Food waste in the average household is common, what we bin ends up as landfill. Reduce food waste to save money and benefit the environment. There are easy ways to reduce household food waste, but firstly…
Why is this an issue?
Not enough respect is given to the effort to produce food: time, human labour, transportation and resources (water, energy).
So why reduce food waste?
- It benefits the environment, less natural resources are used in the production of food which is binned.
- Food is expensive, throwing it away is a poor use of your money.
- We feel bad when we waste food because it hits our pocket, it’s bad for the environment and poverty is a real thing, some people can’t afford to eat.
Why does food waste exist?
The average household throws hundreds of pounds worth of food in the bin every year. This occurs for many reasons:
Bulk buying
Doing one large shop, or a deal too good to overlook.
Storage choices
Storing food wrongly, food lasts longer when stored properly. Opened items should be wrapped up properly, use the fridge or freezer and potatoes last longer in dry dark places and bananas ripen other fruit.
Poor planning
Lack of a meal plan, eating out or takeaways.
Portion size
Not being able to finish a meal and binning leftovers.
Knowledge
Throwing away offcuts, peels or misshapen fruit and veg. Not understanding dates on food, or being unable to recognise when food is still safe to consume when past its use by date.
9 Ways to reduce our food waste
1#. Make sure to plan ahead
Create a meal plan for the week and buy only what you need.
Identify what’s happening in the week, for example: school trips, picnics, work lunch…this will give you an idea of what food to purchase.
Also plan to buy less food if you’re eating out or having a takeaway.
2#. Keep an eye on the dates
Check the use by date at purchase, fresh products should last a few days, so check it isn’t already past its best or has a very short date.
A simple trick is to go for the item at the back or near the bottom, they tend to have a longer date.
Habitually check food every few days and eat whatever has the shortest date or is likely to go off the soonest.
If you find that veg, fruit and other fresh products are being binned, opt for longer life products, anything tinned or put in the freezer tends to last longer.
3#. Shop more often
There’s many supermarkets and smaller convenience stores, many of them 24 hours, so it’s easy to grab whatever we want when we want it.
Convenience is often the reason we do a big shop, but we end up popping to the shop anyway. So do two weekly shops, rather than one large shop and multiple smaller ones.
This means that if plans change in the week, your food shop can adapt accordingly.
4#. Be creative
Use left overs, if you’ve cooked a meal then keep what’s left, if you’ve got left over ingredients pop them in the fridge, for use later.
If you have fussy eating family members you’ll want them to eat healthy. But if you keep buying healthy food and it gets wasted, try hiding it their meals. Sheppard’s pie or curry are great ways to hide vegetables.
Some leftover can be fermented, cabbage can be turned into sauerkraut. This is a tasty way to use leftover and it’s healthy.
5#. Don’t be so fussy
We throw a lot of fresh produce because we have a lack of knowledge. We bin products that are past their date, which are likely to be perfectly fine to eat. Understand the dates on food packaging.
Do some research and be sensible, learn the signs of decay and food spoiling, do be careful though. But just because a product is past its date doesn’t mean its inedible.
Don’t discard ugly fruit and veg, it may be misshapen or funny looking but it’s just as good as what we are conditioned to look for.
6#. Organise your food
Have unrefrigerated products in sight, like bread or fruit, that way they’re more likely to be consumed.
Don’t clutter the fridge, products get lost and it’s usually the ones with the shortest date, they get hidden, then found rotten at the back of the fridge.
Make sure you wrap or properly store unsealed food, this will help prevent them going off.
7#. Note down expiry dates
Keep a note of the expiry date of foods to ensure it doesn’t get wasted. This is simple, note it on a calendar or put it in an app in your phone.
This can be for those items with short dates or the less popular products. Some items will be eaten as soon as they’re in the fridge, and others will be left until last.
If you want to be super fancy you could set up a spread sheet with alerts.
8#. Freeze food
It’s surprising how many foods can be frozen, as an example: eggs, yoghurt and cheese.
If you find you’ve overloaded your fridge put some in the freezer, it’s better to defrost than to waste food. This is useful if you’ve doubled up on items.
Purchase frozen products, those staples you would normally buy like chicken and salmon fillets can be purchased frozen. They last longer and are easy to cook, but the texture can differ, also make sure you properly defrost and cook it.
9#. Put it in the fridge
Try to refrigerate whatever can, it delays the onset of decay, many things that we traditionally put in the cupboard can be refrigerated.
Recognise what can go in the fridge or freezer. This is especially useful in the summer, the heat and humidity causes food to go off quicker.
Conclusion…
Using these tips will help save you money, you’ll be throwing less in the bin. Reduce household food waste and you’ll be financially better off and so will the environment.
Create meal plans to achieve this, knowing who will be eating what and when will mean you buy only what you need.
None of us want to create food waste, so make the effort, follow these 9 tips, create your own strategies to reduce food waste and share them with others.