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Irish households 'waste €700 a year' throwing out rotten food

SafeFood says the average home could save quite a bit of money by adopting a “eat it or freeze it” model.

THE AVERAGE IRISH household wastes around €700 a year by buying food and then not consuming or freezing it before it goes off, a new campaign has claimed.

The cross-border food safety body SafeFood says small changes in how households manage their food supplies could help them save huge amounts of money over the course of an average year.

The claim comes as part of its ‘Eat or freeze it’ campaign, which is encouraging households to keep diaries of the food that they throw out on a weekly basis.

The campaign says deciding to freeze food is a delicate area – and has stressed that food should always be frozen in advance of going off, and not when it has already started to do so.

SafeFood has offered six steps for shoppers to take to ensure they get the most value from their weekly grocery shop:

  • Check your fridge, freezer and cupboards before you head out, and try to plan your meals around what you find
  • Make a shopping list and try to stick to it
  • Watch out for ‘special deals’ – for some products, like fruit, they often mean buying more food than you can actually eat before they go off
  • When shopping, check the products at the back of a shelf – they may have ‘use by’ dates further in the future
  • Shop for what you actually eat, not for what you want/wish you could eat
  • Eat or freeze all food before it reaches its ‘use by’ date

SafeFood’s website has a blank food diary which shoppers can download to keep tabs of the food that they have to dispose of each week.

Read: Ireland to give €21 million to World Food Programme

More: Indian malnutrition fund used to fix buses

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33 Comments
    Install the app to use these features.
    Mute JOSE
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    May 6th 2013, 3:34 PM

    I always make a list and then leave it at home.

    104
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    Mute Nicholas Ring
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    May 6th 2013, 5:37 PM

    Jose; I took your advice. It didn’t work.

    23
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    Mute Gaius Gracchus
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    May 6th 2013, 3:22 PM

    Never go food shopping when you’re hungry,you always buy way more

    81
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    Mute Nicola Daly
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    May 6th 2013, 3:14 PM

    I freeze anything I can even bread. Saves in the long run and I end up only having to go near a shop once a week..

    71
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    Mute dave
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    May 6th 2013, 3:24 PM

    Not a fan of the frozen bread, doesnt seem the same when defrosted, but everything else gets chucked in alright

    38
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    Mute Martina Lavin
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    May 6th 2013, 3:44 PM

    I freeze bread, only use it for toast though.

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    Mute Nicola Daly
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    May 6th 2013, 4:34 PM

    I only use it as toast too…

    22
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    Mute Pharmyco
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    May 6th 2013, 3:19 PM

    Must find cheaper ways to throw out my rotten food.

    43
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    Mute Little Jim
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    May 6th 2013, 3:20 PM

    You mean compost it?

    25
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    Mute Bilbo Baggins
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    May 6th 2013, 5:30 PM

    The neighbours dog comes in handy!!

    16
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    Mute Orly
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    May 6th 2013, 4:47 PM

    If you’re living in Cork, get the €20 meat deal from the market, freeze it in batches and two people can live off it for between two and three weeks, and that’s not even counting nights where you’d just have soup or salads. Unless I’m working late, I usually buy the veg for dinner that day. Otherwise my fridge is just full of condiments, fruit (stuff that doesn’t go off quickly, like oranges and apples and dates) cheeses, eggs, juices and desserts I’ve baked.

    We rarely have to throw out food. Maybe a quarter carton of cream we didn’t get around to using. Having the market so close is great.

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    Mute Maurice Cronin
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    May 6th 2013, 3:09 PM

    Ya and don’t forget to tie your shoes

    31
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    Mute Harvey Lumpy
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    May 6th 2013, 5:01 PM

    It’s almost impossible to buy fruit without a large pack. Sometimes you only want one or two pieces.

