Get the right portion this Christmas
A new portion calculator is available online this year to help households to plan their perfect festive season with a minimal amount of food waste.
Each Christmas and New Year millions of pounds worth of food is thrown into the bin, and Warwickshire Waste Partnership’s Love Food Hate Waste campaign is attempting to help people to save money and waste.
Every household in Warwickshire is throwing away an average of £420 each year in food that could have been eaten or stored, and one of the biggest times for food waste is Christmas.
Not only is this a waste of good food and a waste of money, it’s also a waste of energy, water, packaging, transportation and storage. Every tonne of food needlessly thrown away is responsible for 4.5 tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions.
Weekly shopping bills can be reduced simply by using a shopping list, or the new Christmas portion calculator, which can be found on http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com .
The calculator is a great way to make sure you only buy the food you need for your Christmas meal and parties.
For example on Christmas Day it says 2 adults would need:
100g of raw peeled parsnips
100g of raw peeled carrots
100g of trimmed fresh or frozen beans
360g of raw, peeled potatoes
800g of uncooked turkey crown
Cllr Alan Cockburn, Warwickshire County Council’s Portfolio Holder for the Environment, said: “The Love Food Hate Waste portion calculator is a fun way of checking what you might need to prepare for Christmas. There is even now party portion planner and I’m sure we’d all admit to overstocking on food for parties in the past and then having to throw lots away.
“Not only is this thinking good in preventing waste, but it can save an awful lot of money at a time when we’ve all been spending.”
More information and recipe ideas can be found by visiting http://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com
For more information on the campaign please contact the Waste Minimisation Team on 01926 412458 or visit http://www.warwickshire.gov.uk/recyclewarks or http://www.wrap.org.uk