A COMMUNITY cooking project will help families save up to £470 a year by cutting the amount of food they throw away.

The Love Food Hate Waste campaign kicked off in Glasgow as the Children's Food Trust's, Let's Get Cooking team began training club leaders to help families cut their food waste at home.

The project will see families learning new skills such as meal planning, portion sizes, food storage, using leftovers and understanding date labels.

The Let's Get Cooking team will then use their clubs to help local children learn how to cook healthy meals from scratch, make the most of left-over ingredients and store food more efficiently.

Ylva Haglund, coordinator of Love Food Hate Waste Scotland said: "Residents of Glasgow could save up to £470 per year for the average household by throwing away less food.

"There are lots of quick and simple changes you can make to reduce food waste, helping the environment and your bank balance at the same time.

"At yesterday's workshop we made some simple and fun recipes, such as sweet and savoury pancakes, which can help you to use up whatever you have left in your cupboards or fridge.

"We are offering free cookery training sessions around Glasgow to show how to use up those leftovers and ensure everything gets tasted and not wasted."

Similar cooking club programmes have already been successful in reducing food waste in other locations around the country.

The Mersey Waste Munchers scheme, with support from Love Food Hate Waste, has helped more than 2,500 people reduce their food waste.

Michele Deans, course leader for the project's launch in Glasgow, said: "It's really useful because often cooking can be the barrier to not having waste.

"It also helps families economically and could help them save up to £470 every year.

"That loss is the equivalent of buying five bags of shopping and chucking one away every time.

"I've worked with families who don't have a lot of money and they're not cooking in the right way so they end up not having enough to eat well every night.

"There's a social aspect to this and people who cook together learn together and then they can pass that learning on."

The project is expected to help Glasgow families deal with rising food prices and help tackle food poverty in the city.

Workshops are due to take place in locations throughout Glasgow for the duration of March, with the next workshop at Partick Mansfield Park Market tomorrow.