Keep your food tasty and save!
Want to save money and help the environment? Well, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) says the average Irish family will save €700 per year by taking simple steps to reduce their food waste.
The EPA has launched a new campaign to encourage people to reduce their food waste, highlighting simple food storage steps to make their fresh food last longer. The EPA’s website has some great resources to support their Stretch Out and Save campaign and highlights the variety of ways in which different foods should be stored.
Findings from a 2020 EPA survey on food waste attitudes showed that around 40 per cent of Irish people say they waste a lot of fruit and vegetables, and would like to make their fresh food last longer.
Fresh fruit, vegetables and salads may be Irish summer favourites but are also the foods that are wasted the most.
Properly storing fresh fruit and vegetables can help both the environment and your budget, according to Mary Frances Rochford, EPA Programme Manager.
“Irish households produce over 250,000 tonnes of food waste per year, at a cost of €700 per household. In addition, wasted food is a significant contributor to climate change – responsible for eight to ten per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions. Cutting food waste reduces greenhouse gas emissions and also provides real savings householders.”
The EPA’s Stop Food Waste top tips to stretch out and save your food include:
1. Strawberries
Keep the strawberries in the fridge with the green tops intact.
Washing strawberries in a mixture of water and vinegar (eight cups of water and one cup of white vinegar) will also keep them fresh by killing any spores on the fruit.
2. Tomatoes
Store tomatoes in the open air to keep flavour and texture for longer.
3. Potatoes
Potatoes last longer when stored in a cool, dark and dry place.
But don't store them next to onions; the excess moisture in onions can result in potatoes sprouting faster.
4. Carrots
Keep carrots loose in the bottom drawer of the fridge to keep crisp. Remove them from plastic packaging to avoid the ‘sweating’ that leads to mould formation.
If your carrots come with the leaves intact, cut these off before storing. The leaves draw moisture out of the roots causing your carrots to become bendy much faster.
Environmental scientist with the EPA Odile Le Bolloch explained: “Summer is a time for enjoying lots of fresh produce and salads, but these are also the foods that we waste the most.
“With a few simple tips, we can keep the food we buy that bit fresher for that bit longer.
“The Stop Food Waste A-Z of Foods is a useful online resource on how to best manage common foods at home to prevent food waste,” Odile added.
As no two foods are the same, different produce will often have different storage requirements. Re-learning habits and implementing them as we put our shopping away will help to get the most out of groceries.