Keep food for longer to prevent food waste
According to WRAP "4.5 million tonnes of food which could have been eaten is thrown away in our homes every year!"
Photo by Del Barrett on Unsplash
Understand The Date Labelling on Food Packaging
Use-by dates are extremely important for making sure food is safe to eat. They are applied to foods that go off quickly and could cause food poisoning if not used before the use-by date. However, such foods can be frozen right up the use by date.
Best-before dates act as a rough guide for quality, and food can still be consumed after this date, though the flavour and texture may not be so good. For any food that has gone past its best-before date, if it looks OK, and smells OK, it's probably OK to eat!
Best before dates often lead to households disposing of edible food unnecessarily, contributing to the ever-increasing greenhouse gas emissions produced from decomposing food. Apparently 1 in 10 people throw food away based on the date labelling alone.
Chilling food properly in a fridge at 5 ̊C or lower can help preserve it for longer (all fruit except bananas will last much longer in the fridge than in a fruit bowl). Check your fridge temperature regularly, and also check to see if the door seals need replacing.
Find lots more help and advice on the Love Food Hate Waste website.
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