Minimise waste, beat expiry dates

The use of “old” or expired food is perceived to be unsanitary and unsafe. However, a group of students are passionate about minimizing food waste and what better way to get everyone on board by serving delicious food from it?

On Monday night, Fritid Källerian along Råbygatan saw the influx of curious and hungry students. Flyers concerning the environmental impacts of food waste were handed out and quiz questions on ways to save food that were posted up on the walls. Students were busy at work in the kitchen and the tables were set for dinner.

Food waste today has risen to a dimension where we throw away almost one-third of all food that is produced. As much as sixty percent is thrown away by consumers alone. This contributes to climate change, chemical, air and water pollution, biodiversity loss and undermines sustainability, as explained in the brochures created by the students that were given out at the gathering.

This fact encouraged a group of students to serve dinner using only “old” and unwanted food given away by a variety of organizations and businesses, to exemplify the ease and acceptability of using socially condemned type of foods. At the gathering, they served a range of dishes from quiche, to salad, to stew, to pepper soup and to bread.

The planning for the dinner was not without a few bumps in the road though.

“Initially we wanted to do it solely by asking restaurants for their unused stock of food, however they refused to cooperate with us for hygiene reasons,” said Larissa Steim from Germany, one of the organizers of the event.

“We initially asked Smålands nation to host the dinner as well but there was once again concerns over food hygiene and the responsibility over it.”

The event sparked off interest in a number of students. Kata Molnar, currently in the first year of her masterscourse, expresses her interest in the related concept of dumpstering and “how it is a common phenomenon here in Lund and back in her hometown Budapest.”

Several of her classmates plan to follow this phenomenon through the creation of a documentary, where, according to Kata, they address questions such as “why and how people do it”.

The open and easygoing nature was a pull factor for students.

“I just came in and asked if anyone needed help and then I started cooking. I will definitely come back for the next event,” says Maria Jäppinen, a first year in the Bachelor of Development Studies Programme.