People typically overstock their cupboards with the Food they love to eat on Christmas, especially when catering for their whole family on Christmas Day, being unsure of how much food to actually buy.

However, purchasing too much food can lead to items going out of date before you have a chance to eat them, adding to the ever-increasing number of food being wasted every year in the UK.

It has been reported that the average family household gets rid of almost £700 worth of food every year.

This Christmas you can help reduce food wastage by following a few simple steps, to ensure that you use up every last bit of festive grub!

1. Write a shopping list
It’s very easy to get distracted when shopping for food for Christmas and buy lots of items that you don’t really need. You can stop yourself from doing this by writing a strict shopping list that you can stick to, which only contains the essential items that are needed!

2. Look at the use by dates
Remember to look at the use by and sell by dates on food, make sure you don’t buy anything which is due to go out of date.

3. Store your food correctly
Food should be stored away properly in order to prolong the use by date of the food.  Food items such as eggs should be stored in the fridge and not in the cupboard, this will make them last longer. Bread that is close to its use by date can be stored in the freezer, it will stay edible for up to 6 months!

4. Use your freezer
Freeze any leftovers or ingredients that you haven’t used- you can freeze packaged food until the use by date, so if there’s something hiding at the back of the fridge and it needs using up, transfer it to the freezer and use at a later date.

You can safely freeze cooked & raw meats and also cook defrosted meat into a meal and freeze for use on another day. Just defrost overnight in the fridge and use within 24 hours, cooking until it’s steaming hot.

For fresh foods that cannot be frozen, make sure that you include them in your meals before the use by date.

5. Use leftovers to make lunch
One quick way to use up leftovers from your Christmas dinner is to make lunch with them, for example- you could make yourself turkey sandwiches, or make a vegetable soup. You can view a big list of recipes that you can make with your Christmas dinner by clicking here.

6. Donate food you don’t use
Don’t throw away perfectly edible food- A quick Google search will provide you with a list of local food banks, that will gladly accept food donations from you.

The Back-2-Front team have done this by donating food to help people in crisis in Bristol this Christmas, watch the video below-

The post How To Reduce Food Waste This Christmas appeared first on Back-2-Front.