Leftovers to Nextovers
Why Turning Your Leftovers into Nextovers Could Save More Than Just Money
Every year in the UK we waste a massive five million tonnes of food. We’re not talking about the bits we can’t eat like banana skins, apple cores or chicken bones, but five million tonnes of perfectly good food that could have landed in our stomachs rather than in the bin.
We want to do our bit help combat this issue, so this year we’ve teamed up with Love Food Hate Waste, a charity initiative that aims to raise awareness of the need to reduce food waste.
Throwing away these leftovers because we’ve cooked, prepared or served too much – such as the extra spoonful of pasta, rice or mash left in the pan, or the extra sausage that doesn’t seem worth keeping – may not seem a big deal, but the reality is that that it’s contributing to a far bigger problem.
When you tot up all the leftovers that are wasted in the UK, it adds up to enough food to fill 10 million large wheelie bins, 1,000 Olympic-sized swimming pools or 2¼ Wembley stadiums each year. In short, that’s a lot of perfectly tasty food that’s chucked away.
So how can we help? Chances are that you’ve heard of leftovers, but what about nextovers, the latest food movement to hit our kitchens? The idea is straightforward, instead of putting any uneaten food into the bin, turn any leftovers from today into new meals for tomorrow.
Why? Simply put, it can play a crucial part in helping us to reduce the amount of food we throw away.
Being wasteful with food is bad news for the environment. On top of all the greenhouse gases created from producing, transporting, storing and cooking food in the first place, leftovers that are binned end up in landfill. Here, bacteria break them down, generating even more of these climate-changing greenhouse gases. In fact, it’s estimated that eating up leftovers rather than sending them to landfill would have the same environmental benefit as taking more than half a million cars off the road for a year!
Furthermore, our bank balance also profits. All the perfectly good food we throw away is worth around £15 billion a year – equal to £70 a month for an average family with children. Out of this, leftovers account for £3.6 billion being put straight into the bin!
As if that’s not enough of a reason give nextovers a try, eating up leftovers can also save us stacks of time in the kitchen. When there are leftovers in our fridge, there’s no need to cook a new meal from scratch. Leftovers mean we already have a meal – or at least a good part of it – just waiting to be eaten. The trend also encourages us to be creative with cooking, being imaginative with flavours and dishes to create masterpieces.
With most people having a microwave oven in their kitchen these days, giving nextovers a try couldn’t be easier. In fact, the microwave is truly the secret weapon in the war against waste.
Our product range ensures perfect results even with pre-cooked food through the Genius Sensor technology, and adds dimensions to dishes through combination elements (incorporating microwave, oven and grill functionality). The result: a happier environment, body and bank balance – and a delicious new dinner that’s ready in a matter of minutes!
You can find plenty of nextover inspiration on The Ideas Kitchen, and we’ve also included some handy tips for using your Panasonic microwave below:
- Make sure you use microwave-friendly bowls and dishes
- Invest in a reusable and washable cover that’s designed for using in a microwave – it will reduce the amount of single-use clingwrap you use.
- Make sure to clean your microwave regularly to ensure quality results. Panasonic Microwaves include Catalytic Roofs, a self-cleaning lining used in conjunction with the grill functionality to make cleaning easier
- Make sure you reheat food until it’s piping hot, or use the Panasonic Genius Sensor technology, and remember, only ever reheat food once
- If your microwave is combined with an oven and grill, get experimenting with these functions – it will open even more possibilities for creating delicious nextovers
Head to the Love Food Hate Waste website to find out more about why you should take action to reduce food waste!
