Food Waste
Food waste has become such an issue in the UK. In this Blog I’ll give you some tips on How to store fruit and veg to keep it fresher for longer which is one simple way to help reduce waste.
Food Waste Facts
It’s hard to believe but more than 8 million families in the UK struggle to put food on the table; and yet, around 10 million tonnes (household and commercial / retail) of food waste ends up in landfills each year.
The average family in the UK wastes nearly £60 a month (£720 a year) by throwing food away.
If we could all reduce our food waste it would not only save us money but also reduce unnecessary packaging waste and together, we can make a significant difference.
Just to put it into perspective here are some food waste facts:
- The UK throws away 9.52 million tonnes of food per year
- 1.4 million bananas being thrown away in the UK everyday
- The tomatoes wasted at home every year have the equivalent greenhouse gas emissions of 51,000 cars.
- Potatoes are the most wasted single food in the UK, with 1.6 billion thrown away every year, according to WRAP.
- It takes 65 billion litres of water to grow the potatoes we waste at home every year.
Check out my Blog Easy Tips to Reduce Food Waste for some handy tips and below I’ll share my tips for storing your fruit and veg to keep it fresher for longer
How to store fruit and veg to keep it fresher for longer
With so much food waste we need to find ways to reduce this.
One of the easiest ways to help reduce food waste is by ensuring fruit and vegetables are stored correctly so they stay fresher for longer and don’t go bad before they’re ready to be eater.
Here are some tips on How to store fruit and veg to keep it fresher for longer:
- Always store fruit and vegetables separately. Fruit emits more ethylene than vegetables and vegetables are much more sensitive to ethylene than fruit
- Store potatoes in a basket in a cool dark place
- Onions should be stored in a mesh bag hung up in the dark, if possible, don’t store with other veg
- Carrots and broccoli should be stored in the fridge draw, wrapped in a damp tea towel
- Place celery and asparagus in a jar with some water to keep it fresh. You can pop this in the fridge.
- Tomatoes can be tricky, store un-ripened ones on the worktop to allow them to ripen but ripened ones in the fridge
- Store strawberries and other soft berries in a jar in the fridge
- Keep bananas at room temperature, away from other fruit
And if you are interested in some more tips why not checkout what the Zero Waste Ambassadors have to say about food storage in Top Tips for Food Storage.
