C/180°C fan/gas 6.
2. Put the roast veg on a roasting tray or baking sheet and pour the olive oil over the mix.
3. Add any optional seasonings/ spices/ herbs and stir the veg to combine all the ingredients. (If using cheese don’t add it yet.)
4. Season with salt and pepper.
5. Roast in the oven for 15 minutes to heat the mix through. The veg should start to brown and crisp at the edges.
6. After 15 minutes, stir the veg and add cheese if using.
7. Return the tray to the oven for another 5-10 minutes.
8. Once piping hot, remove the tray from the oven. Add any sauces, nuts etc as this point and mix through.
9. Enjoy!

Top tips

This recipe can be enjoyed on its own or as a side dish.

After all the rich food on Christmas Day a light, refreshing salad can be great. This warming and spicy dressing can be eaten with both hot and cold salads. It is also very tasty over boiled veg or noodles for a quick snack.

Thai style sweet and sour dressing

Ingredients

2 tbsp Groundnut, vegetable or sesame oil
1 tbsp lime juice
1 clove of garlic, finely chopped or grated
½ -1 red or green chilli, chopped finely
Pinch of sugar to taste

Method

1. Place all the ingredients together in a bowl or jar.
2. Stir or shake to mix.
3. You can adjust the sweetness and sourness by adding more or less sugar and lime juice.
4. Enjoy!

Top tips

In Thailand chefs usually let you taste the food as they are preparing it so you so you can adjust it to suit your taste buds, so do the same with this so it really hits the spot.

If you do still have some leftovers that you can’t use, please ensure you put them in the brown composting bin, rather than your blue landfill bin or make your own compost.

Wishing you a very merry, and waste free, Christmas.

Jane Mitchell, CLEAR Buckhaven and Methil

Hello, my name is Louise Oliver. I’m the new Business Outreach Coordinator, working at Greener Kirkcaldy as part of the Climate Action Fife project.

I’ll be engaging with businesses across Fife to help them reduce their energy use and food waste. This will help them reduce their carbon footprint. Another part of my role will be to create a business accreditation or award scheme for all the businesses involved. This will allow them to gain recognition and increase awareness for climate savvy consumers.

About me

I have worked for many years as a pastry chef and more recently as a baker at a small high street café/bar. This has given me a good understanding of the hospitality business, especially regarding food waste – from using reusable takeaway Tupperware to using veg peel for stock, as well as being part of a ‘Too Good To Waste’ food app. I have also almost completed a masters in Gastronomy, which uses food as a lens to view the world. The subject has a large emphasis on sustainability and altering our current food system.

I have completed my CPD certified Green Champions Training with Business Energy Scotland. I have learned how to successfully improve the resource efficiency and environmental performance of organisations. I’ve also learned how to save businesses money over the long term.

Business support

My training allows me to help businesses in several areas:

• Identifying cost savings and environmental improvement opportunities
• Effectively collecting and analysing data
• Using data to successfully bring about lasting change

Working alongside expert energy advisors at Cosy Kingdom, we can also provide invaluable advice to households. This advice is also pertinent for micro businesses and those working from home.

In collaboration with Zero Waste Scotland, we will use a food waste tracker to gather data on where exactly food is wasted. Businesses can then carry out appropriate responses to reduce waste. For example, if food is being wasted mostly on the plate by customers, offering them ‘good to go’ boxes will help to create a zero waste culture.

A Fifer at heart

I now live by the sea in Edinburgh, but was born and raised in Fife. As a young mum, I lived there for 10 years and regularly visit Fife to see my parents. I am always happy to spend a day at Pillars of Hercules, Bowhouse market or in some of the great high streets in Fife towns. I am passionate about the environment and helping people and businesses to be as kind to the planet as possible.

Please email me at louise@greenerkirkcaldy.org.uk if you are a local business person who would like to get involved.

Featured image: © Copyright Dave Fergusson and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.

Winners!

Winner: Musab Waheed, Glasgow

Runner Up: Oliver Northin, Kincardine

Congratulations to you both!

Why Musab won

Why Oliver won runner up

Coming soon! As part of our new #ClimateActionFife project, CLEAR is excited to be planning some online cooking demonstrations on creating delicious meals from leftovers and using local, seasonal food.

Scottish households throw away 600,000 tonnes of food waste every year with a value of up to £437 per year per household, not in our pockets! As well as being a waste of good food and money, it’s also a huge waste of all the resources that have gone into producing the food i.e. the fuel for the farm machinery, the farmer’s time and energy planting and harvesting, the water it took to grow the crops, the fuel used transporting the food to the food manufacturer, the materials used to package the food and much more, which all lead to the production of unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions. By reducing food waste, you can save money, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and help preserve resources for future generations.

So what can you do to help?

