Little M reviews our Count On It® labels
My very good friend, Little M and his mami, were kind enough to review Count On It® labels early this month.
As any ’switch-on’ little guy or gal knows, keeping an eye on baby’s food (and parent’s) is something we should all do. But with busy lives, it’s not always that easy.
Ta-dah – Count On It® labels
To see what Little M and his readers thought, pop over to his award-winning blog here ‘Mummy’s Busy World‘, you’ll be glad you did.
Thanks again, Little M – you’re a star!
p.s. – not as cute I know, but I’ve also reviewed Count On It® labels across at our new parent site, www.queenofeasygreen.co.uk do pop over to the new site and let me know what you think.
Thanks,
Lyndsey
Count On It labels, the easy peel, freezer labels are reviewed by Little M at Mummy’s Busy World. These removable labels are perfect for jars, freezing leftovers and baby food storage. No need for Sharpies, Count On It labels can be used on freezer bags, food storage tubs and glass storage containers. Ideal for safe food storage, the make First In First Out super simple.
Koo-di Fridge to Go – keeping babies milk safe and reducing waste
A little while ago I saw a product that I wished I’d had when my little chaps, were babies, the Koo-di ‘Fridge to go’.
The reason I wanted to trial the product was because when I used to go on day trips with my boys, I’d always find that any expressed or bottled milk that I’d took with me always seemed to ‘warm up’ quicker than I had expected. On several occasions, I threw it away – which is absolutely sickening, considering how long it’d taken to express – but I just didn’t want to risk it. Yet again more unnecessary and expensive waste, which could have been avoided.
However, the Fridge-to-go does away with this problem, as it’s patented chilling technology means that it works like a refrigerator and can keep food and drink cooled and safe to eat for up to 12 hours.
Although it looks like a regular cool-bag, the Fridge-to-go uses ice packs which are zipped within the lining of the bag and surround the contents in ice-cold temperatures, which take longer to cool down than ordinary ice blocks AND they don’t leave your food and bottles soggy and wet.
So rather than take Koo-di’s word for it, I decided to test it out for myself, but instead of bottles of milk and weaning foods, I opted for icecream – to see if it was just as good as it claimed. Here’s how it went:-
To test the Fridge-to-go I put a couple of scoops of icecream in a glass and popped it inside, at the same time, I put another glass of icecream in a regular cool bag and set the stop watch running.
Two hours later, I checked on both of the glasses of icecream, in the regular cool bag I found a glass of melted icecream at room temperature. To my surprise in the Fridge-to-go, I found the icecream was still ‘firm to touch’, so I decided to leave it a little longer. Three hours later, I checked again and was amazed that although the icecream had melted, it was still very cold.
The ‘Fridge-to-go’ had completely wiped the floor with the regular cool bag and had surpassed my expectations with it’s ‘refrigerator-like’ capabilities.
So, although summer is a long way away, if you’re looking for something to give you peace of mind with your babies food, I’d definitely consider trying the ‘Fridge-to-go’.
Available in two sizes, Koo-di Fridge-to-go (two bottles) is £14.99 and the Maxi is £19.99, to find out more visit their website www.koo-di.co.uk
Count On It for a great Christmas stocking-filler idea
Christmas is just around the corner, 45 days in fact and I expect, if you’re like me, you are just starting to get your head into gear thinking about presents for your friends and family this festive season.
Well, if you have a foodie in your life, I may just have the stocking-filler idea for you.
Count On It® labels, the versatile, self-adhesive, scratch-off memory jogger which takes the guesswork out of storing food at a glance, is now available to buy through a yearly subscription.
For only £24 (including post and packing) you, or your gift recipient can have 3 boxes of Count On It® labels delivered straight to their door every quarter for a year (that’s 12 boxes in total).
Perfect for keeping track on all of your perishable food, whilst saving time and money, Count On It® labels are ideal, not just for Christmas but all year round, as they can be used on all sorts of produce, sauces, mayonnaise, deli goods, meat, fish, frozen goods, weaning foods, the list is endless.
These easy-peel labels also stick fast in the fridge and freezer so are great for leftovers and batch-cooked food, then after use they peel off cleanly ensuring no sticky residue is left on your best storage tubs and bowls.
Not only that, Count On It® labels stick to all sorts of materials, paper, glass, metal, plastic, so whatever it is that needs tracking, Count On It® labels will do the job.
