This {photograph} was taken 74 years in the past (that’s me ‘D’). It was taken at a time when meals was scarce and meals waste was an inevitable reality of life. There have been no fridges, no freezers, and no plastic packaging! Plastic modified all that: –
74 years in the past, UK meals rationing was at its top with every particular person allowed every week simply,
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And meat to the worth of 1s 2 pence (6p)!
(Think about a household in the present day having to stay on this ration)
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Regardless of these low rations, meals purchasing needed to be 2-3 occasions per week, significantly in summer time, as perishable meals couldn’t be saved for various days. Most homes at finest had a concrete shelf both within the pantry or within the cellar, the place perishable meals was stored to attempt to maintain it edible for longer.
Meat, bacon, bread, butter, and margarine could possibly be saved for less than 3-4 days earlier than deteriorating, while eggs and milk lasted a couple of days longer. There have been industrial fridges in butchers and dairy outlets, however home fridges didn’t actually come into widespread use till the 1960’s. The substitute of all metallic fridges with plastic interiors was a serious technological improvement which diminished their weight and value while freezers didn’t arrive till the 1970’s. Thus, regardless of meals shortages within the 1940’s and 50’s meals waste was widespread.
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Broken fruit, apples, pears, plums, strawberries, and different tender fruits got away day by day to kids, as bulk packaging, in giant containers ripened meals faster and in addition to inflicting harm. Equally, damaged biscuits have been one other common disclose to kids, as they have been packaged collectively in giant 300mm sq. tins, thus, leading to a residue of damaged biscuits and crumbs on the backside of each tin. Even some sweets in giant glass jars, might develop into unsalable as they turned caught collectively.
Distinction the purchasing expertise of in the present day with that of 74 years in the past, Supermarkets now include recent meals for all events, predominantly packaged, introduced, and preserved in plastic for max comfort alongside while just about everybody has fridges and freezers. It’s the improvement of plastic together with plastic packaging that has reworked our meals purchasing expertise, for instance.
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In abstract, plastic packaging together with the introduction of the plastic lined fridge has not solely created the Supermarkets but it surely has additionally reworked the way in which we stay, eat, and store. It has enabled Supermarkets to develop to a stage the place they dominate meals retailing. Plastic packaging now permits them to usher in meals from world wide day by day on to our doorstep, together with all year-round fruit, nuts, snack meals, meat, and fish.
Trying Again
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Trying again 74 years to the time when the typical UK family needed to get by with so little to eat, it could have been troublesome for these younger boys within the image to think about there would come a time when the UK wasted 10 million tonnes a yr of meals, significantly wasted bread.
Each meals and packaging expertise have been developed past recognition over the intervening years, to maintain our meals edible for longer, but meals waste continues to be with us. They might additionally discover it unbelievable to grasp why with 10 million tonnes of meals going to waste, yearly the media had larger considerations with what occurs to the plastic packaging waste, reasonably than all that meals waste. Unbelievable!!
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#DontHatePlastic