1. Don’t overbuy. Make meal plans and shopping lists (and stick to them!) to avoid buying too much food.
2. Check the use-by date on the food you buy. Those with the longest use-by dates are usually at the back of the shelves in shops. Be aware that “sell by” is used by manufacturers to ensure foods have a long shelf life after purchase. “Use by” is the last date recommended for use.
3. Love your freezer. Freeze anything you won’t use immediately that may go off if left in the fridge or batch cook and freeze it for later use.
4. Use your leftovers. Either re-heat or adapt to make another meal.
5. Buy local (seasonal) food. This will reduce greenhouse gas emissions from transport, storage and packaging and is usually fresher and tastes better!
6. Compost your waste food. Put it in your brown bin (not your blue landfill bin!) or make your own compost.

If you can’t wait for our workshops, have a look at these links and be inspired to make a change!

Deliciously Ella

BBC Good Food

Love Food Hate Waste

Friends of the Earth

Greener Scotland

Climate Action Fife is a Fife-wide partnership project, bringing together individuals, communities, local government and businesses to tackle the climate emergency. It is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund’s Climate Action Fund. #ClimateActionFife

Part One

As part of our new #ClimateActionFife project, EATS is excited to be planning some online cooking demonstrations. You may already be aware that a large part of our project has been focused on the redistribution of surplus food with the aim of reducing food waste. But do you know what really links the two? Is it obvious how what we buy for dinner, what we do with our ingredients and how we cook it is affecting the climate?

They may seem like disconnected issues, but there are a number of factors that make your everyday choices very powerful indeed.

LIMITED RESOURCES

Firstly, the issue EATS have been focused on – reducing the amount of waste from supermarkets, local businesses and within households. We like to say we are feeding bellies, not bins, but how does that help? There are two huge problems related to this, the first is simply the huge waste of resources extracted from the planet, potentially going through many stages, journeys and transformations before we eat it. So for what is scraped from our plates is effectively wasting all the energy that powered the farm machinery, the farmer’s time and energy planting and harvesting, the water it took to grow the crops, the fuel we burnt transporting the food to the food manufacturer, the materials used to package the food, and much more besides. In the UK, agriculture is responsible for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions, 83% of ammonia air pollution, and 16% of water pollution. (What to eat Food and the environment | Friends of the Earth)

With limited resources this puts more and more pressure on the planet and all of its’ interconnected ecosystems. 

Have you heard of Earth Overshoot Day? This is the date in the calendar year when humanity has used as much ecological resources as the planet’s natural ecosystems can regenerate in the whole year – in 2020 Earth Overshoot Day was reached on August 22. 

WHERE DOES IT ALL GO?

Secondly when food is thrown in the bin, it can sometimes (though not always) end up on a landfill site. You may think food is biodegradable but in huge landfill sites food waste piles up high in a compacted area in anaerobic conditions, that is, without oxygen. In this scenario it creates methane gas and this can be more than 20 times more effective at heat-trapping than a molecule of carbon dioxide, as in leading to global warming. Alternatives at home can include composting and alternatives on a large scale can be to generate energy from this food waste, but ideally of course we would generate less waste in the first place!

Have you discovered this great new channel? Full of documentaries and short films with opportunities to take action – here’s a great film we found looking at one couple’s challenge to eat nothing but ‘wasted food’ Waterbear | Just Eat It 

THE FINANCIAL LOSS

Thirdly – the pennies on your plate. According to Food waste facts and figures | Greener Scotland avoidable food and drink waste costs Scottish households nearly £1.1billion in unnecessary purchases each year.

Scottish households throw away 600,000 tonnes of food waste every year with a value of up to £437 per year per household, not in our pockets! 

We may think the majority of waste is coming from supermarkets and business and that we are helpless to make change. However 61% of food waste in Scotland occurs in the home so we can really make a difference by thinking about every single thing we put on our plates. Food waste: The environmental impact | How To Waste Less (zerowastescotland.org.uk)

There are signs of progress as people become more aware of the impact of wasting food. Between us, across the UK we’re saving just under £5 billion a year compared with 2007, not to mention saving 5.0 million tonnes of CO2 – that’s like taking 2.1 million cars off the road. (LFHW) 

If you would like to learn more and help make even more of a reduction in the carbon emissions of food waste we recommend some further reading and listening. Dive into these links and be inspired to make a change! 

• Be inspired to use up what is in the fridge! Love Food Hate Waste |
• Deliciously Ella podcast: Food Waste and Climate Change | Delicious Ways to Feel Better on Acast
• Solving the problem of Food waste | Friends of the Earth

Climate Action Fife is a Fife-wide partnership project, bringing together individuals, communities, local government and businesses to tackle the climate emergency. It is funded by The National Lottery Community Fund’s Climate Action Fund. #ClimateActionFife