What could be a better gift for someone than something that helps save time, money and waste for the year?
To find out more, just visit our buy page to find out more.
No worries, now waste with Count On It® labels.
Lyndsey
The Great British Waste Menu – My thoughts – Part Two
A couple of weeks ago the BBC aired the programme, Great British Waste Menu in which it addressed the issue of food waste. If you didn’t see the programme, it’s aim was to challenge 4 chefs, Simon Rimmer, Angela Harnett, Richard Corrigan and Matt Tebbutt ‘to prepare a lavish banquet designed to prove that saving scraps is good’, under the intense scrutiny of four of the nation’s toughest food critics Prue Leith, Oliver Peyton, Jay Rayner and Matthew Fort. Here’s the second part of my thoughts about the programme.
Picking up from where I left off in Part One, one of the most shocking ‘revelations’ in the programme was how much fresh produce is thrown away even before it gets to our shops, markets and restaurants. One of the reasons given for this excess waste, was that the supermarkets require a ‘standard product’ because ‘households don’t like misshapen, over-sized, under-sized produce’, so rather than it heading to our stores, it was discarded.
I have two questions, first of all ‘who’ has dictated what the UK household likes and when, I can’t remember being surveyed about my tomato size preference or what size egg I like. Secondly, why isn’t this ‘imperfect’ produce being used by food manufacturers, e.g. those ‘unsuitable’ lettuces could surely be used in ready-to-buy salad boxes, restaurants, shop-bought sandwiches, etc. Instead, because of ‘our’ misconception of what a lettuce should look like, 30,000 lettuces from one farm in one day were ploughed back into the land. Similarly with the eggs, why weren’t those small eggs being sold to food manufacturers for use in mayonnaise, cakes, biscuits – surely this just common sense? Or do our growers and manufacturers already do this and we were misled on this issue?
We then had the well-travelled pineapple that had spent it’s formative years growing in tropical climates with dreams of flying half way across the world to bring a taste of sunshine into a UK household’s life – only to end in a market traders bin because it has gone a bit soft – what a sad tale. The energy that was used to grow, harvest, store, transport and bring to market that pineapple was phenomenal – but it was all a wasted, literally.
For me the main point highlighted by the programme was that as a country we have generally lost touch with our food, the growing, preparation, storage and the value of it. If people understood food and were more confident around it, many would soon realize that the size or shape of fresh produce does not adversely affect it’s flavour, in fact in a lot of cases, particularly the small tomatoes, it can be even tastier.
Food safety, food rotation and proper food storage knowledge would also be improved, not only saving unnecessary waste, but also saving avoidable illnesses contracted as a consequence of poor food hygiene practices in the home and at work.
Our throw away culture would also be challenged, we’d learn how to get more for our money from our groceries, using every last bit until it is gone. Like it was when I was young; Sunday roast chicken and vegetables, then chicken sandwiches for tea and finally cold chicken with bubble and squeak (leftover mash and veg) for Monday night tea – limited preparation – fantastic meals.
As one of the lucky ones who had ‘Home Economy’ classes at secondary school, not only did those classes stand me in good stead for having the confidence to cook, I learnt about food safety and food nutrition. I also learnt about which foods had carbohydrates, fibre, vitamins etc., and I believe this is why I have always had a good relationship with food and haven’t prescribed to fad diets.
If the Government would re-introduce home economy classes into our school, not only would children grow up with a greater appreciation for food, we would be healthier and less wasteful as a nation. Unfortunately at the moment our country has a growing edible food waste and obesity problem to match – the irony. It should be ‘Less waste, less waist™’
Reducing food waste is not going to be an easy problem to solve. As WRAP (CIWM 2007) highlights there are many reasons why so much food is wasted these reasons include food knowledge (how long food lasts), beliefs (attitude to waste), social context (affordability), retail context (more products to purchase), how we shop (ease of purchase), how we eat (expectation of food perfection), how we dispose (lack of disposal infrastructure).
But just because it’s going to be a challenge, it doesn’t mean we shouldn’t try.
Since watching the programme and joining in with discussions with people via Twitter and individual blogs, there are a people out there who do want to do something positive and plans are underway. Maybe, if we get enough people together, we could make a difference. So, if you feel passionate about positively changing our country’s food waste problem and you want to be involved, please drop me a line.
