Food waste in this country. Criminal.

For starters, why is "wonky veg" and fruit a laughable gimmick?

 

I'm a sucker for wonky veg, if I sees it, I buys it.

 

Because people are shallow, not only will most of their fruit and veg never get eaten, but it has to look nice whilst they’re not eating it.

And as above, if there’s an option, that’s what I’m buying.

 

It isn't just about being shallow though. Because we are so used to seeing perfect fruit and veg due to regulations and producers standards then when we see wonky fruit and veg we think it is defective and not as good inside. We might not do that on purpose or know we're doing it but we do or the majority of us do anyway until we train ourselves not to think like that.

 

Get ya sen an allotment.

You won't care how wonky it is, but I guarantee that anything you grow tastes way better than any supermarket

 

It's a gimmick. Often 2 for... deals make "standard" fruit and veg cheaper.

 

So people end up with twice as much ‘perfect’ veg that’s going in the bin.
Brilliant!!

 

Why would it be defective?
I think in trying to contradict me you’ve proved how right I was.

 

I wasn't trying to contradict you though I was simply offering an opinion. What I meant was that for a lot of people it isn't so much about wanting it to look nice for the sake of vanity but is because they misinterpret wonky looking veg as poorer quality and taste because of the deliberate advertising campaigns showing perfect veg.

 

Brits waste far too much food. People buy more than they need and worry too much about dates on products so chuck perfectly goof stuff away. Eating habits are changing all the time. More and more people have stopped eating meat and dairy. I couldn't give it up completely but I have tried new foods to cut down slightly.

 

Best before dates need removing from packaging or rewording somehow as does 'display until' dates

 

Totally agree. Just look at a product and use common sense. People should try and eat less meat too but it's hard.

 

They could always give the spare to their cleaner.

 

One of the things we’ve improved because of lockdown is a huge reduction of food waste.

We buy far better, use more and shop specifically for what we’re having that week for our online shop. Before we’d go to the supermarket every day for whatever we fancied and get ingredients we might not fully use.

Any meat leftovers, we feed to the local foxes, any veg peelings etc go in the wormery to make fertiliser and compost for the garden.

 

I don’t know if best before/use by dates need removing, but I think they need a rebrand.

More people need to recognise that it’s a guide, not a rule and just use common sense

I often cut the mould off bread or something like that.

The only thing I’m really careful with is meat. I’ll eat it the day after but not much more than that. But I freeze most of my meat anyway to be honest.

 

Use by isn't a guide though is it? I thought that it can actually be dangerous to eat after that date even if it looks fine.

Best before actually makes no sense when you think about it. All food deteriorates after its manufactured so technically 1 week old food is better than 1 month old food yet the random best before date is 6 months. Surely 5 months is better than 6 so how can 6 be best?

 

We grow our own runner beans. Most of them grow straight, but a few grow a bit curly. Strangely, once you chop them up and put them in a pan, it's impossible to tell the straights from the curlies. Even a taste test doesn't help - and I've done plenty of testing over the years.

 

I'm pretty sure I saw 'Wonky Veg' doing a turn at the Belmont back in the late 80's - a boy girl combo doing Bucks Fizz covers

 

Best before is a guide yeah.

Use before means that. It can contain hidden dangers even if it looks fine.

However, nothing suddenly changes 1 minute after midnight and suddenly becomes toxic, so some leeway can be made. IMO, of course

 

Much more wasted in the USA than here. But we are very wasteful in the UK, in fact the whole of Western society is extremely wasteful. My daughter is a collector for OLIO, she goes to local supermarkets twice a week and collects the food that they are about to bin and puts it on OLIO so that local OLIO members can request it. I suspect that few people know anything about this.