Waste not at Hallowe’en: everyone urged to have their pumpkin lantern, and eat it

People throughout Scotland are set to buy around 100,000 pumpkins to make Hallowe’en lanterns this Saturday – but nearly two thirds of people will throw them away. 10m are grown in the UK. This follows news of a pumpkin shortage in British supermarkets.

The Love Food Hate Waste campaign, delivered by Zero Waste Scotland, is urging people not to bin their scooped-out pumpkin goodness and make the most of the seasonal superfood with a range of inspiring pumpkin-based recipes.

Ylva Haglund, Love Food Hate Waste Campaign Manager, Zero Waste Scotland, said: “Food waste is a major issue with over 380,000 tonnes of food that could have been eaten being thrown away by households in Scotland each year – that represents a potential annual saving of £470. Hallowe’en is a great example of a fun time of year when people traditionally get together in celebration, so there really is no excuse not to make the most of and share the food we buy.

“A delicious warming pumpkin soup or a hearty pumpkin lasagne are just two great recipes that make great Hallowe’en party food. Such dishes feed plenty of people and leave you with that all-important pumpkin shell to then carve into a lantern. Throwing away the nutritious pumpkin flesh is a needless waste of money when there are so many other great things you can make with it – even the seeds.”

Love Food Hate Waste has some delicious pumpkin recipe suggestions to try, including:

– Roasted pumpkin lasagne

– Roasted pumpkin seeds

– Gnocchi in pumpkin and chilli sauce

– Roasted pumpkin and coriander soup

– Pumpkin chutney

All of these recipes are available on www.lovefoodhatewaste.com along with tips focusing on apples – which are in season – and which are often used at Hallowe’en parties for apple bobbing. Recipes include toffee apples, apple crisps and apple spiced muffins.

The environmental impact of the food wasted is also significant. If we stopped wasting food from our homes at the current level, it would have the same effect as taking one in four cars off Scotland’s roads.

Food often ends up wasted if we buy too much, cook too much or don’t store food correctly – and often don’t think creatively about how to use leftovers and freeze whatever is not immediately required. The Love Food Hate Waste website has a wealth of tips on how plan meals to make the most of everything you buy, how to judge portions correctly, how to store food to make it last longer and ways to turn leftovers into delicious meals and snacks. Visit www.lovefoodhatewaste.com to find out more.

Image credit: Pumpkin projected onto the wall by Matthew Gordon via Flickr