An estimated one third of all food produced globally goes to waste. In calories, that’s enough to feed every under-nourished person on the planet. According to charity FareShare, over 2 million tonnes of the food that goes to waste each year in the UK is still edible and yet, at the same time, there are 8.4 million people in our country living in food poverty.
It just doesn’t make sense.
We think we should all be doing our bit to reduce waste – and help others – so here’s what we’re doing, in our own small way, to help keep food on plates and out of landfill.
Our food parcels
A lot of thought and planning lies behind every food parcel. As with all Trussell Trust foodbanks, our food parcels contain at least three days’ worth of nutritionally balanced meals for individuals and families. When donated food reaches our warehouse, each item is individually and clearly labelled by hand with its Best-Before-date. It is then categorised and stored according to its remaining shelf-life. Our code of practice means we never give out food that is near to or approaching its Best-Before-date and any items with a short shelf-life are sorted into separate bays by our warehouse team.
What happens then?
Unfortunately, for many charities and foodbanks, most of this short-life food will end up in the bin. Avoiding waste (like recycling) takes time. It takes extra volunteers and extra time to divert short-life food away from the bin and into the kitchens of the right charities and organisations. And if you don’t know which charities near you have the means to use your short shelf-life food in time, then perhaps the bin is the only alternative.
Part of our role at Wetherby and District Foodbank is to act as a ‘hub’ for other foodbanks and local food charities. This means we have well-established contacts with several local and regional food charities who can take our short-life food and quickly turn it into nutritious and sustaining cooked meals for their clientele. We also have a small group of volunteers who have made the delivery of short shelf-life food to these charities part of their fortnightly routine.
In the last two months, we’ve received 500Kg of food that is approaching its Best-Before date. Thanks to our relationship with local charities and organisations such as Resurrected Bites who run a twice weekly ‘pay as you feel’ café in Knaresborough, and St Aidan’s Church in Leeds with their Foodshare Sunday lunches and a ‘Food Bags on Sunday’ scheme; we’re able to prevent the vast majority of this from going to landfill.
Of course, wasted food isn’t just a humanitarian or social issue, it’s also an environmental one. Behind every wasted item lies a whole raft of wasted resources that were used to grow, harvest, package and distribute it. We owe it to our community and our planet to do the best we can to minimise waste and being part of a wider network of charities and groups helps us, in our own small way, to work towards this.
If you know any local food charities who can make use of short-life food, please let us know!
What’s the difference between a Use by Date and a Best Before Date?
According to the Food Standards Agency:
- Use-by dates are about SAFETY
- Best before dates are about QUALITY
Use-by dates: Because they’re about the safety of the food we eat, use-by dates are extremely important and it’s essential to adhere to them. Foods with use-by dates tend to be items such as meat products or preprepared salads. As we have limited storage facilities, however, we don’t currently stock any foods that have a use-by date.
Best Before dates: The best before date is usually written as BBE (best before end) and is about quality, not safety. The food will be safe to eat after this date but may not be at its best. The flavour and texture might not be as good. We don’t give out food approaching the Best Before date as we believe anyone using a foodbank deserves to receive the same quality of food that they would choose to buy for themselves.
It’s still important to make sure the food with a long Best Before date is stored correctly and that the packaging or tin is not damaged. Best Before dates appear on all the food items we stock, including all tinned and dried foods along with cereals and biscuits.
