This activity gives advice and top tips about freezing and thawing food, helping you to save money and reduce food waste.

Transcription

1 Plan ahead Know your dates Savvy storage Perfect portions Love your leftovers This activity gives advice and top tips about freezing and thawing food, helping you to save money and reduce food waste. Who is it for and how long will it take? Good for groups, working in pairs. Takes about 20 minutes. What is needed? Store and Thaw Missing Words Quiz - 1 per pair Store and Thaw Answer Sheet for yourself Or, Words Answers for cutting up - see 5 for a different way of running this activity Pens or pencils RUNNING THE SESSION Before you begin 1. Introduce the topic: Using your freezer is a great way to save money by reducing food waste. Use the advice and the top tips in this activity to see how best to store and thaw. How to run the activity 2. Ask the whole group: Who freezes food already? How do you freeze foods? What tips can you share about how to get the best from the freezer? 3. Split the group into pairs and give out the Missing Words Quiz to complete. 4. Next, discuss the group s answers/suggestions. You can use the Store and Thaw Answer Sheet to help the discussion along. 5. A different way to run this activity is to cut up sets of the Words Answers. Then give each pair a shuffled-up set to place on their handout in the right place. (This method is good for people with literacy difficulties or those lacking in confidence.) After the activity 6. Read through the Store and Thaw Top Tips. Discuss freezing more foods or the foods that people waste most often. Or, talk about making a meal from the freezer once a week, or labelling foods in the freezer.

2 Store and Thaw Top Tips: 1. If defrosting food overnight, put it in your fridge. 2. Defrost in the microwave if you need the food in a hurry. Make sure it is fully defrosted before use. 3. Check the label; some foods are better if cooked straight from frozen. 4. Once thawed, re-heat food until piping hot all the way through. 5. You can re-heat using the oven, microwave or the hob. 6. Eat food within 24 hours of defrosting. 7. Never re-freeze meat or fish that has previously been defrosted. However, frozen raw meat/fish that has thawed can be cooked and then re-frozen. 8. Organise food in your freezer into groups e.g. leftovers, vegetables, bread, meat. It is easier to find what you need. Or keep a list of what s in your freezer on the door and tick things off as you take them out. 9. Make more room in your freezer by taking food out of bulky packaging. Put it into smaller bags or containers - labelled, of course! What have we found out? How to make more use of our freezers. How to store food in the freezer. How to thaw food from the freezer. That wasting less food, by being savvy about storage, saves money. What else could we do? Make a pledge to make better use of the freezer. (Labelling what we put in there - what it is and the date frozen. Or, keep a tick list on the door to remember what we have used and what s left.) Next time the group meets, check if we are using our tips. Run Savvy Storage (Activity 8) or Your Freezer is Your Friend (Activity 9). Want to know more? Check out the freezer advice and facts on the Love Food Hate Waste website: Watch how to use your freezer here: Watch the best way of freezing leftovers here: See some surprising foods you can freeze here: Read the A to Z of Food Tips.

3 Missing Words Quiz Fill in the missing words. 1. Freeze before the date. 2. Defrosted food needs to be used within hours. 3. Always follow on the label. 4. There is not much that cannot be until it is needed. 5. Make use of old trays to freeze food in. 6. and are good for freezing. 7. If needed quickly you could defrost food in a. 8. Foods, such as soup, can be frozen in so they take up less space. 9. Freeze food in small as the food will freeze/defrost much quicker. 10. Take food out of the freezer the before and defrost in the. 11. Make sure defrosted food is cooked and is piping hot. 12. the food before freezing and add the date it was frozen on. 13. Make sure excess is removed before freezing.

4 Store and Thaw - Answer Sheet 1. Freeze before the Use By date. 2. Defrosted food needs to be used within 24 hours. 3. Always follow instructions on the label. 4. There is not much that can t be frozen until it is needed. 5. Make use of old takeaway trays to freeze food in. 6. Plastic tubs and foil are good for freezing. 7. If needed quickly you could defrost food in a microwave. 8. Foods such as soup can be frozen in bags so they take up less space. 9. Freeze food in small portions as the food will freeze/defrost much quicker. 10. Take food out of the freezer the night before and defrost in the fridge. 11. Make sure defrosted food is cooked through and is piping hot. 12. Label the food before freezing and add the date it was frozen on. 13. Make sure excess air is removed before freezing.

5 O O O Activity Store and Thaw Store and Thaw - Missing Words Cut up each set of words to use as an alternative way of doing the activity. Use 1 set per person (or pair).