Let’s make it our mission to help everyone in UK get ‘More for my money’ m4mm
Cheers, Lyndsey
To see the programme, or to watch again here’s the link http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tkr88
For tips and advice on reducing food waste click here:-
The Great British Waste Menu – My thoughts – Part One
Last night saw the BBC’s Great British Waste Menu tackle the thorny issue of food waste, challenging 4 chefs, Simon Rimmer, Angela Harnett, Richard Corrigan and Matt Tebbutt ‘to prepare a lavish banquet designed to prove that saving scraps is good’, under the intense scrutiny of four of the nation’s toughest food critics Prue Leith, Oliver Peyton, Jay Rayner and Matthew Fort.
I must admit, on tuning into the programme I wasn’t sure really what to expect, I thought they may chose to just pick on the supermarkets and households and repeat the usual message about best before/sell by date confusion and how this contributes to the UK’s food waste problem. However, I was surprised that they also looked at the farmers, bakers, restaurants, the incredulous wastage of ‘ugly, irregular sized produce’ and market stallholders, who seemed very quick to ditch perfectly edible fruit and vegetables rather than try to sell them.
As I have SO much to comment on, I have decided to split this blog into two parts, this is part one, I hope enjoy it:
The first point immediately acknowledged by those taking part in the programme was that today’s consumers are incredibly frivolous with food. Our food is too readily available, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, piled high and sold relatively cheaply (though as we all know this is starting to change) and there seems to be an endless supply (despite for the second year running wheat prices going up due to poor harvests and increased world demand).
Food is no longer a precious resource, the days of rations and being thrifty with food are long gone, our food is now there ready for the taking, in fact, take it and don’t worry if you don’t eat it, there’s plenty more where that came from! We treat food like, well, rubbish. But the convenience of our food, the sheer abundance of it comes at a price, not only does it affect our pocket (£680 a year for a family of four *WRAP), it is adversely affecting our environment, as tonnes of edible food waste are sent to landfill each year.
Fruit and vegetables are one of the largest food groups to be dumped, the reason why? Purely cosmetic. Unfortunately, similar to our obsession with the body beautiful, it would seem that the majority of people want perfect looking fruit and vegetables too. If they aren’t the ‘classic’ shape, size, colour, texture, firmness and aroma they’re on a one way ticket to the bin. But what about the taste you ask, well, they’re not given the chance – partly because we demand/expect a specific size, e.g. courgettes can’t be too long, or short, tomatoes can’t be too small and carrots, well let’s put it this way Esther Rantzen’s famous ‘legged’ carrots would definitely be told to ’stroll on’. I, and many more people like me on Twitter, was absolutely staggered to hear that 35,000 potatoes are thrown away per minute. Again because they’re cheap and always readily available, consumers don’t value them -but knowing how much effort chitting, planting, watering and cropping went into my small potato harvest, this feels like a crime.
Another area that surprised me was how much fish the guy at the fish and chip shop was throwing away – it had never occurred to me that they’d have off cuts. But why on earth couldn’t these small pieces be battered and made into fish ‘nuggets’ or gougons? I, for one, would prefer this portion size at my local fish shop, rather than the oversized ‘whale’ that hangs over my plate – duly shared with the kids. A bit of clever marketing and the fish and chip shops could sell these smaller portions as ‘diet-sized’ or ‘child-size’ – now there’s a thought!
Then we got onto my favourite subject, household edible food waste. As you will know if you’ve been to my blog before or visited my website www.countonit.co.uk, throwing away food that I’ve spent time, money and effort buying and preparing is a huge bug bear for me. So much so, that I came up with the idea of Count On It® labels, scratch off labels which you simply mark on the date when your food was first opened, stored or frozen. By knowing at a glance how long ago your food was opened, you can eat it in time, safe in the knowledge that you’re getting the most out of your food and wasting less of it. No worries, no waste – just Count On It®.
As the programme stated, the UK households are the largest contributor of food waste in our country and one of the main reasons we throw so much away is because we simply loose track of how long our food’s been opened or stored. There was a perfect example of this on the programme when the lady gingerly (no pun intended) handed over the jar of pickled ginger out from the back of her fridge. The quizzical look on her face summed up what we were all thinking, ‘hmm, how long has that been in there?’ But then, as our top chef showed, it was perfectly edible – another example of unnecessary food waste. If she’d known how long it’d be stored and it was okay to eat, there wouldn’t have been any confusion or indeed waste.
