Scary Amount of Food Waste at Halloween

As Halloween  creeps up on us again,  households are stocking up on pumpkins, nuts, apples, and other goulish delights. Spare a thought however for the poor pumpkin of which 25{b050ebef00e2b6e935b95b021e9f55f4ab20ffeed47f29e2aa25a2081fec5bc8} is discraded into the waste bin (landfill) by households.  In the UK this equates to 18,000 tonnes of needless waste. And UK’ers could use this “waste” to make pumpkin soup, or put in the compost heap or the brown bin!

In Ireland..

we discard 1 million tonnes of food waste per year. Our fruit and veg share a fate similar to the pumkin in that 25{b050ebef00e2b6e935b95b021e9f55f4ab20ffeed47f29e2aa25a2081fec5bc8} of them goes in the grey bin. Our most popular discarders are potatoes, apples and bananas. Salads fare worse with householders throwing 50{b050ebef00e2b6e935b95b021e9f55f4ab20ffeed47f29e2aa25a2081fec5bc8} of them into the residual bin.

It is extimated that 60{b050ebef00e2b6e935b95b021e9f55f4ab20ffeed47f29e2aa25a2081fec5bc8} of the food waste generated by householders is avoidable. We can achieve this by reviewing how we shop, store our food, prepare it, cook it and reuse or recycle it. Another 20{b050ebef00e2b6e935b95b021e9f55f4ab20ffeed47f29e2aa25a2081fec5bc8} can be avoided by the use crusts, peels and cut offs. Recognising simple things like that in a baked potato the skin and flesh are equally important. Both provide equal amounts of nutrients and vitamin C , while the skin provides 80{b050ebef00e2b6e935b95b021e9f55f4ab20ffeed47f29e2aa25a2081fec5bc8} of the potato’s iron. Using both  helps to reduce food waste.

Consumers can also reduce their food waste by not accepting the sometimes unrealistic use-by dates on food, when a simple sniff can inform you that the food is perfectly edible.

So this Halloween spare a thought for the poor Pumpkin. And before you gorge out it’s inners, ask yourself what I am going to do with them…..something goulish I hope…ha, ha, ha.