The app we'll be looking at this time is the Love Food Hate Waste app. This was developed by WRAP (a British charity) and was designed to help us reduce food waste. This is a particular problem as we throw away around 10 million tonnes of food and drink every year, more than half of which we could have actually eaten. 70% of this waste occurs in our homes. Not only is this bad for the environment producing roughly 20 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, but it is costing families between £470 a year for the average family to £700 for family with children. All this information can be found on the WRAP and Love Food Hate Waste websites.
When you first open the app you can choose how you would like to log onto the app. You can skip this part if you are just wanting to look at the recipes and portion sizes, but if you're looking to use the app to its full capacity then you will need to log in.
The app is pretty easy to use and self-explanatory and the first page takes you to the main menu page.
The first link takes you to all the recipes that are stored in this app. If you are looking for a recipe for a particular item you can just put this in the search engine and it will bring up all the recipes that contain this ingredient.
The first page of the recipe give you basic information about the recipe and the ingredients. The best bit is that is shows you who has actually added the recipe showing that is has actually been used by everyday people rather than recipes put together by a chef. You can then slide along the screen to find out more.
The first swipe takes you to the hints and tips page giving advise on simple ways to reduce waste.
A second swipe allows you to change the number of people this recipe has to feed and changes here will change the ingredients list to ensure you only make enough to feed the family and reduce waste.
The last swipe takes you to the share section of the recipe, allowing you to share it with whoever you feel would benefit.
The next section on the main menu is the Portion Planner, which ensures that you are buying and cooking the right amount of food for each meal.
First you can select the category of the food from the top row and then something more specific in the bottom. Once you have selected the product you would like you can change the exact number of adults and children the ingredient will have to feed and then click on Go.
This will then give you the exact weight you will need to buy which can be added to your shopping list on the app.
The third section is the Planner. Meal planning is something that I already do, but at the moment I just use the good old fashioned monthly calendar to do this. I am interested in using this section of the app as it would allow me to reduce using as much paper as I do now. It would also make it much easier to base my recipes on what I already have, reducing the amount of food I could end up wasting, and also include my breakfast and lunch. To add a meal just click plus sign.
You can then add a recipe already on the app or make up a new one of your own.
The fourth section is My Kitchen. I haven't added any information to this section yet and I believe that, initially, this will be part of the app that requires the most amount of work as you will need to add all the ingredients you already have in your kitchen. If you're anything like me you will already have quite a few items put away here and there, so it should be quite an interesting rummage around the kitchen. As you use the app to meal plan and go shopping you won't need to keep adding these, unless you buy items not actually on the list. You will also be able to use this list to work out what recipes you can already produce with what you have by clicking on Find A New Recipe. To add an item click on the cross.
You can then add the items and, most importantly, the use by date. This will help you ensure that you are using products up before they have to get thrown away. It is important to remember at this point that for some products, like vegetables, don't need to be thrown out by the use by date put on my our shops, but can be kept for longer as long as they are still fresh. To me this part is only important for canned and frozen products, and meat.
Next on the menu is the Shopping List. If you have been picking recipes or determining portion sizes etc you will already have items on this shopping list. But you can add more by clicking on the plus.
Then add the ingredient and the portion size. It will let you know if you already have duplicates in your kitchen and, once you have been shopping, you can add the ingredients to your kitchen list.
The last section in the menu is the profile. This not only give you information about the app but is also where you can update your personal details, the numbers of members in the household, and have a look at your achievements so far.
To me this is a good app to not only save on food waste but to also help you be more healthy by helping you actually cook the amount of food you should be eating instead of making, and then eating, too much. When I first started concentrating on the size of the portions I was eating I was amazed at much over the right amount I was actually consuming. It might not help you pick more sustainable food, but with the readily available recipes on the app it can help you cook more from fresh and this does make it easier for your to pick the healthier, more sustainable, option.
The app is free from the Love Food Hate Waste for both the iPhone and Android phone so it's definitely worth having a look at.
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