Food wastelands

Mirosa, who has a particular research interest in food waste and helped establish the University of Otago Food Waste Innovation Research Group, is campaigning to reduce the amount of food we throw away or turn up our noses at.

The senior lecturer explains that part of her research has involved working with WasteMINZ, the representative body of the waste and resource recovery sector, on the National Food Waste Prevention Project.

“The first step was to trial a methodology to collect base nationwide food waste data. This involved surveying people and having them complete kitchen diaries. “But we know that there is a social desirability factor – people say, 'No, we don't waste food', when we know that they do,” says Mirosa. “So, in addition, we go through the bags and bins the rubbish collectors pick up, and conduct a waste audit.”

Although project data are not yet available, she says that previous pilot studies have shown that food waste makes up between 30 and 40 per cent of household rubbish carted off to landfills.

The next step, she explains, is to design some interventions, such as nationwide social marketing campaigns, to encourage people to use as much of the food source as possible. She gives the examples of not peeling vegetables and not cutting off broccoli stalks, which are as delicious and nutritious as the heads.

She says that another important way to reduce food waste is to encourage people to look afresh at commonly discarded parts of animals. Mirosa, who has lived and studied in Asia, points to China as a role model for what she calls “nose-to-tail eating”. She is personally partial to lamb's fry (lamb's liver) and the equally euphemistic black pudding (animal blood and oatmeal).

Mirosa says that there are ways to encourage people to eat offal, such as moving it out of the pet food section at supermarkets, giving customers recipes with products and selling it in more familiar guises, such as stir-fry strips. She is encouraged by a recent revival of interest in offal in trendy restaurants.

Mirosa maintains that reducing food waste makes social, economic and environmental sense. “Food waste has been identified as one of the easiest things for people to change and can have a large impact in tackling some of the big issues of our times, such as hunger and climate change.”

The 33 year old says that her household eats up almost everything and anything inedible goes to the chooks, although she admits that encouraging her three children not to be too picky about what they eat can be a challenge.