Here's the thing, there are over 500,000 people in the UK reliant on food parcels. 1 in 6 parents have gone without food so they could feed their children, and a fifth of the population are battling food poverty!
Everyday, supermarkets throw away tonnes of food which (although still perfectly edible) has reached it's 'sell by date'. Today I shopped in my local Waitrose and put a member of staff through his paces regarding Waitrose policy on reducing perishable goods. My first question was did they have a reduced section? The answer was no, food was reduced at source, I was taken to the fresh chicken section and sure enough several items had been reduced and were at the front of the shelf.
Most supermarkets have realised that the quickest way to get rid of reduced items is to put them all in one place. Shopper's like myself will head to the reduced section first, to trail around the store seeking out reduced items is time consuming!
I pointed out to the member of staff that although it was past midday several packets of chicken breasts had only been reduced by 50p yet they were at their sell by date. Most people would rather pay an extra 50p and have a few days leeway. Why not reduce the chicken by half?
I appreciate that supermarkets want to avoid a 'feeding time' scenario, whereby shoppers congregate for a half-price happy hour, however, to only slightly reduce items that have reached their sell by date and wait until nearly closing time to vastly reduce them is a risk governed purely by greed.
Waitrose, along with other supermarkets, need never throw food away if they drastically discounted it early enough in the day. Having walked up and down the aisles of Waitrose I found many items reduced but only by pence. To know that people are living with food poverty how can these supermarket chains account for throwing away tonnes of chicken, meat and fish (most of which could be frozen). How does society condone the waste, purely because of a sell by date, of fruit and vegetables when we buy them loose from a greengrocer!
I think it is absolute sacrilege to throw food away! Yet again though we are in profit making, political territory. Every year we have the celebrity friendly fun-fest, comic relief which adresses food poverty. Gestures of helping the impoverished are seen as acts of generosity, however, challenging the wider issues of poverty are seen as an act of politics!
I feel it's time these issues were adressed and I feel so strongly I might start a food waste revolution! I'll keep you posted.
My local co op has a reduced section and although there is no set time for reductions I can normally pick up bargains by early afternoon. Last week I bought an outdoor bred half shoulder of pork, reduced from £15 to under a fiver! I found a recipe online which had lots of good reviews several saying they would always cook this cut of pork by this method in future. I was a little wary as most recipes suggested covering the meat until the last 30 minutes. In this recipe the marinade helps the meat retain its moisture, incredibly so, it also adds wonderful flavour. Apparently this is sometimes called Boston blade roast.
Boston blade roast pork
Recipe
Half shoulder of outdoor reared pork
1 tablespoon crushed red peppers
2 cloves garlic, crushed
2 teaspoons ground ginger
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 teaspoon sea salt
Make a paste with all of the ingredients
Score skin on pork and smear marinade all over
Heat oven 230c/gas 8
Place pork on greaseproof paper and put in a baking tray, place in hot oven
Cook for 20 minutes, lower heat to 180c/gas 4 cook for 2 hours
Remove from oven and leave to rest for 15 minutes
Lift skin and meat should be soft and easy to pull apart
'Of all the preposterous assumptions of humanity over humanity, nothing exceeds most of the criticisms made on the habits of the poor than by the well housed, well warmed and well fed,'
-Herman Melville
Join me in my food waste revolution!
Love Donna xxxxx
Shortly after this post the Waitrose in question did start reducing items and had a specific reduced section. However, it didn't last long and the store has reverted to last minute minor reductions and no reduced section. Poor show on their part!
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