Article by Rani Sohi, illustration by Claudia Melton for segments of news

We’re even finding ways to include all ingredients to ensure none go to waste.

Every penny is counted to the point of despair if a few are wasted. The typical shopping bag used to contain whatever we desired, now it’s the bare essentials, such as a handful of fruit and veg, a garlic head or two, a pasta packet, salad, a tomato jar and maybe a can of fizzy. That’s if the shelves have anything on display. To combat large-scale food waste, food retail giants aren’t plastering ‘best before’ stickers on produce anymore.

This comes after the Waste and Resources Action Program (WRAP) flagged that 9.5 million tonnes of food were wasted in the whole of 2018.

Now ‘best before’ can no longer be confused with ‘use by’. Instead of shrugging our shoulders and tossing anything in the bin, we’re scrutinising the quality and asking ourselves if we’re adding to the problem…