We don’t tend to think of students as a wasteful bunch. After all “living like a student” often means somebody is a spendthrift who wastes nothing; for the modern student faced with high cost of living, this has become especially true. Now, an international competition sponsored by Bocconi University in Milan and run by Expo 2015 has seen students show us all how to cut food waste.
BEC2015
The competition invited the global community of students to suggest ways of cutting food waste –a big problem especially in the western world while there are so many people elsewhere who do not get enough food on a daily basis. At the finals at the end of June, some 35 students demonstrated how to cut food waste and where judged by the UN’s FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) who examined some innovative ideas that included:
• A banana evaporative cooler – a type of refrigerator to help bananas last longer while in transit in hot countries
• A Food Aid App – for smartphones and tablets that help people keep a log of food expiry dates and suggests recipes for those ingredients you don’t know what to do with
• Communication – encouraging people not to discard misshapen fruit and vegetables, stock we typically do not buy and that which supermarkets reject
But there are simple things you can implement when you are looking at how to cut food waste at home.
How To Cut Food Waste
As a student, one of the best ways you can reduce food waste is not to be so ruthless when it comes to food that is out of date. Government guidelines recently announced that the expiry dates are often too rigid with deadlines too short. There has also been concern that people do not know the difference between best before and use by.
Usually, the best way to test whether something is usable is to do a smell test. Meat that is off will smell bad. Milk, butter, cheese and even meat can sometimes be fine when they are past their date of expiry; it is best to use common sense. Eggs are usually good for some time after their use by date too Use a float test for eggs: stick an egg in a glass of water to test it – if it sinks it is fine; if it floats it is going bad and should be discarded.
Thirdly, if you have put too much on your plate for a meal and do not finish it, put it in the refrigerator rather than throw it away. Most cooked food is usually good for 3-4 days and it might make a good lunch.