don't bin that banana!

OK, guilty as charged, I'm one of those people who has an alarming tendency to find food past it's best unappealing - and I probably throw away more than I should.

All that's about to change - honest! I have to confess to feeling rather guilty about this wastefulness, especially when I think of the effect we're told that waste is having on our environment. Oops. I was really pleased to find this website (thanks to Rachel, from the Relentlessly Positive forum) which aims to change the way we cook - and encourages people to use up what they buy instead of letting it go off in the kitchen and turning their noses up when it's a bit old.

A staggering 4.4 million whole apples are thrown away untouched every day in the UK, according to the latest figures from the site, calleds Love Food Hate Waste. That's an awful lot of vitamins and minerals going into landfill. The site is the brainchild of WRAP (Waste & Resources Action Programme) and the spearhead of a campaign to tackle the horrendous amount of foodbeing thrown out in most UK homes.  The figures show that in total we bin nearly £3 billion worth of perfectly good fruit and vegetables each year.

This sad fact illustrates Love Food Hate Waste campaign’s figures that a third of the food we buy, or 6.7 million tonnes, gets thrown out from UK homes annually, most of which could have been eaten. Fruit and vegetables make up a huge 40% of this.  The top five fruit & vegetables which get binned without even being touched are

• apples,
• potatoes,
• bananas,
• tomatoes and
• oranges

Dr Liz Goodwin, WRAP Chief Executive says:

“These dramatic figures show that although we are all keen to do the right thing buying plenty of fruit and vegetables, the benefit is clearly being lost when food gets thrown out untouched”. She adds “By following some simple tips and advice which can be found on our website, we can all be saving money as well as helping the environment.”

If you're one of the many people who throws out old food rather than giving it a second chance, why not have a look at the site? It's actually not a 'worthy' site at all, no preaching, just really good ideas for what you can do with fruit, veg and leftovers. My imaginiation, I have to confess, probably only stretches to the limits of bubble and squeak, or making smoothies with over ripe bananas...so a site like this is a really inspirational (and yummy) find. I might have to cook too many veggies on purpose just so that I can try the roast dinner soup...