As the bulging, crammed fridge of another householder clearly showed, another problem is that we overbuy and then inadequately store our food. So when we finally get to that jar of opened sauce at the back of the fridge or pack of ham, rather than use it, we guiltlessly throw it in the bin and pull out something else, something new. As was pointed out, to minimise our country’s edible food waste problem we should only be buying what we need, menu planning, rotating and tracking our food and be eating and enjoying all of our food.
As Simmer Rimmer pointed out, many households are confused over ‘use by’, ’sell by’ and ‘best before’ dates, so rather than risk eating anything that could make us ill, we throw it away. It was at this point where I believe the programme ventured into dangerous ground with their ‘Save our Scraps’ pledge stating we should all just trust our noses. As their Food Safety Expert, Dr Lisa Akerly, pointed out, people need to be aware of basic food safety procedures, harmful odourless and tasteless bacteria that grows on our food and the dangers of listeria.
According to the FSA the number of cases in the UK of listeria in people over 60 years of age has doubled in the past nine years. 95% of cases end up needing hospital treatment and one in three of the people getting food poisoning caused by listeria die as a result. Households with children, the infirm and elderly must take great care with food preparation and storage and for many foods the sniff test just isn’t satisfactory or safe enough, we must keep track.
Finally, for now, although I love the concept of the ‘Save our Scraps’ pledge, I don’t think this campaign will ever really get people fully behind it – and why do I think this, well because of the word ’scraps’.
Everyday of our lives we are bombarded with images of abundance, affluence, having it all, luxury and as we’ve seen with the plight of our ‘ugly’ fruit, we just want perfection. I believe that the words ’scraps’ and ‘leftovers’ all suggest scarcity, poverty, making do and poor quality. As Prue Leith further described these ’scraps’ as ‘discarded’ and ‘rejected’ these words do nothing to inspire people to get behind this campaign and try to get the most out of their food and reduce edible food waste.
What could be the answer, well funny you should ask. I’ve been having a thought and this is what I’ve come up with so far, let me know what you think:-
‘Laters’ or maybe ‘Love Laters’
‘More for my money’ or ‘mmm’ for short
‘The Other Half’ or ‘OH’
Anyway, that is it for now, as I mentioned at the start this was an immensely interesting programme for me and I have lots more to say, so I will be writing part two shortly. In it I’ll be musing on why the misshappened lettuces are not going into prepared salad bowls and who said ‘housewives only like big eggs’?
Just before I finally sign off, you will see from one of my previous blog posts that I am on my own mission to help households and supermarkets reduce food waste. By integrating Count On It® labels onto chilled food packaging, so it is already on it ready for you to track your food, Count On It® labels can help you get more for your money and waste less food. Have a look at my blog post ‘Can I count on you?’ please vote on my poll and if you get a chance make a comment, it’d be really appreciated.
So long for now,
Thanks, Lyndsey
To see the programme, or to watch again here’s the link
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00tkr88
For tips and advice on reducing food waste click here:-
Count On It labels on Grocery stores’ own label products to reduce edible food waste
According to WRAP, chilled foods and ready to eat products also attribute to a quarter of the cost of all avoidable food waste thrown away each year in the UK (WRAP 2008)
We would really like to show our packaging manufacturer friends how many people, like you, believe this would add value to their chilled food products, that is why I am asking for your input. By showing our contact how much support this idea has, they in turn, will be able to sell the idea to the supermarkets themselves – making it a reality.
To help me with my quest and to have your say, just click on this link below & then highlight one of the options. If you also want to add a comment as some people have, that would be fantastic.
Thank you for your support, I believe there is huge potential for Count On It® labels and if I can achieve this with your help, that would be phenomenal.
Thanks, Lyndsey
Please RT and forward, etc. The more responses I get the better. x
Count On It labels, the easy peel label, freezer label. These removable labels are perfect for jars, freezing leftovers and baby food storage, freezing baby food. No need for Sharpies, Count On It labels self adhesive labels can be used on freezer bags, food storage tubs and glass storage containers. Ideal for safe food storage, they make First In First Out – they are an easy to use food storage calculator. Count On It food storage labels for safe food storage.
