Introduction
Bread waste is common and easily avoidable, through a variety of different ways. This article is going to go into detail on when bread becomes unsafe to eat, ways you can prolong the life of your bread and what to do with leftover bread.
According to a global report from the United Nations Environmental programme. More than 900 million tonnes of food is thrown away every year. Their food waste index suggests around 17% of all food from homes, shops and restuarants goes straight into the bin.
Homes account for 60% of that statistic!
Not only is this a lot of money needlessly wasted, we are living in a world whereby 2.3 billion people in the world (29.3%) were moderately or severely food insecure in 2021, according to the World Health Organisation.
Bread is the UK’s most wasted food with as the BBC suggests “32% of bread purchased by UK households is dumped“.
This is staggering sad and avoidable.
Continue reading to learn more about how you can reduce bread waste in your home.
Is Your Bread Safe To Eat Or Not?
Before we start, it’s important to determine if your bread is safe to eat or not. This will determine what you do next with your bread waste.
Ignore Best Before, Focus on Use By
Know the difference between best-before and use-by dates.
The Food Standards Agency UK states :
Use-by date – Relates to food safety
Best before date – Relates to food quality.
When attempting to reduce food wastage it’s essential to consider the differences between these two. If your bread surpasses best-before dates it is still safe to eat.
If your bread has surpassed its use-by date I recommend composting your leftover bread, this can be done by leaving the bread in your compost bin or compost heap. This is environmentally friendly in a variety of different ways. If you want to learn more about composting and how to start click here.
Reduce Bread Waste By Prolonging Your Bread’s Life
Never Refrigerate Your Bread, Use Bread Bins Instead
When the bread is stored in a cold environment (above freezing point), such as a fridge, the starch in the bread recrystallizes, otherwise known as going stale. Freezing on the other hand dramatically slows down the recrystallization process, prolonging the bread’s life.
Using Bread Bins/boxes are a great way to store bread at room temperature, to be used a couple of days later.
Learn to Revive Stale Bread
Oven Method
You can revive stale bread by completely wrapping your bread in tin foil: Depending on the size/type of bread can change how long you place it in the oven:
- A small roll/single slice of bread wrap it in tin foil and place it in the oven for 5 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius
- A large piece of bread, such as a baguette, wrap it in tin foil and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes at 200 degrees Celsius
Check your bread regularly through this process to ensure the bread is baking to your taste.
Microwave Method
Another method to revitalise your stale bread is:
- Get a paper towel and soak it in cold water
- Drain as much water as you can from the paper towel, till its lightly damp
- Wrap your bread slice/ piece of bread in your damp paper towel snuggly
- Microwave it for 10 seconds
- Then Serve
This method helps reintroduce moisture into your bread, putting it back into its previously softened state.
Freezer Is Your Friend
Freezing your food in general is an amazing way to keep your food fresh.
This applies to bread too! If you have leftover bread slices, freeze them! Just remember to use something to separate every slice of bread to avoid them freezing together.
What’s amazing about freezing bread, is that they thaw in minutes or can be toasted directly from frozen.
Food You Can Make With Leftover Bread
Bread & Butter Pudding
An old English classic comfort food. Bread and butter pudding typically involves slices of lightly salted buttered bread, covered in raisins and a custard mixture, seasoned with a variety of spices including nutmeg and vanilla. Don’t knock it till you try it! There’s a reason this pudding has been around since the early 1700s.
Toasties
Toasties are a go-to comfort food, you can never go wrong with them.
Popular toastie variations include:
- Ham and cheese
- Plain Cheese
- Tuna Melt – Tuna and sweetcorn
- Breakfast toasties (Sausage, bacon and eggs)
These can always be veganised with the fantastic array of meat alternatives available in supermarkets today!
For the Vegetarians (If you’re vegan, replace the cheese with vegan cheese)
- Tomato, Mozzarella and Pesto
- Falafel and Homous
- Tomato, Onion and pepper
- Jackfruit and cheese
French Toast
French toast is a popular and delicious breakfast that involves soaking bread in milk and eggs, then frying it until they are golden brown and crunchy. If you haven’t tried it I recommend you do so!
Croutons
Chop your leftover bread and bake it into croutons. These taste amazing as salad toppings and as a snack.
Breadcrumbs
Crumble your bread into bread crumbs and bake them on top of any oven-baked dish. This adds texture and adds depth to your food it previously wouldn’t have had.
Summary
Having to waste food of any kind is frustrating and in a lot of ways easily avoidable. Especially for leftovers, there are many ways that we can avoid wasting bread, from freezing and reviving and baking it into recipes.
Disclosure
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