When we cook or prepare fruit and vegetables, we usually have some parts of them that we can’t eat. Some fruit and veg comes with outer coatings we can’t eat (like the skin of bananas or oranges) or seeds and cores (think apple cores and peach stones). We also might have peelings from vegetables like onions and potatoes. Other waste that we can’t eat could include bones from a roast chicken. This must be disposed of somehow.
In the last 70 years, we’ve been peeling away more and more of the nutrition and fibre around our vegetables. Some of this is from processing food, such as canning, where peeling is recommended to reduce bacteria. While in our kitchens, giving vegetables a good wash can get rid of any dirt, and peeling vegetables can remove tough and bitter skins (think old root vegetables or winter squashes), but a lot of peeling is unnecessary.
During the Second World War “housewives” were thrifty cooks saving peelings from vegetables for stock or chicken feed. See the poster on the right.
The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) estimates around 30% of our 9.5 million tonnes of food waste in the UK every year is the inedible parts of plants and animals.
Recycle Devon have written a handy book to help you reduce food waste packed full of these tips and more together with loads of recipes to use up leftovers.
Discover more at
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