Kitchen Organisation – Key to a successful family kitchen and less food waste
Today’s Guest post is from Nicki Cawood , mum to a 4 year old, Kieran and pregnant with Cawood baby 2 and who’s blog is at www.curlyandcandid.co.uk A woman after my own heart when it comes to unnecessary waste in the kitchen, here’s her post with some great tips and ideas on how to get the most from the best room in the house:
My kitchen is very important to me, which is just as well seeing as I spend such a lot of time in there! It’s the hub of our family home, and we enjoy eating, cooking, baking and spending quality time together at the table. Being such an important place, it has to be organised, super-organised seeing as I work from home too and this organisation has a dual-importance – to not only save time but to save money and waste! It could be the Yorkshire in me but I suspect it’s more to do with being a Mum who is careful with her budget but I detest waste in all forms, so when thinking about what to right for this blog, my top tips for kitchen organisation seemed like a good place to start!
1. Menu plan!
There are three of us in the house (four in December!) so I’m not feeding the five thousand but still it makes sense to have a weekly menu I can refer to and use to plan and shop my meals. Consider seven breakfast, lunches and teas, a pack-up for the husband, snacks, drinks, kitchen (and bathroom) sundries such as kitchen roll, tin foil etc. That’s quite a lot to remember. Run up a basic menu and put in a prominent place and you will remember everything on your shopping list and it will serve as a reminder of what to get out of the freezer and when!
2. Do a weekly shop.
I do a shop every week, usually online. I find this so easy, no queues, no arguing over the last olive bagel, no “Can I have a cake/toy/sweet…” all the way around and besides, doing it online means you can see a running total of what you are spending. When shopping online you can usually change what items you have coming for delivery right up until late the night before so you can add / delete items as required. Some people worry about the cost of the delivery slot but nine times out of ten I save twice as much as I spend on the delivery by taking advance of special offers, promotions and avoiding on the spot impulse buys. I have made money on my shopping by collecting points which I save up and use towards Christmas.
3. Utilise your freezer.
For me a decent sized freezer is a must! I had a tiny one before I had Kieran but got another larger chest one from Freecycle which was a God send! After this perished we invested in a much needed fridge freezer with deep drawers and I can easily see what I have in there. I freeze my week’s worth of bread and milk, taking it out as required (it makes no difference to taste!); I split packets of chicken, turkey breasts, sausages, well most things into meal-worth portions so I only defrost what is needed and I keep track of everything I have in on a freezer list stuck to the side of my freezer which makes doing the next weeks menu plan and shopping list SO much easier!
4. Label, label, label!
There is nothing worse than going to the fridge/freezer/cupboard and going to grab something then being filled with doubt over whether it is really fresh enough, “Did I open that Monday or was it Tuesday?”, and sorry, but the sniff test isn’t accurate to say whether there is hidden bacteria in the food that we really don’t need to ingesting. I‘m ashamed to admit that I have run out of my Count On It® stickers (another trip to Lakeland is in the offing – hooray) so at the moment I’m using normal white stickers, which isn’t quite as effective as they tend to get damp etc in the fridge/freezer, but having a record of what is left to use up safely saves us a fortune in unnecessary throwing outs!
5. Keeping a running shopping list.
When we use the last bit of sauce, take the last apple, scrape the last morsel of jam out of the jar, we pop it down on a shopping list. This, along with the freezer list and menu plan makes doing the next week’s shop a dream and saves us overbuying. Some weeks I might have enough bits and pieces left over in the fridge/freezer/cupboards to do three or four use up meals which saves a fortune that week and the equivalent we save goes into a pot for treats, savings, whatever.
These aren’t difficult things to set up or do but will save you not only money but so much time which can be spent together relaxing, eating, laughing and enjoying each other’s company in the family kitchen, which is just as it should be.
Nicki Cawood, Mum to 1.5 kids, wife to a constantly hungry husband, keen cook and dedicated blogger!
Count On It’s PR campaign targets baby retail market
Count On It is a food freshness label that ensures mums peace of mind when preparing baby’s meals. It tells you at a glance if baby food or milk is still fresh and safe to eat or if it should be thrown away. Simply peel off a label, stick on the food product, scratch off the date of opening or storing and relax.
Count On It’s PR campaign is underway and we are targetting mums to be and new mums with our key messages in titles such as Practical Parenting and Pregnancy, Mother & Baby, Pregnancy & Birth and Junior magazine and online parenting forums to name a few.
We are now actively looking for retailers in the baby retail market and would welcome the opportunity to discuss details with you further. I can be contacted at lyndsey@count-on-it.co.uk or via the website http://www.count-on-it.co.uk. I look forward to speaking to you soon.
