It’s BBQ season! That’s right – there will be burgers, buns and sausages galore as Brits take full advantage of the good summer weather and fire up the grill.
However, while we all know Brits love a BBQ, Too Good To Go is shining a light on the Most Wasted BBQ Food Items we end up with as a result – and the findings are shocking.
The world’s largest marketplace for surplus food has found that on average Brits will waste the following items every year:
- Over 11 million salad items
- 9.3 million pieces of bread, rolls and buns
- 7.7 million burgers
- Over 7 million sausages
This shocking seasonal food waste is yet another layer to the incredible 10.7 million tonnes of food waste the UK throws away every year (WRAP, 2024).
So, the next time you’re chucking on the charcoal and prepping your feast, think about how much food you’ll really need – and plan some recipes with leftovers for the next few days to minimise wastage, or use leftover food from throughout the week to beef up your BBQ spread!
Here are some zero waste burger tips and summer recipes from Too Good To Go that will make the most out of BBQ season this year:
Freshen up old burger buns
- Brush them with a bit of water, wrap them in tin foil and place in a preheated 180˚ oven for 5 mins.
Use carrot peels to make a crunchy slaw
- If you like a slaw on your burger or as a side, you can do it totally waste-free if you use carrot peels as a base. Wash your carrots, and peel them as normal, and then slice them into thin strips. Pair with thinly sliced cabbage, some freshly chopped parsley and dress with lemon juice, minced raw garlic, salt, olive oil, and a dash of red wine or white wine vinegar. Toss before serving.
Make soggy lettuce crunchy again
- Got a bag of salad sitting sadly at the back of your fridge? You can give it its crunchy bite back by soaking it in ice water for between 15 mins to an hour.
Turn stale or frozen bread into breadcrumbs for your burger patty
- Grate or blend your stale or frozen bread and add to the same amount of mince. We love adding some onion, Worcestershire sauce, mustard, salt, pepper, and egg as a binder.
Cheats’ Toad-in-the-Hole
- Slice leftover sausages into a Yorkshire pudding batter and bake for a comforting classic.
Make breadcrumbs
- Turn those stale buns and baps into banging breadcrumbs. Toast the pieces in the oven until firm, then simply blitz them in a food processor. Use your breadcrumbs to make homemade favourites such as chicken parmigiana, mac and cheese, scotch eggs or breaded fish.
