Shop smart scheme 'to reduce food bills and waste'
BBCA campaign has been launched with the aim of saving an average family £83 a month by helping them cut down on food waste.
Weekly email tips on how to shop, cook or store food more economically are being offered to those who sign up to the free Food for Thought scheme run by Cornwall Council.
Cornwall Council said that since it introduced weekly food waste collections in January 2024, about 31,000 tonnes of food waste has been steered away from landfill and into anaerobic digestion facilities, which can produce renewable energy.
The council said it also now wanted to tackle the issue of food waste at shopping basket level.
The council scheme promotes small changes that can be made in the kitchen "to create big savings at the checkout".
It said its tips were about so called "habit stacking" - a technique that could help people turn new behaviours into long-term habits.
Each week's new waste-saving suggestion would build on a tip offered the week before - linking each new behaviour to one people already had the hang of, increasing their chances of making that new behaviour a habit, it said.
Loic Rich, the council's environment and climate portfolio holder said it could be easy to save money.
He said: "Before you go shopping, spend a few minutes looking in your cupboards and in your fridge and consider making a meal from that without having to shop."
On the streets of Bodmin, many people the BBC talked to had a piece of helpful advice.
Irene Widger, 79, said: "I'm nearly 80 and I was brought up at a time when it was a sin to waste anything.
"I never buy extra anyway. I have it here, my shopping list - my age group do all that."
Susan Ashton, 61, said she always knew what was in her fridge.
She said: "I try and use it, reuse it; like not wasting vegetables, make something out of the vegetables and have bubble and squeak the next day.
"My daughter's always giving me recipes, we share our food. If I buy something and I've got too much, I'll give it to her."
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