Gourd news for fright night fries freaks!

Here’s some scary Halloween food news for you from Lamb Weston, Cambridgeshire-based producer of potato products and fries for the UK’s most popular burger chain: In the UK up to 8 million pumpkins will come to a grave end this year, with 18,000 tonnes of edible food going straight to the bin!

Only 1 in 3 consumers choose to cook the flesh once carved, meaning the rest (66%) are wasted, not tasted. Even more horrifying, pumpkins generate up to 448g CO2 equivalent per kilo – so they’re gruesome for greenhouse gas emissions too.

Enter Lamb Weston with a clever trick that could dramatically cut down on food waste and save up to 1.6m tonnes of CO2 per year – carving potatoes instead of pumpkins!

Cheaper to buy and easier to carve, potatoes are the UK’s favourite vegetable to eat^ and much more versatile for turning into a tasty meal after carving! Plus potatoes generate less than half the CO2 per kilo produced compared to a pumpkin.

Believe it or not, this isn’t a new idea as the original Jack-o’-lanterns were actually made from turnips and potatoes by the Irish!

So it’s time to rethink old habits that are unhealthy for our planet and all hail the potato this Halloween. Take a look at some of their ideas, carve out some of your own and then love the leftovers in a delicious fright-night feast. Gourd for you and gourd for the planet too!