Wasting food

[Odsox]

What do you feed your dog ?
My scruffy mongrel is fed mainly prime fillet steak with the occasional chicken breast fillet thrown in for good measure.

The reason I mention this is because my daughter is a chef at a local restaurant and she brings home all the leftover meats to feed hers and our dogs.
This afternoon I chopped up what she brought home last night and there was at least 3/4 of a fillet steak in one lump ... probably getting on for a pound of meat.
Now, what sort of a person goes to a high class restaurant, orders a fillet steak (€22.50) and then only eats a quarter of it ?
And what must they be like at home ?
I have seen in the news pages that the average British "housewife" throws away a horrendous proportion of the food they buy, including getting 2 chicken on a BOGOF when they only want one and throwing the other away. It is totally alien to me and disgusts me that people do that, especially meat. I'm not vegetarian and never will be but my philosophy is that if a chicken or any other animal gives up it's life for my benefit then the least I can do is to make sure it didn't die in vain.
Nothing in the food line gets thrown away in this house, roast chicken on Sunday, leftovers on Monday and probably Tuesday, then the carcass gets boiled up for soup for OH to take to work for lunch. Bread crusts get cubed and baked for dog biscuits, even egg shells get baked and the put through an old mincer and used instead of lime on the garden. If we can't eat it, either the dog or the chicken will, my only regret is I can't grind up said chicken bones to make bone meal for the garden. Even so, I do take some pride that I haven't had to take any waste to a landfill for many a year.

So, tonight my doggy will dine on fillet steak with a side order of monkfish and croutons.

[Clara]

Lucky pup! When I had puppies to rehome one went with a gay chef and another with the heiress to the largest smoke salmon producer in spain - they are both very pampered and healthy looking!

it is shocking what people will throw away - like you nothing food wise goes to landfill, but then most people don't have chickens to give scraps. The problem is essentially the cheap food culture, I think in honesty I would have a problem refusing "free" food (i.e. BOGOF offers), even if I knew that I "might" not eat it - I don't think anyone buys food with the intention of wasting it, they just don't know how to plan for a week and stick to it. And then supermarkets don't actually care whether they eat what they buy, so long as they buy, a lot of money goes into making people want stuff they don't need, store planning, product placement, pester power etc.

[SarahJane]

Well your pooch will be eating a lot finer than I shall be!

[Odsox]

Well your pooch will be eating a lot finer than I shall be!

Yeah, me too ... I've got baked beans (as per the baked bean thread)

[Hairyloon]

I have seen in the news pages that the average British "housewife" throws away a horrendous proportion of the food they buy.

I am convinced that rat farming is the way to deal with the food waste problem in this country.
Harness the power of NIMBYs to cut it down. Some discussion of it here.

[pumpy]

There's no waste in our house, mainly, because i can't abide wasting anything......... i think that any un-necessary waste is not far short of criminal. Also i reckon that prices for food-stuff in the shops is a complete rip-off. (but while we keep paying, they will keep charging.) It nearly broke my heart, a couple of weeks ago, when we had to buy some veg for the first time since last May!...... 80p for a sweet pepper, £1.30 for a small punnet of mushrooms,........etc,etc,etc. (Don't start me off!!). Anyway we also have a well-fed dog who eats any meal-time leftovers, aren't they lucky buggers!

[Millymollymandy]

Normally we never have any food waste but with 2 of us having the lurgy over Xmas there was a lot of stuff we couldn't get through - I'm happy to say the wild birds have been having a great time scoffing it all up - so far they've had a home made Xmas pud (a disaster), half a piece of goat's cheese, a bit of runny camembert, half a salmon savoury cake and half a galette des rois. Now they are onto the 2nd Xmas pud which is their fave.

[Sally Jane]

I don't think anyone buys food with the intention of wasting it, they just don't know how to plan for a week and stick to it. And then supermarkets don't actually care whether they eat what they buy, so long as they buy, a lot of money goes into making people want stuff they don't need, store planning, product placement, pester power etc.

I agree entirely, Clara.
It beats me that people still shop without a list, but even if they fall into the trap of buying excess, does nobody freeze anything any more?
It takes a few years of experience (and some low cunning!) to beat the supermarkets' marketing strategies, and while I try to avoid them entirely, there are some things I just can't get in the little independent shops.
I'm learning to be frighteningly focussed on the exact items on my list (assuming the supermarket hasn't had a shift-round of everything since the last time I was in!) and rarely fall for a 'bargain' these days!

[Green Aura]

I find more food gets wasted now there are three of us in the household. When I lived on my own virtually nothing got wasted, and as OH happily scoffs anything put in front of him he doesn't cause much problem either. But my mother's a whole different story.

It seems to be a point of principle to leave something - if I cook enough for three she'll take a small portion - enough for 4 she'll take a much bigger portion - so there's never enough to freeze a portion for another day. And after it's hung about for a while she chucks it in the rubbish (we have a bokashi languishing in the kitchen).

She insists on having all the veg peeled (OK it goes in the compost) - I don't bother if it's organic.

But even with my mother here we would never buy 2 and chuck one - it makes no sense at all - why not leave it in the store for someone else. I think a lot of people keep their freezers so full they couldn't prise a chicken in with a crowbar - permanent siege mentality!

[Ellendra]

I think a lot of people keep their freezers so full they couldn't prise a chicken in with a crowbar - permanent siege mentality!

Guilty! But I do can it whenever I get the chance! Mom doesn't like seeing my canner out, but I do get permission when something is slightly freezer-burned, or if there's a huge roast with too much left over. Last Thanksgiving I got over a dozen pints of turkey canned up!

[prison break fan]

I try really hard not to waste anything, if I do it only goes to the compost, but we have rats and that really worries me. I think the supermarkets with their BOGOFS are to blame for a lot of the waste. I once bought some 2 for 1 apples and offered one bag to a young woman with children in the queue. She thought I was quite bonkers (probably right) and moved to another queue. pbf

[Flo]

Hmm - too much money and too little sense comes to mind here. I've too little money and enough sense. Can't afford the waste any more and as there's only me to consult, well if I buy it I make me eat it.

[tiggy]

not much waste here in fact hardly any,it is surprising what you can lose in curry or soup.meat is always devoured pretty quick so its only leftover cooked veg to deal with .

[sheena]

Being a thrifty mum, I don't think that anything ever really gets wasted in our kitchen anymore - we seem to be able to re-use most leftover foods in the form of stews, curries, savoury rice and vegetable dishes anything else either gets minced, dehydrated or frozen - its amazing how creative you can be when you have to make ends meet!!
Besides which, we don't need a dog to get rid of leftovers, we have a son-in-law with hollow legs and the wildlife get all the crumbs and any leftovers that they can utilise

[invisiblepiper]

Don't waste anything either - brought up by a 'war teenager' Mother and I guess it stuck. I was amazed at what people wasted - WHY? was my question - don't they know what's in their fridges?