Island Life Magazine Ltd October/November 2013 | Page 134

ANDREW TURNER MP Isle of Wight MP ANDREW TURNER The Riverside Centre, The Town Quay, Newport IW Tel: [phone] [email protected] www.islandmp.org High price of food waste Annual household food waste now amounts to 7.5m tonnes a year, costing the average family £680. In tough economic times that is an astonishing figure. With the growing awareness of environmental issues, it is even harder to understand how so much food (using resources to produce, transport, package, sell and cook) is simply thrown away. We need to ask ourselves the reasons. Lots of fresh produce ending up in landfill is the result of supermarkets’ ‘BOGOF’ (buy one, get one free) offers, so one thing we can do is be more careful about what we buy in the first place. Once we get food home, we’re faced with a plethora of best-before, sell-by and use-by dates - so it’s not surprising that people are confused. Retailers should make it much clearer when food becomes unsafe to eat; for the record that’s the use-by date, however, if food isn’t stored properly, even that is unreliable. So instead of throwing out food by date, we should trust our senses more - sniffing, tasting and looking to decide whether food is still good. Like many people of my age, I’m of the school that scrapes mould off cheese and cuts brown bits off fruit before eating – and enjoying – it. It’s even more concerning that up to 40% of British-grown fruit and veg never even reaches supermarket shelves; it’s just not pretty enough. So another piece of the food jigsaw is learning to love ugly fruit and veg. It doesn’t look perfect – but is still as 134 www.visitislandlife.com tasty. Meat is the most resource-intensive food of all, and a day a week without meat is an idea that is catching on (www.meatfreemondays. co.uk). I love all food, but as Carole is a vegetarian I have lots of meat-free days. Vegetarian food can be delicious – but it makes me appreciate meat even more. As a nation we need to address all these issues; to help us become more self-sufficient and bring food prices down. But on the Island there is another small contribution we can make to cut emissions, reduce food miles and still enjoy delicious food. For me, one of the delights of late summer is blackberry and apple pie, which tastes even better when it’s the result o b&