Kate Meads is a Katikati local who educates Kiwis on food and packaging waste. Kate runs workshops and masterclasses on minimising household waste, and shares her top five tips to tackle food waste.
New Zealand households lose over $1500 a year by binning uneaten food but a Bay of Plenty waste education expert says it’s easy to save money and live more sustainably at the same time.
A study conducted by Rabobank and KiwiHarvest last year showed every year more than 100,000 tonnes of good food was wasted in New Zealand.
The estimated value of food waste per household was about $1520 per year and nationally equated to $3.1 billion of food waste.
But by incorporating a few simple changes to how households brought, consumed and store food, people could save money and be more sustainable, according to Katikati waste education expert Kate Meads.
She said households wasted “huge amounts of food” but a lot of that was preventable.
She said bread was New Zealand’s most wasted food, with about 20 million loaves going to waste every year.
“It doesn’t mean that everybody throws away a whole loaf. It’s more like you throw away a couple of pieces or half a loaf.”
Freezing bread was the best way people could get the most bang for their buck. Meads also encouraged people to only buy what they needed instead of multi-buy deals.
Households also wasted plenty of apples, oranges, bananas, rice and chicken she said but one of the biggest was leftover food.
Bay of Plenty waste education expert Kate Meads. Photo / Alex Cairns
“People cook up a big meal, cook too much and don’t eat the leftovers. And that’s one of our top wasted foods.
“If you’re not going to eat the leftovers, or plan to eat them in the next few days, then don’t cook as much, and be more precise in your portions.
“The other thing to do would be to make it into a meal and freeze it for another day if you’re not going to get through it in the next couple of days.”
Meads encouraged people to buy fruit and vegetables that were in season because they were fresher, not cold-stored for as long and should last longer.
When cooking, people should try to use the entire vegetable. Broccoli stalks, for example, could also be eaten.
“There are a lot of vegetables where you can eat the whole thing,” Meads said.
“I never peel my vegetables either because that’s where a lot of the minerals and things are. I just give it a good scrub and cook the whole vegetable.”
It was vital people were aware of what they were buying, only bought food they would eat and avoided food they had never used before unless they had a recipe.
Elmer Pfieffer of Rotorua Whakaora, a food rescue programme, believed food waste was becoming “a larger problem” in New Zealand.
One reason was the high cost of fresh fruit and vegetables at supermarkets, he said.
Pfieffer said: “It becomes more difficult for the consumer to be able to buy them. And then they go to waste because they are not of consumer quality anymore”.
His advice for those wanting to reduce waste was to eat before going shopping so you don’t “impulse buy” and buy in bulk with friends.
In a statement, a Rotorua Lakes Council spokesperson said an average of 84 tonnes of kitchen or food waste per week was collected - about 157kg per household, per year.
Disposing of food or kitchen waste would cost about $931,000, excluding GST, over the next financial year.
But the total amount wasted was likely much higher, as it would include commercial food waste, public bins and food waste taken directly to transfer stations or collected by private providers for disposal.
Tauranga City Council’s sustainability and waste team said in a statement since its food scraps bin service launched in July 2021, over 5000 tonnes had been collected.
The scraps were stored at the Maleme St Transfer Station before being sent to the Hampton Downs Resource Recovery Centre’s commercial composting factor. Garden cuttings were also sent there.
The compost was used in gardens, farms and orchards in the Bay of Plenty and beyond.
1) Shop smarter: Buy what you need and eat what you buy. Be constantly aware of what you’re throwing out — if you’re constantly throwing out lettuce then stop buying it for a while.
2) Store produce properly: Most vegetables should be stored in an airtight container and that will help them last for much longer.
3) Meal kits: Meal kits were a good option if you were busy. Not only do they get delivered to your door, but they are also pre-portioned for the number of people in the household.
4) First in, first out: The system is used for storing and rotating food in the fridge. The food that has been in storage the longest (first in), should be the next food used (first out).
5) Understand the difference between dates: Expiry dates tell you the last day a product is safe to consume but the best-before date tells you when the food is no longer in perfect shape. Foods can still be eaten for a while after their best-before date but may have lost some quality. Common sense should be used; if something is rotten, don’t eat it.
