How can we reduce food waste at home in the UK?How to: Make a meal from fridge leftovers

Each week, the average UK household bins approximately 6.5kg of unwanted food. That's about a third of a tonne of wasted food every year - the same weight as a grand piano. Yikes!

Basically, it’s a lot. And generally, there are two things causing it: we’re overestimating how much food we need, and underestimating how long we can keep it for.

Studies show that leftovers from Sunday roast dinners and Chinese takeaways are the main culprits of our household food wastage. Other offenders? Salad, potatoes, carrots and one-off ingredients bought for special recipes.

While this extra food contributes to the release of harmful greenhouse gases and CO2e emissions into our atmosphere, it's also just a huge waste of money.

But a few small changes can make a big difference. And guess what? It can be really satisfying too.

Step 1: Analyse your food

The first step to solving any problem? Surveying the terrain. Take a moment to look around your fridges, cupboards and fruit bowls to see what you’ve got left from your weekly shop. Here at the Too Good To Go headquarters, we came across half an avocado, an egg, a couple of slices of bread, tomatoes and peppers that all needed to be eaten.

Step 2: Get creative with recipes

It's one thing to identify leftover food - it's another thing to put it to use. Looking at your ingredients, see what kind of meal they could all work together in. With the scraps we found, it wasn't hard to find a tasty solution. 

Step 3: Make a meal out of it

For us, a tasty breakfast was the order of the day. The egg was fried sunny side up, and our veggie accompaniments were sliced and sprinkled with freshly ground black pepper. Of course, you'll probably find different ingredients: half a tub of soured cream and a wilting bunch of coriander? Sounds like the perfect excuse for nachos. Broccoli, spring onion and potatoes? Why not whip up a frittata! Remember, the best cuisines were born from necessity, using the ingredients that were readily available. Trust your inner Gordon Ramsay and make a meal out of your leftovers - you might invent the next ratatouille.

Feeling inspired? Make a meal using your leftovers and tag us on Twitter or Instagram!

Written by Chris Wilson