Birds Eye want the nation to use their Freezers to save money and help combat the issue of food waste.
According to a new survey which surveyed 1,000 British people, the average family household throws away around £700 of food and drink every year meaning around 850,000 tonnes of food goes to waste. iFreeze, iSave is a brand new initiative spearheaded by BirdsEye which is trying to encourage the nation to use their freezers more to save money and help combat the issue of food waste. Wouldn't' it be lovely if everyone joined in?
Did you know that eggs can be frozen out of their shells? Well a whopping 92 percent of the nation didn't know this (me included) Herbs (56 percent), fruit (48 percent), sauces (47 percent) and cake (46 percent) were also products that Brits didn't realise could be frozen.
Some handy tips for freezing food to help you join in:
- To reduce costs, batch cook a large meal and freeze your leftovers to enjoy later.
- When buying more unusual ingredients, it’s likely that you'll have to buy larger portionsthan you need – don't bin the leftovers, freeze them instead!
- When freezing food, do so in realistic portions so as not to waste food once defrosted – for example, when buying a pack of frozen chicken breasts, freeze the chicken breasts in individual freezer bags so you can just cook just the one if you need to.
- Frozen vegetables are your best friend! They offer so much versatility and can be used to accompany a range of meals – I always keep my freezer stocked up with frozen veg instead of fresh; it lasts longer and it’s more nutritious, too.
- Save over-ripe bananas from the compost heap, just peel and chop and pop in a bag in the freezer. Perfect for smoothies straight from the freezer or once defrosted bake into a batch of banana bread.
- Stock up on berries when they're on offer or close to their sell-by date, freeze in small portions then use them to make smoothies or to sprinkle on yogurt or ice-cream.
- Bread keeps brilliantly in the freezer, so I always have a supply of rolls, muffins, crumpets and sliced loaves in the freezer as it tends to go mouldy really quickly in a warm kitchen.
- Freezing small cartons of fruit juice are brilliant little cool packs to put in your picnics at the beginning of the day. By lunchtime they'll have defrosted and be ready to drink, but will have kept your picnic nice and chilly.
The story has been brought to life at Southbank, London where a 20-foot giant billboard made entirely out of ice that when melted, released coins and notes that passer-bys were able to collect. You can see all the action in the video below.
We can all save money and help reduce food waste by using our freezers more. I for one will be trying out some of the tips above. Who knew that you could freeze eggs? Not me!