Top items include eggs, cheese, pasta and so much more – here's the easy way to save money, reduce food waste – and avert a national crisis

Another day, another crisis - and this time it's milk. According to Arla, the company behind Cravendale, milk production is down three per cent in 2022, and a further fall of two per cent would mean demand can no longer be satisfied. 

The solution put forward by Co-op is to encourage people to start freezing milk. The grocer’s own research found that two-thirds of UK adults don’t freeze their milk, and nearly a third didn’t realise they even could. 

That’s a problem because, according to food waste experts Wrap, as a nation we throw out 70,000 tonnes of milk per year, at a cost of £150 million to ourselves, making it one of the most wasted food products in the country. 

“Your freezer is your best friend,” Helen White, special adviser on household food waste at Wrap, tells the Telegraph. “In the UK, household food waste is estimated at 4.5 million tonnes per year. It costs a family of four with two children £730 per year, or around £60 per month. The biggest share of that food waste, 40 per cent or 1.9 million tonnes is food that wasn’t used in time but you can freeze up to and including the use-by date and once you’ve done that, you have pressed pause on it,” she says. 

An expert in freezing thanks to her work as a specialist on Love Food Hate Waste, White advises almost all food can be frozen indefinitely, though it’s best practice to use it within three-to-six months to avoid freezer burn. This is when the ice crystals break up the food and cause abrasions. “Even then it’s still totally fine and safe to eat.” 

It’s best to avoid freezing anything with a high water content like cucumbers or lettuce, says White. “You can freeze things like strawberries, grapes, tomatoes, but you shouldn’t expect to use them in the same way – you wouldn’t put a strawberry in the freezer to use in strawberries and cream, but you could use it in smoothies or a crumble.”

Beyond that, freeze away, says White. “You can freeze cheese,” she says. “Cheddar cheese. Grate it, store it in an airtight container and freeze it. You can use it from frozen on pizza, lasagne, or mashed potato.” 

Eggs are another one that a lot of people never realise you can freeze, though you do need to get them out of their shells or else they’ll be a “nightmare to defrost”. But White advises that you could separate egg whites and yolks and freeze them separately. 

If you’re not good at portioning your pasta, you can freeze it once it’s cooked. Just put it in boiling water when you’re ready to use it and it’ll cook faster than dry pasta, saving time too. 

Best practice for defrosting is to do it in the fridge overnight, especially with meat and dairy, adds White. “If you’re impatient, unfreezing in a microwave is perfectly legitimate – just make sure you use defrost mode otherwise it’ll start cooking.” 

The one important rule is that you should not refreeze anything, especially meat. It’s perfectly acceptable to defrost meat, cook it into a new dish, and freeze that dish because the cooking process will kill any bacteria. However, letting something unfreeze then freeze again will activate the bacteria which can potentially be harmful. 

So you’ll never throw them out again, Helen White reveals the top eight produce we waste on a daily basis:  

This article is kept updated with the latest information.

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