Food Waste and Self Service

Fish called basa. Cook onions and tomatoes in canola oil for 6m. Add basa steaks.

 Cook in medium heat for 8m, Eat with baked beans chutney and steamed carrots.

Garbage collectors don’t write books or post videos for obvious reasons. What they see is not pretty, and it is not only half-eaten pizza slices.

Food waste is associated with year-end holidays, parties, family gatherings, conference food and other large scale events, but we also waste a lot of food at home because the choice is wide.

There is no choice in times of war and history books are full of rationing stories, where families ate what was available. There’s more affluence now hence, the wide choice of food at our disposal.

Speaking of disposal, self service is one of the reasons why we throw left-overs in the garbage. We absentmindedly put on our plates more than we can eat.

Some families don’t have self service. Someone, usually the mother, dishes out the food, with kids getting smaller portions, or quantity they can finish. Cooking comes before serving obviously. The cook measures  rice, cornmeal for the polenta, pasta, whatever, based on the people at home and it’s a good idea to expose kids to measurements early in life.

“Sylvester put one cup of rice in the pot.”

“But mum, you usually cook 2 cups.”

“Your father is out of town, and your sisters have sleep-overs.”

Dishing out food avoids waste, because mothers know eating habits. Some family members ‘eat like a bird’ which means they don’t eat much. Others might be prone to second helpings.

Therefore, because food was measured before cooking, it is enough for people present. There is no waste. Mothers also dish out for everybody according to their eating capacity.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.