Love Food Hate Waste

Love Food Hate Waste cookery classes

Recycle for Greater Manchester encourages residents to Love Food and Hate Waste to help reduce the amount of edible food that is thrown away in Greater Manchester. 

A report released today from The Institution of Mechanical Engineers states that between 30% and 50% of the four billion tonnes of food produced around the world each year went to waste, and part of it is due to consumer wastage. Here in Greater Manchester we currently generate approximately 170,000 tonnes of food waste per year and we are trying to help reduce the amount of edible food we throw away.

The Greater Manchester Love Food Hate Waste (LFHW) campaign started back in 2009 and forms part of the national campaign from the Waste Resources and Action Programme (WRAP), which aims to raise awareness of the need to reduce food waste and help residents take action. During our 2009-2011 campaign period there was a reduction in food waste of approximately 13,200 tonnes in Greater Manchester.

Vegetables, food and bread are most commonly wasted and the LFHW campaign shows that by doing some easy practical everyday things in the home we can all waste less food. This will ultimately benefit the resident by saving up to £50 a month and reducing the negative impact on the environment too.

To try and continue to combat the food waste issue in 2012/13, Recycle for Greater Manchester recently ran a series of Love Food Hate Waste cookery classes and road shows, to teach residents how to use store cupboard essentials to make a tasty meal.

The class also covered storing food correctly to preserve it, portion sizes, and considered what the ‘sell by’ and ‘use by’ date options really mean. It was a great forum for sharing hints and tips on how best to make the most out of the food people buy and to use up leftovers into a tasty meal.