A new Love Food Hate Waste survey looking into food habits, behaviour and attitudes during the lockdown period summarises the key behaviours that are keeping food out of the bin. Encouragingly, the survey has found that UK citizens have risen to the challenge of lockdown by making the food they buy last longer and go further.
With supermarkets operating strict social distancing rules, restaurants closed and many of us now at home all day, the findings suggest that our food shopping habits have shifted significantly; we are shopping less frequently and buying more. But, despite this, WRAP’s survey reveals that householders have become more resourceful in managing their food, from using up their cupboard stocks, to meal planning and list-making to freezing more and batch-cooking.
The survey findings suggest that:
- UK citizens are managing their food better in lockdown, including more pre-shop planning, better in-home food management and using creative approaches to cooking.
- These new behaviours are leading to a reported 34% reduction in waste of staple items like potatoes, bread, chicken, and milk.
Now, the team at WRAP (The Waste and Resources Action Programme) are asking for businesses, local authorities and others to help citizens to make this their ‘new normal’. You can get involved by sharing/retweeting, liking and sharing your own food waste reduction stories via Instagram @lfhw_uk and Twitter @lfhw_uk and by including the hashtag #LoveFoodHateWaste where possible.
For ideas on how to avoid creating food waste at home, visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.com – in particular, their guide to storing the most common food items at home to maximise their shelf life: https://lovefoodhatewaste.com/article/food-storage-a-z.
Celebrating positive food stories in Cardiff
With Cardiff’s local food system under huge pressure during the Covid-19 outbreak, Food Cardiff have been co-ordinating city-wide action to promote the positive changes which are being made in response to the lockdown.
A new online food information hub can be found at www.foodcardiff.com – it details the ways that anyone can be part of Cardiff’s good food response to COVID-19; whether that’s by supporting local food businesses, volunteering to feed the local community, reducing food waste or growing food at home.
Food Cardiff is also asking people across the city to get behind the good-food response by shouting about their positive actions on social media. Ideas, actions and success stories are being shared using the hashtag #GoodFoodCardiff.
For more information about how you can get involved in Cardiff’s Good Food response, visit: https://foodcardiff.com/covid-19-the-critical-food-response/support-the-response.
