Food waste

We all do it. Let spinach turn dark and damp in our salad drawers, freeze posh chicken thighs and forget all about them, or double up on, well everything really. We all waste food, about £700 worth per household per year, in fact. We also spend too much, despite 70% of us fearing Brexit will dent our wallets.

But does it really mean we need another sanctimonious show like Save Money: Good Food (ITV, 4 April, 8pm) rehearsing the bleedin’ obvious and wagging its finger through the TV set? I’d had enough of it when Gregg Wallace told me how to ‘Eat Well for Less’ before strolling off to his third Michelin starred dinner of the week, and it doesn’t feel much more palatable coming from Susanna Reid this time around.

At least she left Piers Morgan at home. Small mercies. Though alternative Matt Tebbutt, challenged to whip up five cheap midweek meals for serial wasters the Thomson-Ranas, isn’t a whole lot less condescending. If you didn’t know (or somehow you missed the five other times he said it) as a chef he hates seeing food go to waste. Really? Because the rest of us love it. Lobbing broccoli and steaks into the rubbish bin is practically a national sport.

Now, I’m all for thrifty cooking. I might even give those fish fritters and jewelled cous cous recipes a try. But spare me the hundredth lecture on use-by dates, “cupboard stock takes” and own label, please. Unless you’re the Thomson-Ranas splashing out £170 per week on groceries while £180 of good food sits at home, I guess. C’mon guys. We surely know this stuff by now.

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