With the price of virtually everything continuing to rocket skywards, all the indicators show that food waste is one area where cutting costs and saving money might still be possible. Recently released figures from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that Ireland generated a staggering 753,000 tonnes of food waste in 2021, with household food waste accounting for 29% of this amount.
The EPA reckons that this translates into an average of 120kg of food waste per household at a cost of roughly €60per month, or €700 per year.
While all of this makes for pretty grim reading, the good news is that there are a variety of ways in which this can be remedied, including trying not to generate excess food, and redistributing surplus food to others. Hope also comes in the form of an inspired new cook book by Conor Spacey. The enterprising chef, disruptor and author set about identifying some of the most wasted food items in Irish homes, and then found ways of turning them into tasty, nutritious dishes.
In sharing his recipes Spacey is doing his bit to encourage people to think differently about ingredients and waste in the hope that doing so may help change an unhealthy national mindset and reconnect us all to the benefits of real food.
His compact recipe book Wasted is crammed with ideas designed to help everyone to turn a corner, stop wasting food and turn perfectly good ingredients into delicious dishes.
At the risk of sounding preachy, we could do worse than join him on his journey of discovery to create a better world through food.
