Glad Partners With Crosscare Foodbank and Asks Laois Public to Join It’s’ ‘Save Food Save Taste’ Campaign’
GLAD, the leader in home food management, is asking Laois consumers to join its ‘Save Food Save Taste’ campaign, part of a pioneering European initiative aimed at reducing food waste. On average Irish people waste approx 30% of food annually. This compares similarly, but is still higher than European levels of food waste. On average, continental Europeans waste an entire bag of groceries for every five that they purchase. GLAD is also pledging its support to the Crosscare Food Bank by providing Crosscare with food preparation and storage products to help with its charitable food distribution service.
GLAD is providing its own tips on better buying, storage and food management techniques to cut down on food waste through its Facebook page www.facebook.com/
A survey recently undertaken by GLAD amongst Irish shoppers, revealed that Irish people totally underestimate the amount of food that they throw away. Respondents estimated that they threw away an average of 3.9% of food in their homes, when the actual amount of food that Irish people throw away on an annual basis is estimated at up to 30% percent.(1) On a per capita basis, the average Irish person generates about 280 kilograms of food waste each year, the fifth highest in Europe.(2) Irish households could save up to €1,000 a year by becoming more aware of how they are needlessly wasting food. (3) Globally, 50% of all food produced worldwide is wasted. (4)
According to GLAD, 100% of respondents believe that better consumer behaviour could reduce food waste significantly. Interestingly, while 93.2% of respondents surveyed generally look at the ‘best before’ date when buying food, over 69.5% of those respondents generally throw away products which have passed the ‘Best Before/Expiry Date’. This leaves 30% of respondents who keep food after the ‘Best Before/Expiry Date’.
93.2% believe that throwing away food places a burden on the environment and 76.0% of people buy products on special offer, even though they hadn’t planned to buy them.
When asked which foods if any had they thrown away in the previous week, respondents answered; conserves/preserves/
With 40% of those replying to the survey spending €100-150 on food and 75.9% of people believing that a lot of the food that they throw away could still have been eaten, significant financial and environmental gains could be made by better food management. 77.8% of respondents would appreciate more information about how best to store food, so that it keeps fresh for longer.
GLAD has a long association with food preservation and produces a range of food storage and preparations products in various sizes, including the hugely popular GLAD Zipper Multi-purpose food bags, GLAD Cook & Freeze range, GLAD Ziploc Bags, GLAD Sandwich Bags, GLAD Food Bags, GLAD Freezer Bags, GLAD Ice cube bags, GLAD Roasting Bags, GLAD Cling Film and GLAD Alu Foil.
Crosscare’s Foodbank was set up by the charity 25 years ago and works to redistribute food products to charities and families most in need along the east coast. Crosscare also provides three community cafes in Dublincity which address the very real effects of both food poverty and deprivation. Crosscare is using its years of expertise to help local groups throughout the country address these emerging problems also.
According to Michael McDonagh from Crosscare, “Food poverty and deprivation is a very real problem for today’s society. With the cost of food increasing, families are really struggling to be able to afford nutritious meals. Making the food that they buy go further seems like an obvious solution, which is why we are thrilled to be working with GLAD on this initiative.”
Rory Hogarty, GLAD added, “Crosscare provides an invaluable service to a huge number of organisations and individuals in Ireland. GLAD is delighted to be able to help Crosscare’s clients maximise their food management, storage and preservation through the use of our leading products.
GLAD wants to help people reduce food waste at home. There is a big gap between the amount of food that people think that they waste and the amount that they actually do waste. Changing ones behaviour in terms of food waste of course includes conscious shopping, which leads to saving money in the long term. But it is also about storing and managing food correctly at home, since much of discarded food could have been eaten if planned, stored and managed better. This is where GLAD can support consumers by offering clever product solutions that simplify storage and preparation of food at home and assure highest protection of freshness and taste.”
Domini Kemp, Chef and Director Itsa is one of the first to help support the ‘Save Food, Save Taste’ campaign. Domini commented,“Anything to help people make better use of their ingredients and to help them save food and so save waste is a good idea. There are many little tips which can help food taste better for longer. These days, we all want to make the best use of our food and make our budgets stretch as far as we can. A campaign which helps to educate people as to how to do that is a great idea.”