I was very interested in the comments on my last post (especially those from beyond these shores) and I felt I needed to say more.
I costed the stuff I bought on the Sainsbury site as Lidl doesn't have vegetable prices on their site. At Salisbury I would have paid about £12.80 for that lot.
In 2015 Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall (an English celebrity chef, television personality, journalist, and campaigner on food and environmental issues) did a TV series called "Hugh's War on Waste" which made a big impression on me and I think on many others. It was one of many initiatives which publicised just how much food is being wasted at every point from farm to table. Several supermarkets were called out and shamed into responding to his criticism. Strong links were made between the fact that many people were struggling to feed themselves and yet supermarkets were over-concerned with the cosmetic appearance of the vegetables they sold. Food was being dumped and polluted with bleach to make sure no-one could eat it.
Gradually supermarkets have realised that the bad publicity would lose them custom (and therefore profits!) and some now sell seconds marked "wonky". They have made links with food banks and schemes to get unsold food to those who need it. They are much better at reducing food for sale in their stores.
There are people who won't buy this stuff. There were three boxes like this available at 8.15 yesterday and when I went back to the store at 10am the other two still hadn't been sold. I'm very happy with it though and I enjoy the challenge of making sure nothing gets wasted.
Like you, I'm all about eliminating waste. We have a local produce stand that often has heavily discounted items that must be used right away (same day, most often). I usually freeze, or change up my menu to incorporate whatever is in the "must use" box.
ReplyDeleteI think that you get an amazing deal with these boxes! They have started selling the "wonky" veg here but no deals like those boxes - which I would be very happy to use up!
ReplyDeleteI remember watching those shows about waste - some of it was quite shocking! I was speaking with a friend the other day and saying that perhaps the one good thing that comes out of this pandemic is that it has made us all very much more aware of food as a precious commodity - the lack of it and the cost of it. Tonight I used up the last of some salad greens and a small cucumber hat was getting a bit soft at one end and tomorrow at breakfast I will use up the last of some cherry tomatoes!
I would certainly buy that box of vegetables for that price.
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