How to reduce food waste with the freezer, with Kate Hall – Food For Kids Podcast episode 21

Joanne Roach (00:13)

Hello and welcome to the Food for Kids podcast. I'm Joanne from the Foodies. In today's episode, I'm talking to our resident freezer geek, Kate Hall from The Full Freezer about how we can reduce our food waste using our freezer, both to reduce our impact on the environment and to save us some money and time. Juggling family meals is a never-ending task. It can often feel like we're on a treadmill going slightly too fast and we're never quite far enough away from the next time someone's going to ask us what there is to eat for dinner or lunch or a snack, and not to mention the endless meal planning and shopping lists. And one of the things that can really be a stressor when you're racing around trying to keep everyone fed while not bankrupting yourselves is the knowledge that there's always a couple of things in your fridge that need using up or are about to go off and the guilt of knowing that you're wasting food as well as wasting the money you spent on it. We beat ourselves up for it, but it is quite hard to keep on top of everything. So any tips to help can be great.

The Waste and Resources Action Programme, or WRAP estimated in 2021 that food waste in the UK was about 10.5 million tonnes and household food waste makes up 60 % of that total, with on-farm waste only being about 15%, manufacturing about 13%, hospitality and food service only 10 % and retail 2%. So actually household waste really is the place where we can make a big difference. In fact, the United Nations Environment Programme report on this said that between 8 and 10 % of global greenhouse gas emissions come from food that's not being eaten. So our individual little savings in our own household can actually make a difference to that 60%. And so I talked to Kate back in 2022 about how using the freezer can help us with that to save food waste and money. And here's that interview.

Joanne (01:59)

Okay, so many of our listeners, are worried about the environment and they're trying to reduce their own impact on the planet particularly with the way they eat and teach their children how to do the same. So how can using their freezer help them with this?

Kate (02:11)

In so, so many ways. So obviously there is a lot of awareness around how changing our diets can help us to make a more positive environmental impact. But what hasn't been highlighted quite as much, but there is a lot more activity going on, to raise awareness about the impact of food waste. Because essentially, if we don't eat the food that is produced, we're not just wasting that food, we are wasting all of the resources that went into growing it. So, all of that land, all that energy, you know, the amount of resource and the carbon footprint of that production process is enormous. and a lot of the time, I've done food waste challenges where, we've talked about the different foods that we're wasting and somebody actually commented to me and said, "But it's, you know, it's fine because I put it in my compost. So that was a win". And it's like, well, yes, that's, that's much better than things going into landfill, but that still wasn't the point of the food being grown. That's still a very expensive and a negative impact on the environment to produce food specifically for it to turn into compost. So, by using our freezers, we can obviously reduce down that food waste because we can press that pause button and we can help our food to last longer so that we've got that flexibility there, that we can use it for different meals, we can use it when it's convenient to us. Because I think a lot of the time we let food go to waste simply because we run out of time.

Food is bought so often with good intentions and you know if people are following you, you know they want their kids to eat veggies, they want their kids to eat fruit, they want to make good decisions, they want to expose their kids to these amazing natural lovely foods but sometimes life it gets in the way and that happens to all of us and so to me knowing that it's possible to save food without having to cook a meal, without having to bake a cake or whatever, that you can literally just freeze that ingredient means that instead of it taking half an hour or 40 minutes or whatever, it can take three minutes and it's done. And so that to me is a massive win, well, I mean, from the food waste perspective as well.

We are wasting, globally a third of all of the food that's produced. Yeah. And in the UK, it's around the same stat. Like it is literally, if you imagine going into a supermarket, buying three bags of shopping, we are leaving one bag in the car park every time we shop. That is what the UK is doing. So to be able to reduce that would have a huge positive effect. And obviously it's satisfying personally as well, because you can know that you're having that positive environmental effect by not wasting those resources and by avoiding the emissions that come from food rotting as well. Because a lot of people will not be aware that when food rots, and particularly if it goes into landfill, it releases greenhouse gases. So if we allow our food to rot and break down, it's also then having this knock-on afterwards.

So if we can do that and save that food, you know, we have this positive impact on the planet but we also have the positive impact on our own wallets. You know, if you know that something's not going in the food waste bin, if it's going into the freezer and as long as you are using it, is one of, you know, that's the point that I am a stickler for because it's all very well you put things in the freezer. If you don't get them back out again, there's really no point. If you just store it there for a year, then it's no good.

But if people get into that habit, I mean, the average family in the UK is wasting over 700 pounds every year on food that was bought with the intention of eating it and then it got binned. So that's not, that's not scraps, that's not peelings, that is literally loaves of bread, glasses of milk, like bags of salad, so many bags of salad. So, you know, if we can start to just switch our perspectives a little bit and see how it can save us time as well, because I think this is the thing that, you know, like I said, that if you've got it in your mind that you're gonna have to cook a meal or bake a cake, then it does become off putting and you do think, oh, I've just not got time, throw it in the bin, I'll just buy a new one.

