Carer Tips: Reducing food waste

Looking for ways to reduce food waste? Here are a few ideas to help you: 

• When you’re caring for someone, it’s worth building up a collection of recipes for nutritious, easy to make meals that you and your caree like. If your caree has a small appetite, you may find that serving them small snack-size portions is a way of reducing what they leave on their plate. Also, having some of their favourite foods on standby in your freezer or cupboard can help make it more likely that what you provide will be eaten at times your caree lacks enthusiasm to eat.
• Do you ever find cans at the back of a cupboard that are long past their use-by date? Or do you spend ages hunting for food you’re sure you’ve bought but can’t find? Or have you ever bought lots of something on special offer only to find you already had more than enough at home? Creating a proper system for storing food can help you save money and time. By sorting food so that you know what you have, and arranging for the soonest ‘best before’ dates to be most accessible, you’re more likely to only buy what you really need.
• Keeping your fridge at 40°F (4°C) and your freezer at 0°F (-18°C) can extend the shelf life of their contents. 
• Freezing leftovers or making them into new dishes can help reduce food waste. Find top tips and leftovers recipes at https://www.lovefoodhatewaste.com.
• By keeping track of how much you waste, you’ll start to see patterns and be able to adjust what you do accordingly. 
• Planning your meals ahead and writing a shopping list helps you buy only what you need.