Most people don't realize how much food they throw away every day — from uneaten leftovers to spoiled produce to parts of fruits and vegetables that could be eaten or repurposed.
Preventing food from going to waste is one of the easiest and most powerful actions you can take to save money and lower your climate change footprint by reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and conserving natural resources.
Benefits of Preventing Wasted Food at Home- Save money by buying only what you need, eating what you buy, and avoiding throwing away food.
- Reduce your environmental and climate change footprint.
- Conserve resources and energy. When food is wasted, the land, water, energy, and other inputs that are used in producing, processing, transporting, preparing, storing, and disposing the food are wasted as well.
- Reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. More than 85 percent of GHG emissions from landfilled food waste result from activities prior to food entering a landfill, including the production, transport, processing, and distribution of food2. Plus, when food decomposes in a landfill, methane, a potent greenhouse gas, is emitted—and food is the single largest category of material placed in municipal landfills
Ways to Prevent Wasted Food at Home
Planning, prepping, and storing food can help your household waste less food. Below are some tips to help you do just that:
Planning and Shopping Tips
Making a list with weekly meals in mind can save you money and time. If you only buy what you expect to use, you will be more likely to keep it fresh and use it all.
- Keep a running list of meals and their ingredients that your household already enjoys - that way, you can easily choose, shop for, and prepare meals that you are likely to consume.
- Look in your refrigerator, freezer, and pantry first to avoid buying food you already have. Make a list each week of what needs to be used up and plan upcoming meals around it.
- Plan your meals for the week before you go shopping and buy only the things needed for those meals.
- Make your shopping list based on how many meals you’ll eat at home. Consider how often you will eat out, if you plan to eat frozen precooked meals, and if you will eat leftovers for any of your meals.
- Include quantities on your shopping list noting how many meals you’ll make with each item to avoid overbuying. For example: “salad greens - enough for two lunches”.
- Buying in large quantities (e.g., buy one, get one free deals) only saves money if you use all the food before it spoils.
- Buying food from bulk bins can save you money and reduce food waste and packaging as you can purchase the amount of food you need as opposed to a pre-determined amount. When buying in bulk, remember to store food properly in airtight, labeled containers.
- Purchase imperfect produce or upcycled products. Imperfect produce may have physical imperfections but is just as safe and nutritious and can sometimes be found at discounted prices. Upcycled products are made from ingredients that might have otherwise gone to waste.
Cooking and Preparation Tips
- Produce that is past its prime, as well as odds and ends of ingredients and leftovers, may still be fine for cooking. Repurpose these ingredients in soups, casseroles, stir fries, frittatas, sauces, baked goods, pancakes, or smoothies. You’ll avoid wasting these items and may even create a new favorite dish.
- If safe and healthy, use the edible parts of food that you normally do not eat. For example, stale bread can be used to make croutons, beet greens can be sautéed for a delicious side dish, and vegetable scraps can be used for soup stock.
- Learn the difference between “sell-by,” “use-by,” “best-by,” and expiration dates
- Aim to cook and serve the right portions for the number of people you are feeding.
- Freeze, pickle, dehydrate, can, or make jam/jelly from surplus fruits and vegetables - especially abundant seasonal produce.
- Don’t leave perishable food at room temperature for more than two hours.
- Refrigerate or freeze any leftovers in small, clear, labeled containers with a date.
Cre: www.epa.gov
