Most wasted food

I’m sure you’ll all have an idea on what the most common food that gets binned is, well if not it’s bread. Its cheap, easy to make and can’t be kept for sale for more than a day or two.

Waste occurs at such an alarming rate that a lot of charities can’t take anymore daily donations of bread. So it gets binned in the stores or sent for animal feed.

At home we chuck out the crusts, own up, most of us are not lovers of crusts. We also get to the last slice or two after a couple of days and buy a new loaf and the allure of fresh bread means the last loaf goes moldy or in the bin.

What can we do at home to use up the unloved leftovers. Some bread is only worth turning into crumbs, I’m looking at you plastic wrapped supermarket bread. Put those leftovers on a tray and dry it out in the oven and then blitz to make breadcrumbs and store in an airtight container. An unsliced loaf you can slice into a variety thickness and shapes and again dried and used as crutons for soups and salads, toast crisps for antipasto, pates and cheese platters. Sprinkle them with olive oil and a grate of cheese and you have an even better crisp. How about spices, pesto or tomato paste? Old sourdough or any sturdy bread can be toasted and topped with a huge variety of deliciousness. Avo smash anyone?

Next week I’ll tell you how industries are using old bread up.