Sustainable chef Matt Stone has partnered with Goodman Fielder's Pampas Pastry brand to launch a campaign to cut household food waste.
Called ‘Re-pie-cling’ (to rhyme with 'recycling'), the movement encourages consumers to reduce their weekly food bill by reinventing the previous nights' meals by using pastry and other staple ingredients.
Research commissioned by Pampas showed that, while the majority of Australians (95 per cent) were already trying to reduce their weekly food bills and be more sustainable in the home (93 per cent), food waste was continuing to grow, with the average household binning more than $1000 in uneaten food each year.
However, Stone said food waste was easier to deal with than most people think.
"It’s just a matter of popping yesterday’s leftovers into some Pampas Pastry, then popping that into the oven,” he said.
“Almost any dish can be 're-pie-cled', from savoury meals like Spaghetti Bolognese right through to desserts like leftover fruit salad and custard.”
The research showed 70 per cent of Australians were using leftovers as a way to save on their food bill, with 86 per cent using leftovers for lunch or as a snack, 71 per cent using the meal for dinner the following night, or 63 per cent freezing them to eat at another time. Despite this, around one in five (18 per cent) admitted to saving leftovers, then throwing them away after a few days.
Stone said older fruit or vegetables could also be used in both sweet and savoury recipes, and has supplied consumers with recipes to help them get started.
THE FACTS:
- Australians spend $63 billion on purchasing food each year, with $10 billion of this becoming food waste.
- Aussie households waste an average of $1000 each year on uneaten food.
- 92 per cent of Australian households throw out cooked food each week.
- 71 per cent of Australians want to be more sustainable in the kitchen.
Taken from Galaxy Research data, commissioned by Pampas Pastry.
