We don’t yet have a law in this country that bans supermarkets from destroying unsold food. It is bound to come, but heaven knows when. The figures for supermarket wastage, the perfectly good food that cannot be sold simply because it is past its sell-by date, are shocking and can only get worse with the onward march of the “local” small supermarkets, spreading across the country like STDs.
But this is changing, partly due to the Real Junk Food Project, a system where waste food, not just from supermarkets, but from allotments, shops and well-wishers is given a second life at schools and at pay-as-you-feel cafes around the country. The idea is growing, and growing fast, with spaces from Brighton to Leeds where you pay whatever you can afford for a meal or just a cake and a cup of coffee made with perfectly good food that would otherwise have gone into landfill. Carole Cadwalladr has tracked down the busy Adam Smith whose idea it was to turn waste into good, cheap food.
And we have more food for thought from the Ethical Carnivore. Louise Gray decided that if she was to eat meat at all, it would only be meat from animals she had killed herself. A life-changing decision that took her not only hunting shooting and fishing but in pursuit of everything from stags to roadkill. In an extract from her new book, we join her as she makes her first trip to an abbatoir.
We have recipes for you, too. With seasonal nutty ideas from me (warm cardamom and hazelnut cookies anyone?) to harissa-glazed aubergine and walnut butter cakes from Marcus Wareing, and a host of super-cheap recipes from green mango salad to Mediterranean fishermen’s stew from Dr Ali Khavandi and Dara Mohammadi. We also have lunch with the internet phenomenon Joe Wicks and Life on a Plate with comedian Josie Long.
NEWS REFERANCE: THE GUARDIAN
