St Mary's Weekly Eco Tip: Food Waste

A shopping list is probably the best way to reduce food waste. Decide what meals you will have, write the food requirements on a shopping list, stick to it and avoid impulse buys.

When putting food in the fridge, put items with the earliest use-by dates at the front so they are not forgotten. Use-by dates should in general be adhered to: they are put on foods that carry a risk of food-poisoning if kept too long.

Best-before dates mean just that; the food may still be edible later if it passes smell and sight tests.