Warnings over Christmas food waste

Love them or hate them, turkey sandwiches are the way forward to help the environment this Christmas, as Zero Waste Scotland (ZWS) urges us to mindful of how much food we buy and throw in the bin.

Andrew Pankhurst, communications manager at ZWS, said that their Christmas campaign wants to highlight that wasting food has a bigger impact than we might realise.

“Wasting just one portion of Christmas dinner is the same as leaving your Christmas lights on for the whole of December, in terms of the carbon emissions it creates.

“If food waste were a country, it would be the third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, after America and China.

“We really do need to be doing everything possible and wasting food is such an impactful thing that we do every day.

Top chef, Gary Maclean, has been working with the not-for-profit to prove that zero waste does not mean zero taste.

The MasterChef winner’s top tips include cooking the turkey upside down so it’s juices flow to the breast avoiding what he called ‘”dry and inedible” meat.

Serving Christmas dinner buffet-style is another tip - that way, we’re less likely to scrape our leftovers in the bin and can enjoy an evening snack, instead.

In December alone, ZWS estimate that 60 million meals will go uneaten. Among this figure are seasonal favourites that include 3.5 million mince pies, more than 240,000 Christmas puddings and over 100,000 turkeys.

While 61% of all food waste in Scotland comes from Scottish households, Mr Pankhurst adds that this message is food for thought outside of the festive period

“We throw away nearly a million tonnes of food in Scotland every year.

“We all know what a weekly shop costs, so we’re throwing money in the bin and we’re also massively adding to our carbon footprint.

“It’s such an important message at Christmas time, but year-round as well.”