Freeze Christmas leftovers to prevent waste

The plea was delivered after new research from Populus revealed three quarters (73%) of people waste food at Christmas.

Hubbub’s ceo and founder, Trewin Restorick, said encouraging the freezing of leftover food could also help families save money.

Save £250 a year  ​

“By busting the myths around freezing food and providing recipes we can help families save £250 a year on their food bill and help cut Christmas food waste.” ​

Populus research identified several key challenges that were said to prevent consumers from making the most of their festive leftovers.

Of those polled, 40% were unsure about what could be frozen and how long it could be kept for and 55% of those who do freeze food ended up forgetting about it.  

Populus interviewed a random sample of 2,048 adults online between December 10 and 11.

Hubbub has launched a ‘Festive Freeze’ campaign to dispel myths around frozen food and help families cut waste.

Dispel myths​

Leading chefs – including Mark Hix, Tom Hunt, Tom Aikens, Jack Munroe – and restaurant chain Leon and Food cycle and the Sustainable Food Trust – have provided “tasty”​ recipes using leftovers.

Hunt said Festive Freeze was a great way of encouraging people to freeze their festive food surplus, rescuing leftovers and reducing Christmas food waste by half.

Marks & Spencer (M&S) is also supporting the campaign by encouraging its customers to freeze food waste.

Louise Nicholls, head of responsible sourcing at M&S said: “We want to help make it easy for our customers to make their festive food go further. Festive Freeze dispels freezing myths, provides helpful advice and inspires with lots of creative recipes, ultimately helping our customers waste less and save money.”​

Meanwhile, watch our exclusive video interview with Restorick to hear his five-step plan​ to tackle food waste.

Top five freezer myths:​

• Frozen foods are less nutritious
• Freezers are expensive to run
• Freezing food reduces its quality
• There are lots of things that you can’t freeze
• You can’t refreeze frozen food