A dumpster diver is making her family Christmas dinner from food she has found in bins - and says her parents say they hope it's clean.
Sofie Juel Andersen, 29, has been eating from bins for three years and spends just £70 on shop-bought groceries a month.
She says her friends and family are supportive of her fight against food waste - and she often brings food from skips to dinner parties and get-togethers.
She has salvaged fresh produce, meat, cheese and packaged snacks from bins outside supermarkets - which have designated dumpsters for the different types of food.
This year, Sofie is contributing to the Christmas dinner with a winter salad made from greens found in a shop bin and pickled red cabbage she salvaged from a restaurant skip.
Sofie, a restaurant manager, from Aarhus, Denmark, said: “My entire family knows I dumpster dive - my mum says it’s not an issue.
"I’ll be bringing a winter salad and pickled red cabbage to Christmas.
“There’s no need for me to go out and buy stuff - my family support my fight against food waste.
“I’m seeing a lot of festive foods being thrown out by the supermarkets - you can usually tell by the amount of dessert ingredients, cabbages and meats in the dumpsters.”
Sofie says she’s successfully found food in bins to make a salad big enough to feed her extended family of 20 on Christmas Eve.
She scavenged cheese, nuts, fruits and pre-mixed salads from skips, as well as “hundreds” of pre-mixed salad creams.
“The other day I found a kilo of cashew nuts,” she said.
“I’ll definitely be adding those to the dish.
“I found a lot of cheese - shredded cheese and parmesan, which won’t go bad until the New Year.
“I’ve got some apples, which will go really great with the cabbage I found.
“I do often find pre-mixed salads, and in the ones where the leaves have wilted, I just take the salad cream. I have hundreds of packets of sauce saved up.”
Sofie says she can tell when supermarkets start to throw out Christmas stock - by the amount of flour, butter, duck and pork which gets dumped.
In Denmark, the traditional meats to eat for Christmas dinner are duck and pork - and most households eat a festive rice pudding dessert.
She added: “Supermarkets often have a price war around this time of year, and butter and flour ends up being really cheap.
“They ordered so many last year, they had a ton of surplus stock and threw a lot out.
“You’ll always find a lot of oranges and clementines, as they’re usually in season.
“It’s the same with kale and cabbage - which is why I’m deciding to bring a winter salad along to Christmas dinner.”
Sofie’s family have already planned out the entirety of their Christmas dinner - with potatoes covered in sugar, rice pudding and almonds.
And they’ve never had reservations about part of their Christmas dinner coming from a bin.
“My mum came to me and said, ‘we’re doing a big family dinner - please make sure it’s clean'," Sofie said.
