Water is food and we need to protect it

Even though water covers about 71% of the Earth’s surface, only 2.5% of that amount is fresh, suitable for drinking and agriculture.  Water is key to the food industry. Agriculture, accounts for 72% of global freshwater withdrawals, and we need water to make food. "Water is life, water is food” is this year’s World Food Day slogan. There are many ways in what we can reduce the water we consume in our kitchens as well as avoid water contamination. From the food we eat, to how we cook, to how we clean and dispose our food leftovers.

Freshwater resources per person have declined 20% in the past decades due mainly to over extraction of groundwater, pollution, and more droughts due to climate change.

The individual consumption of water in the UK is an average of 152 litres of water per day. Around 10% of the water we use at home is used in the kitchen. Reducing this amount will help us not only have a most sustainable diet, but also save money and time.

Follow a water friendly diet

Choose in-season vegetables and pulses, millets and nuts as they usually require less water to produce than ultra-processed foods or meat products. The table below shows the amount of water required to produce 1kg of the most water intensive types of food, as well as a glass of common beverages.

Chocolate, beef and lamb are the top way ahead of the others. These three types of food together require more water to be produced than the rest of food items on the table.

The drink that requires the most water to be produced is milk, followed by wine, beer and tea.

Source: IME

Reduce your food waste

It takes a lot of water to produce food and to get it from farm to table. Lost and wasted food also means wasted water.

Every year UK households waste 4.5 million tonnes of food that could have been eaten. This costs the average family an astonishing £60 per month. Wasting food doesn’t only affect your budget, but also your time availability.

UK citizens dedicate an average of five hours a week to preparing and cooking food. Households could get 2.5 days a year back by making the most of the food that they buy.

🚰 Remember: convenience food is expensive. Cooking your own food will be healthier and cheaper.

🚰 Plan your weekly meals in advance and make an ingredients list before you buy so you avoid overbuying.

🚰 Accept that grocery shopping takes time and normalise that you might have to buy from more than one place to get the best price.

🚰 Don’t go shopping when you are hungry. Keeping the same day and time to shop every week will help you prepare for it and make sure that you eat beforehand.

🚰 Growing your own food is another great way to reduce your food bill. If you grow indoors, it would also allow you to choose what you eat all year round.

For more on how to stop food waste, go to our blog.

Dispose cooking oil safetly

It’s important not to pour food waste and cooking oils down the drain, as they contribute to polluting freshwaters, and can also cause damage to the sewage system.

You can reuse oil a few times as long as it’s used to fry the same or similar ingredients eg. it’s not advisable to fry chicken and then reuse the oil to fry vegetables as the meat smell is very strong and will permeate into the vegetables. Simply strain the oil to remove any food particles using a sieve. Then it’s ready to be stored in a clean, airtight container for reuse.

Once you can reuse the oil anymore, make sure you dispose of it safetly following the following rules:

🚰 Allow the oil to cool before disposing of it.

🚰 Small amounts of oil can be scraped off directly into the general waste once it cools, or soaked up from plates and pans with a paper towel. Don’t rinse it with water into the sink.

🚰 Large amounts of oil should be poured into a sealable container with a tight lid. It's a good idea to leave a container next to the sink to use several times and then dispose of it when it is full.

🚰 Many homes around the UK have access to a food waste recycling service that deals with the disposal of food and cooking oil. Some supermarkets also collect used cooking oil. However, if you do not have this service in your area, you should dispose of the oil in your general waste bin in a sealed container.

Save energy

A lot of water is required to produce energy. An average of 4% of the UK household’s energy bill is spent on powering kitchen appliances. With this in mind, we should spend a bit of time choosing the most efficient way to cook our meals.

In general, slow cookers, microwaves, air fryers and food dehydrators are more efficient to run than traditional gas or electric hobs and ovens.

🚰 Microwaves: they are great not only to cook small amount or warm up food and liquids. They use less energy for every hour they're in use than a traditional oven as they only heat up the food, and not the air space inside, as ovens do. Besides, there is no heat-up time.

🚰 Slow cookers: Although you would need to cook your food for longer, slow cookers operate at a much lower temperature and use less energy than a traditional cooker or oven. They are also ideal to let them run overnight and therefore take advantage of peak times.

🚰 Air fryers: As with slow cookers, air fryers need to heat up a much smaller space than a traditional oven. Therefore, they require fewer kilowatts per hour to heat up to the required cooking temperature, cutting your energy usage.

🚰 Dehydrator: a very sustainable device. They run at a lower wattage than a conventional oven. Besides, dehydrating food is a very efficient way to avoid food waste eg. making rolls with excessively ripped fruit.

🚰 Kettle: they are much more efficient to boil water than a stove. Just make sure you only use the water you need. 

For more tips on how to save energy at home, visit our blog.

It’s essential that we raise awareness around how we can protect freshwaters in our day to day lives. Not wasting water in the kitchen will help us save money and time. It will also play an important role in the protection of our planet and its natural resources. Something that we desperately need if we want to reverse the trend that has seen freshwater resources decline over the last few decades.