Kitchen Garden Forum

We too have bags and three wheelie bins: the bags for paper and cardboard, one bin for garden rubbish (very useful for anything that might not rot down in our own four large composting bins or have weed seeds on it), one bin for glass, tins and plastic bottles and one bin for the remaining rubbish which is usually very little in our household and and comprises mainly plastic which cannot be recycled, like raw meat trays, yogurt pots etc. Everything is collected fortnightly and works very well.

Not sure it changed anything but the programme was very enjoyable. Bet most of us already eat loads of stuff that is not up to supermarket specification. If you know how it is grown, know it is fresh, you know it is going to taste great.

Having watched the program this evening I was totally amazed at the waste the supermarkets cause even before produce leaves the farm because of their and the customers stringent requirements.

What puzzled me is they were given OX TAILS , round this way a whole Ox Tails costs around £6.

I could hardly believe it when I saw whole fields of thousands of lettuces being ploughed backed into the soil because they were mis-shapen and tomatoes being tossed onto compost heaps because they were not all of equal size as demanded by supermarkets. All this from a world that is not producing enough to feed its growing population.

I don't believe the excuse that "customers won't buy fruit/vegetables which are not 100% perfect. I bet that in these hard economic times, if all these products were sold on separate shelves at 10% of the normal prices, they'd be snatched up by people trying to make ends meet. I suspect it's more about higher prices enabling supermarkets to maintain high profit levels. Despite the protestations that people are all suffering because of the current situation, if we can throw food away on this scale, we're all still affluent for our own good. I never throw my misshapen vegetables away and I'm sure you don't either but I suspect people who grow their own are more level headed about the whole business of food production.

Maybe the problem isn't that people won't buy less than perfect sized crops (after all they don't get the option do they?) but maybe if they charged less for the less perfect then they wouldn't manage to sell the so called 'perfect' ones for the prices they charge! Or maybe the pretty displays wouldn't look as good! If there wasn't so much waste cost should come down as we obviously pay the price of all the waste. Fresh fruit and vegeatable are expensive so I am sure people on low incomes could improve their diets by having cheaper maybe less than perfect shaped stuff! I was surprise to see blueberries and redcurrants in the bins - have you seen the price of these in the supermarkets - thinking about it that is maybe why they haven't been sold!!

Must admit when we have shopped in French supermarkets the produce looks more variable so ir can't just be EEC rulings.

Strange I've never thought to put sell by dates on the fruit and veg we pick from the allotment!

They could sell misshapen vegetables easily if they wanted. You can sell just about anything if you find the right marketing approach.

Labelled and marketed as 'cheeky carrots', 'nuked cukes' (cucumbers!) or 'ugly tomatoes' etc, they would fly off the shelves! Children would be urging their parents to buy the 'ugliest' veg they could find!

Ok, some veg might be more of a challenge, but that means that it couldn't be done!

also the price of what they dump is factored into the cost of the produce they sell.

yes we pay for it in the end, however we do have a choice where we shop, not only do the supermarkets charge us for the waste they create, but they keep their suppliers profits low and set almost impossible standards for them. I vote with my feet and what I can't grow i buy from an organic box scheme which is delivered, to support the growers / suppliers, not the supermarket, it means cooking from scratch but at least I know the quality and what goes into it. The time I would have spent shopping, i can spend cooking. A trip to the supermatrket is infrequent for the few store cupboard things I haven't been able to source elsewhere. The organic box scheme is under supermarket organic prices.