    27
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    Mute Robert Callaghan
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    May 7th 2013, 7:15 AM

    You really shouldn’t be buying fruit in a pack in the first place

    1
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    Mute Michelle Philpot
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    May 6th 2013, 4:53 PM

    Bananas: I see people throw bananas out when they become speckled and dark. That’s a real shame because they are at their most ripe when they are like that.
    Shops also throw them out, I’ve heard of people actually going to these shops and taking the ripened bananas from the bins haha!

    25
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    Mute WanderArch
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    May 6th 2013, 9:27 PM

    Banana bread! Omity nomity nom!

    19
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    Mute Gary Keegan
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    May 6th 2013, 5:10 PM

    We’ve wasted more then that per week on poxy politicians.

    20
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    Mute Sandra Turner
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    May 6th 2013, 7:50 PM

    I buy my vegetables and before i put them away i chop them ready to serve and freeze them. Then I either steam or stirfry from frozen. I was throwing out bendy carrots and squishy courgettes before I started this!

    16
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    Mute Sean Slevin
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    May 6th 2013, 7:43 PM

    Buy less food = waste less food = more money saved = healthier person.
    We buy and eat too much.

    16
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    Mute joe traynor
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    May 6th 2013, 8:26 PM

    It’s really nice of the government telling us how to save money.
    This will come in handy when we have been squeezed dry.

    13
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    Mute HARRY MARKOPOLOS
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    May 6th 2013, 11:14 PM

    Spot on Joe.
    This is rich advice, from an overpaid thick, greedy, government that intentionally wastes billions of euros of taxpayers money a year.
    F**k them and their “Eat **it or Freeze **it” campaign.
    I’m sure Big Phil must have dreamt this up when he was nuzzling up to his PA whilst he was sucking Champers down his snout in Doha.
    What next?
    Are they going to have a “Let them eat cake” campaign??
    Or a
    How to make a tasty salad out of grass cuttings from your lawn campaign??

    10
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    Mute Robert Callaghan
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    May 7th 2013, 7:18 AM

    So your saying we should, in fact, be wasting food??

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    Mute HARRY MARKOPOLOS
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    May 8th 2013, 12:37 AM

    Are you talking to me Robert?

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    Mute mahonez
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    May 6th 2013, 7:52 PM

    Blackened bananas make the BEST banana muffins. Soooo easy to make and soooo tasty.

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    Mute Michelle Philpot
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    May 6th 2013, 8:40 PM

    Yeah cuz they is sweet yo

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    Mute Prince Hector
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    May 6th 2013, 10:24 PM

    ” Irish households waste €20,000 a year making rich people even richer,”
    - with the help of a few lapdogs…

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    Mute Wesley Weld-Moore
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    May 6th 2013, 9:21 PM

    I very rarely have to throw out food. Remember there are those who starve. 700 notes is a lot. Please don’t waste. Folk starve

    7
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    Mute Pee Jay Walsh
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    May 6th 2013, 8:03 PM

    Traditionally, foodstuffs were kept in a larder; no fridge, no freezer, no waste!

    6
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    Mute HARRY MARKOPOLOS
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    May 6th 2013, 11:20 PM

    Hear Hear
    Why freeze food when you can buy it fresh??

    There is less time for the greedy multinational “food pedophiles” to tamper with your food if you buy it fresh and closer to its source.

    5
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    Mute Caitríona Muireann Bolger
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    May 7th 2013, 1:50 AM

    *insert government related comment here*

    5
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    Mute Rodney Monaghan
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    May 7th 2013, 5:18 AM

    I bet none of that €700 worth of discarded food comprises chocolate, crisps, biscuits or any other goodies…
    If so, you’re just showing off!

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    Mute Michael G O'Reilly
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    May 6th 2013, 8:12 PM

    The only way to avoid real waste is to buy exactly what you need daily ! Buy your breakfast and lunch the previous day and your dinner and supper on the actual day.

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    Mute Brian Donohoe
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    May 7th 2013, 12:29 AM

    A lot of foodstuffs do not have any “use by” or “sell by” dates anymore. Another EU regulation if I am not mistaken.

    2
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