When I last wrote my wlog on food waste, I had a plan to build on that in my next few wlogs. But, the current situation altered my plan. Yes, I am still writing about food waste but also keeping the lockdown situation in mind.
Did you ever imagined that there would be timing prescribed for buying food items? There would be a queue outside kirana store just like a passport office. People will await for the PM to address the nation and orders by government authorities of how to buy their essentials.
It came too soon? Earth was to last long?
This pandemic not only disorganised everyone’s life but also threw some light on humanly habits.
Value for food
Yes, value of food is ingrained in India more than anywhere else. But it’s not a pride moment. Talk about Indian wedding and parties with buffets. Everyone seems to be on a task to build a mountain on their dishes. Few minutes later, the mountains die a slow death to rot in dustbins and landfills. Throwing away the after party food or serving the child above their capacity to finish the food. All goes in to waste. Did it ever crossed your mind that how much water and energy was consumed for getting raw material to bake that pizza of which you have left the slice on the plate. Only, 900 litres of water is required to produce 1kg of wheat. And when you read only, I am sure it boggles your mind. Now add all the resources used while cleaning it, transporting and packaging the same wheat of which you just let go off the slice!
In this lockdown, can you afford any of these? No, you will probably store the leftovers for using it next day. You will not let your vegetable over ripe and rot. You will finish it because the supply is limited. The stocked up pulses and food items are making their way back in kitchen which otherwise would have got their expiry.
Indeed a change
All of sudden, in few days’ time, we have started valuing food like never. Our kids are told not to waste food more often than ever. Fridges will be filled with leftovers and every family member knows how to use it wisely! Mother’s will be calculative in their approach of not cooking anything extra, kids will be told not to make unnecessary food demands, fathers won’t deny having previous days menu again. There will be no excess online ordering.
This is the change which kept coming to us as the need of the hour in the purview of food wastage. We didn’t care much. But, somehow we adopted for it in extreme times. When you have less control over what you can own, reading more about how to capitalise on food resources is a clear win.
Let’s do the easiest to check our leftovers:
Use the potato along with the peels. Wash it properly and no need to remove it!
Trying using vegetable peels for pickling (bottle gourd, sponge gourd, orange etc)
Roll a frankie from left over chapatis or roti poha or the gujju dish ‘rotlaa nu shak’ !!
Stock up the vegetables which can be preserved (peas, sweetcorn., drumsticks etc)
Use or over ripe banana to make milkshake or cake, over ripe guava to make delicious chutney
Store surplus chutney in ice box, they stay fresh for long
Use banana peels to make fertiliser for your plants
Start composting wlog4 (all the food goes to the place where it came from –The Soil!)
Hope you discovered some new facts on food waste and would act accordingly in this time of lockdown!!
Have a recipe made out of leftover food or food scraps , feel free to share with us at connect@inwaster.com and we will share some exciting ones on our platform