Fighting food waste with an app… and a measuring spoon
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Version 0 of 1. Lisa Edwards is busy unpacking shopping for the following day’s dinosaur-themed birthday party for her toddler Max, but is happy to show Guardian Money into her kitchen and explain – short of actually rifling through her bin – how she and her family have reduced their food waste by more than three quarters over the past year, saving £1,000. “We were definitely wasting some food before we got involved in the project but the problem was that we just didn’t know how much,” she says. After Max chucks a banana on the floor, she weighs it on scales which are connected, via her iPad, to an app called Winnow. The screen tells her that if she throws the banana – which weighs 118g – away, she will have wasted the equivalent of 15p. “I was wasting more than I thought and it certainly adds up,” she says as Max squeals for his banana back. “Not only do we know the value of what we are wasting – and why – but we are also taking steps to reduce it in the first place by planning meals, shopping more carefully, and using our freezer better.” Lisa, 31, and husband Jamie, 34, signed up last year to be part of a ground-breaking £1m Waste Less, Save More trial run by Sainsbury’s to help consumers reduce their food waste and save money. They, and their two young sons, Jake and Max, live in Swadlincote, a market town of 35,000 people in Derbyshire, chosen by Sainsbury’s as its test bed. As one of the “focus families” in the trial, they have used new technology, such as Winnow (currently only used in restaurant kitchens) and Olio, a US food-sharing app (the first time it has been tested outside London). They also kept food diaries, and worked with chefs and nutritionists to go “back to basics” in the way they buy, store, prepare, cook and eat food. The UK churns out 15m tonnes of food waste a year – of which 7m come from households. The estimated retail value of this is a staggering £7.5bn, and the government’s waste advisory body, WRAP, calculates that a typical family wastes £700 of food a year. Depressingly, its most recent figures show it has risen by 0.3m tonnes in three years. Sainsbury’s initially invited towns across the UK to take part in a pilot project on food waste. Oddball ideas such as talking bins, urban wormeries and mushrooms grown from used coffee grounds came flooding in. But Swadlincote was finally chosen because it already had a recycling rate above the national average. As part of the project, staff at Sainsbury’s handed out free packs of simple gadgets to help shoppers reduce waste. Fridge thermometers had already helped residents discover that their fridge is not set at the optimum temperature to preserve food. Shoppers are also given pasta portion measures (we typically cook much more than we eat), measuring spoons and a gadget to squeeze the last out of a tube of tomato puree. Magnetic shopping lists and weekly meal planners, which can be easily fixed and viewed on the front of a fridge, have also been simple but effective solutions. Near the Waste Less, Save More welcome desk is a bank of Olio lockers where shoppers can leave or collect surplus food donated by local restaurants or cafes. Outside, an orange van is parked. It is used by a team of dedicated “food saver champions” who travel around the town, doing cooking demonstrations and sharing tips. Environmental charity Hubbub helped deliver the project. Initially this meant wading through nearly 800 household food collection bins over two weeks, weighing their contents. Findings will be compared when the project ends this week. While it’s thought that the original target of 50% savings is unlikely to be met, it’s expected that some reductions will be significant. Lisa explains that at the start of the project the family was ordered to gradually empty its fridge and freezer before being taken out shopping with a nutritionist, who introduced them to easy but healthy recipes. “My husband had become vegetarian and we were shown how to make things like carrot burgers from scratch. I’m now buying a lot less and I’m using up my leftovers by using my freezer better. The two key rules that I stick to are: always write a meal plan and always write a shopping list. “I recently ended up with a load of really ripe bananas so I made some banana bread and put two on Olio. I try to measure ingredients like pasta and rice into portions so that I am not cooking too much and then chucking it later.” Overall, the family has slashed its weekly food bill by a third and, thanks to Winnow, reduced its food waste to virtually nothing. On the other side of Swadlincote another “focus family” – Lisa Brooks, 41, proudly displays her jars of homemade sauerkraut and quince jam. “I’ve always enjoyed cooking but this project has inspired me to make things I would not have done before. I went on a workshop where I learned to make the sauerkraut from leftover cabbage which doesn’t even need cooking – it ferments and it’s very healthy.” Brooks, married and with 14-month old Luke, reckons she typically spent £200 a month on food, but is saving £20 on her bills, cutting her food waste to virtually nothing. “I use up everything I buy,” she says. Paula Chapman, who lives in the town with her partner and six children, has managed to cut her food bill from £120 to £60 each week – equal to more than £3,000 a year. “There are lots of things I’ve learnt which all add up to make a big difference,” she said. “In general, I’m more aware about what we’ve already got and I’ll shop to make meals around this. That’s not to say we don’t still enjoy an impromptu takeaway, we’re just more mindful to use up the ingredients another day.” Getting the children involved has also proved a big hit, especially in a busy household. She adds: “Instead of raiding the cupboards for a snack, they’ll come and ask what needs using up. “When we trialled Winnow it really brought it home; we realised that eight uneaten sandwich crusts might not seem a lot, but it really adds up over the year. We’ve definitely got more creative in the kitchen and aren’t scared to experiment. We even found a way of making our own pizza bases using natural yoghurt and flour.” Perhaps it is no great surprise that enthusiastic and eco-aware families who are interested in food and savvy with social media have achieved such impressive results. But Sainsbury’s admits that elsewhere results have fallen short of the 50% target. Supermarkets are regularly criticised for not doing more to redistribute edible food to the needy – via food banks and charities – although Sainsbury’s points out that it co-founded FareShare in 1994 with homelessness charity Crisis and supported its launch as an independent charity in 2004. The Swadlincote trial has helped local people facing the hardship of going hungry in other ways, providing refrigerated storage for donated perishable food that might otherwise be thrown away. And the council’s housing department has launched a scheme for new council tenants – often single people with only basic cooking skills. It provides a “welcome pack” including £50 of food, plus a booklet containing simple recipes and tips to reduce food waste and how to compost. The results of the trial will be evaluated by WRAP and published in the spring. Sainsbury’s has pledged to make the findings public and provide a further £1m to help other communities replicate the work in Swadlincote. Paul Crewe, head of sustainability at Sainsbury’s, said: “We’ve seen positive progress on what will be a longer journey. Changing behaviour can be a slow process, so while we might not see every home halving waste we’re really proud of the progress that has been made. “We’re aiming for the stars, so it’ll still be a success if we land on the moon. We’ve heard from families who can afford days out just by being smarter with their shopping, or those who have done home improvements with their savvy savings. “We’re hoping the results from Swadlincote will create a ‘Mexican wave’ around the UK, so we are putting lots of things in place to maintain the legacy in the town and encourage residents to keep up the good work.” The lessons learned 1 Many people stopped peeling veg, finding they were fine when cooked. 2 Bread was the most thrown away food item. Households learned to freeze leftovers as quickly as possible. 3 A simple plastic device to measure spaghetti before cooking cut out large amounts of waste. 4 Leftover fruit was used in bread pudding, while over-ripe bananas became banana bread. 5 The biggest gain was from planning what to eat and not overbuying. |