But actually when you start to freeze things, you start to see, well, I didn't have to go back to the shop to buy more pesto. I had pesto in the freezer. I didn't have to go. And then as you build up more and more ingredients, you don't even have to think about a shopping list because you just replace the things that are in your freezer as they've run out - you've run out of onions, you buy more onions. You might use them fresh, but any that are leftover, you chop up, you get them in the freezer. And it just becomes this rolling motion of knowing that you always have something in. You always have food in, whatever's going on, you've got something that you can put together. And that to me, it's not just the time that you're saving having to think about, know, having to go to the shops. It's that time thinking about, well, what am I going to make this week and trying to put together lists and plan meals. You know, if, somebody's good at that, if that's their, you know, that their natural inclination and it works for them, then that's brilliant. And it can work alongside that. But if you are someone like me who cannot decide on Sunday what I'm going to eat on Thursday, then, you know, it just gives me that freedom that I know that food's there. I don't have to think too much about it. I can just kind of roll with whatever's going on.

Joanne (07:40)

And you're not going to get to Wednesday and throw half of Saturday's shop in the bin.

Kate (07:45)

Exactly, That satisfaction of knowing. I mean, the only things, because we do have food waste for, I'd be lying if I said we didn't have any food waste, but it tends to be things like buying fresh berries and getting home from the supermarket and there are already mushy berries that have gone mouldy in the punnet from the supermarket or it's gone in the fridge and by the next morning, if it's not been checked as soon as we got home and if we've not removed any of the mouldy ones and the others have started to go as well, then, you know, that's the thing that catches us out. But if I, if I get a punnet home and I check them straight away and some of them are squishy, but they are not mouldy, they will straight away get washed, dried off and they'll go in the freezer because I know if I let them get any mushier they'll end up in the bin. But if I can freeze them then it saves the consistency and they can be used in all sorts of ways.

Joanne (08:36)

So it's a really good way for the families that, want to reduce their impact a little bit, and they can start with really small things like that with just berries and, things that are really quick and just little by little reduce their waste.

Kate (08:48)

Totally, totally. And I think, you know, it helps as well with if you are trying to make that dietary switch or if you're trying to eat more local produce or anything like that, you know, learning how to use your freezer to preserve those foods helps in multiple ways. Because, for example, if you want to eat more seasonally, obviously you can choose to wait for strawberry season to kick off. People can follow your advice and get to know when things are going to be coming out and then they can, you know, stock up upon them and have them in the freezer for months where, you know, they're a bit like, I should have really fancy some strawberries. I really want to do a strawberry tart or something. And they'll have that stash of, you know, whatever that fruit is that would be out of season.

The other thing that I find very useful is this whole meat conversation and you know, we should all be reducing our meat consumption. And I am a person that, you know, my family was raised meat and two veg and it's ingrained in us. And I completely agree with the argument. I completely get it. But for me and my family, it feels very much like it has to be a slow and steady, like, wean us off it. We can't kind of go cold turkey with it. Excuse the pun. And so what we do is I will buy meat and I will freeze it in a way like, know, for example, if we do a roast chicken or something for a Sunday roast, the leftover meat will get open frozen in small pieces. And then if I'm doing a dish where we just want a little bit, you know, I'm doing a pasta dish, we just want a little bit of that meatiness. I can put in six pieces of meat, six little pieces and that will satisfy.

Joanne (10:29)

So you haven't gone and bought a tray of chicken breasts you've just got literally a handful so that everybody's got the idea of meat more than anything else.

Kate (10:36)

Yeah, that's it. and like packs of packs of mince I could buy a big pack of pork mince or something, and then separate it into 100 gram bags. So that, again, it's just that it's just that little taste. And it just stops us it stops us wasting any of it, because to buy meat, and then have the meat go off is such a negative impact on the environment and such a waste and so expensive as well. But yeah, to be able to freeze small quantities of it or freeze it in a way that allows you to just use small quantities just means yeah, you can start that transition that if you're not ready to be totally veggie or whatever, then you can just have that little taste. And as well, if you've got a family where know, your teenager's decided they're vegetarian and dad's still a meat eater and you're dabbling back and forth or whatever, you can cook a vegetarian meal and then you can just chuck a handful of meat in one.

Joanne (11:34)

That's my household, I don't eat meat, my husband does, but he's quite happy eating just vegetarian, but the kids varyingly like meat, so we quite often add a bit at the end for the ones that want it. yeah, having those small portions is really helpful.

Kate (11:47)

That's it. I totally get with meat and with freezing and everything, like there's a large side of it is food safety, which is why one of the things that I cover and I've got trained in is food safety, to help people to have that confidence around what is okay and what is not. But yeah, once you get the confidence with it and you know what's all right to do, it just gives you that control that you can cater to those different dietary needs. And yeah, make steps if you're wanting to reduce your meat consumption, then it is a really nice, simple, gentle sort of way to do it really as well.

Joanne Roach (12:25)

Okay so I hope that gave you a boost of confidence or inspiration and that you might leave this episode feeling like you've picked up just one idea of how you could use your freezer to reduce your waste or your stress. If it has got you fired up, Kate has masses of practical advice on her website and on her Can I Freeze It Instagram feed and I'll link to both of those in the show notes. She also has a course actually on using your freezer if you really want to get to grips with it. I'll be back on Monday with a solo episode so I hope to see you then and in the meantime, happy eating!

00:00 Introduction

01:59 Interview with Kate Hall

02:30 The problem of food waste

06:31 How the freezer can help with waste

09:04 How the freezer can help you reduce your meat consumption

12:48 Summary and outro