More on Cheap Food

I did watch the programme but only managed to watch part of it. I am going to try and see it later this weekend. However, I did see enough to know that part of the programme followed two families who were trying to lower their monthly food bills. One of the families bought the cheap supermarket lines of food and did save but decided at the end of the month that the only thing in that line they would continue to buy was the fruit and vegetables. The other family gave up the supermarket and started shopping at a local butcher for their meat and at the town market for much of the rest of their shop. They managed to save a considerable amount as well. However, for all of them, their savings also came from finishing what they had in their fridges and cupboards before buying more. They all planned better and had less wastage.

Waste not want not!

This seems to be a big topic of interest in the UK at the moment. Even the Prime Minister has come out in the press and said that we have to stop wasting so much food. Of course it has been known for a while that people in the UK waste on average 1/3rd of the food that they buy. However, what the Prime Minister fails to point out is the fact that more that half of food wastage is from supermarkets and restaurants. How much easier for the Prime Minister to put this back onto the public. Let us stop wasting and the government doesn't need to do anything to deal with either the waste or the actual reasons for the increase in the cost of food. I'm not trying to justify waste. I just don't think that the problem of rising food prices can be solved by people not wasting and I wish politicians would stop trying to come up with simplistic solutions! (Sorry about that rant. I will now get down from my soap box!)

Today the Guardian published an article with 20 ways to reduce food wastage. There are some excellent ideas and good Internet links. It's worth a look!