I love food and hate waste. This isn't always a good thing, as my ever increasing waisteline shows.

I was brought up to clear my plate. As I grew older and became responsible for what I put on my plate however I seem to have missed the lesson that covered portion control. I moved from my childhood family home of five to cooking for two, then cooking for one and now cook for three. The recipes in my cookbook books aren't that flexible, meals are always for four or six, there are always leftovers.  What do you do with the stuff you just can't swallow at the end of your meal?

Oops - then there are the cooking failures. Yes you are not alone, I put something on the stove and head for the computer to do some work. Before I know it there is that tell tale smell of burn and another saucepan has melted with a lump of unidentified black goo in it. Or I put the oven on and some mysterious creature has moved the temperature up a few degrees without telling me - I'm sure my oven has a life of it's own. Bingo another burnt offering. 

Then there are our best friends at the supermarkets. Ever fallen for the buy on get one free offers - I have. They are there to help me save money aren't they? But then I'm faced with eating twice as much as I need before it all goes bad. Just how many bags of apples/chips/chicken thighs did I really need?

Of course there are plemty of ways to reduce food waste without eating it all. 

In this section we will explore food waste in the home and how we can reduce it. We will look at;

• where food waste is most commonly generated
• why we should reduce the amount of food we bin  
• what we can do to minimise the amount of food waste we produce
• using up our personal food mountain
• How we can dispose of the food we just cant eat, other than putting it in the bin

If you have anything you would like to share with us or contribute to this section please let me know.