Consumers like you and me are the largest source of food waste. Nearly half of surplus food — the food that goes unsold or uneaten — occurs in homes at a value of $264 billion.
A major reason food waste occurs at such high rates in homes comes down to habits and behaviors. Fortunately, there are some pretty basic interventions that make it easy, economical, and, yes, delicious to save food in your home. Start with these five easy-to-use strategies to get the most out of the food you’re buying.
1. Plan ahead
Think a few days or a week ahead to consider what you’ll be eating before you buy groceries. Consider “recipe trios” to help use up food that you buy in bulk. For example, if you cook a roast chicken for dinner one night, make chicken tacos the next night and chicken salad for lunch the following day. If you’re going to order takeout or cook a frozen pizza, plan for that, too, so you don’t buy groceries you don’t need.
2. Store your food properly
Different foods need to be stored differently, and they’ll last a lot longer when they’re stored properly. For example, fresh herbs can be stored in a glass of water in your fridge; apples should be stored in the fridge, but oranges are fine on the counter; and bread should be wrapped in plastic or aluminum foil to retain moisture. If you’re not sure how to store something, look it up online; there’s a lot of great information that can help you.
3. Use your freezer
Freezing food is a great way to extend its life. You can freeze almost anything, including cheese, milk, pasta, and even that half-empty jar of pasta sauce. An added benefit is that when you don’t feel like cooking, you can just take something out of the freezer to heat up and eat.
4. Learn date labels
Learning how to properly read the date labels on food — “best if used by,” “sell by,” or “expires on” — can save you from throwing something away when it’s still perfectly good to eat. Date labels typically refer to quality, not safety. Major food industry groups have endorsed the use of “use by” to indicate when a product should be discarded for food safety reasons and “best if used by” to indicate that the date is about quality and the food can be consumed beyond that date. Use your best judgment — if a product looks good, smells good, tastes good, and has a “best by” or “best if used by” label, it’s probably safe to consume.
5. Eat down
As you’re planning ahead for what you’ll be eating for the week, plan a day to “eat down” all the leftovers and excess food collecting in your fridge. Create a smorgasbord of leftovers for your family to graze on. Some people like “Wasteless Wednesdays,” while others go with “Stir-Fridays.” You can also plan on bringing your leftovers to work for lunch and just pop them in the microwave.
You can learn more about solutions to food waste at refed.org.
