At Yeo Valley Organic, we love food, but know of the need to reduce food waste. Celebrated on 24^th April, Stop Food Waste Day is the perfect time to re-evaluate and encourage more change in our habits towards food and especially food waste.

Roughly 1/3 of the food produced in the world for human consumption is lost or wasted. Did you know that if food waste was a country, it would be the third largest emitting country in the world behind China and the USA.

Too Good To Go is an app that helps to reduce the amount of food being thrown away. The app allows people to buy surplus food from nearby businesses at a discounted price saving the produce from being thrown out.

Since joining the Too Good to Go Scheme in 2021, Yeo Valley Organic has saved 6,036 meals, which is the equivalent of 16.3 metric tons of CO2e avoided.

Plus, for every ‘Magic Bag’ sold we’re saving 2.5kg of CO2 – the equivalent of charging 320 smartphones! For more information on the Too Good To Go app download it today and join the fight against food waste, available on App Store and Google Play.

You can also fight food waste straight from your fridge… here, we share our top tips and we hope they will provide some inspiration so you too can minimise food wastage.

• Make a list before doing your food shop!
  Don’t forget what’s in your fridge… forgotten food costs British families approximately £800 per year and is bad for the environment too.
• Freeze
  Get in the habit of freezing leftovers. Revive wilted vegetables by washing them in water for 5 to 10 minutes. Make sure that when you freeze food, you remove as much air as possible for long-lasting freshness.
• Organise your fridge
  When saving and reusing leftovers, where food is stored can have a huge impact on its freshness and versatility. By storing your food in the correct places, you can reduce your food waste. Not everything is stored best in the fridge. For example, bread actually goes stale much quicker in the fridge! It should be kept in a cool, dark place. Also, dairy products like cheese need to be kept well-wrapped once opened, such as in an airtight container, so it stays fresher for longer.
• Love your leftovers
  A great way to enjoy your leftovers is by being creative and turning them into another, delicious dish. We have loads of fun recipes for you to try using our Yeo products! View all our recipes here.
• “Look, Smell, Taste” test
  Too Good To Go recommends using your sight, smell and taste to determine whether you can still use the product, instead of just throwing it away.
• Best before vs Use By:
  Our organic dairy products are just too delicious to go to waste, in recent years we switched from ‘Use By’ dates on our butter, cheese, milk and natural yogurt to ‘Best Before Dates’. What does this mean? Well, our products are at their best before this date, but can still be eaten and taste good after this date, reducing food waste.

By making small changes and checking your food before throwing it in the bin, food waste can be minimised drastically, and we reduce our impact on our environment and in-turn the planet.