Food is the most wasted resource in America. In fact, some 40 percent of the food produced in the U.S. never actually gets eaten, and about one-quarter of what we buy at the supermarket gets thrown out. Not only is this a complete waste of money (unused food costs an estimated $165 billion per year), but it also squanders water, fuel and labor. What’s more, discarded food is the single largest component of landfills, where it decomposes and produces methane emissions that play a role in climate change. The stats are staggering, but the good news is that you can make a big difference with just a little effort. Here’s how:
1. Buy only what you need.
There’s nothing worse than spending your hard-earned money on groceries — only to toss most of them out before you can use them up. To minimize what you trash, take a quick inventory of what’s in your fridge, freezer and pantry before you hit the store. Making a shopping list will help ensure you don’t buy impulse items. Plus, people who use shopping lists spend less and are less likely to be overweight or obese.
[See: 10 Healthy Habits of the ‘Naturally’ Thin.]
Feel like pen and paper are too passe? Try an app such as Out of Milk, OurGroceries or Grocery iQ that allows family members to create and edit grocery lists and keep inventory of their pantries and fridges.
2. Store food properly.
If you routinely toss out bags of slimy greens, mushy cucumbers or moldy berries, you may not be storing your produce properly. First, make sure your refrigerator is at or below 40 degrees and your freezer is at 0 degrees. Then, check out the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s FoodKeeper app, which details how to store more than 400 different foods to optimize quality and freshness.
3. Embrace imperfection.
According to Jordan Figueiredo, an anti-food waste activist and founder of the Ugly Fruit and Veg Campaign, 20 billion pounds of perfectly good produce is left in the fields due to size, shape or color imperfections, despite the fact that it’s just as nutritional and tasty as more aesthetically pleasing fruits and vegetables. Many supermarkets — including Whole Foods, Giant, Hannaford and Associated Food Stores — sell the quirky-looking produce. In some areas of the country, you can use a home-delivery service like Imperfect Produce or Hungry Harvest, which sell boxes of ugly produce at prices that can’t be beat (20 to 50 percent less than traditional options).
4. Reinvent leftovers.
Each week, take one night off from cooking a whole meal and use leftovers instead. I call these “make-ahead” dinners because I figure out ahead of time how to reinvent leftovers into new dishes. For example, leftover chicken can become soup; leftover veggies can be used in frittatas. Any cooked grains and beyond-peak veggies can be used to blend into ground beef or turkey for tender meatloaf or burgers. Stale bread and leftover veggies can be used to make panzanella. You get the idea — be creative and be resourceful.
[See: 7 Healthy Ways to Gobble Leftover Thanksgiving Turkey.]
5. Know what ‘best by,’ ‘use by’ and ‘sell by’ dates mean.
Feel free to ignore “sell by” dates, which are intended for retailers and don’t indicate the quality or safety for foods and beverages. Instead, look at the “best by” or “use by” dates, but with a lenient mindset. Manufacturers factor in many days after “best by” and “use by” dates before a product becomes unsafe to eat, but the foods may not be at their highest quality after these dates.
[See: Fresh Fish Shouldn’t Stink, and Other Rules of Thumb.]
6. Recognize that fresh isn’t always best.
Fresh produce is thrown away more than any other type of perishable food. If you’re guilty of frequently tossing tomatoes or moldy fruit, consider purchasing canned varieties instead. They too count toward your daily produce servings and retain their nutrients and quality for at least a year. Canned fruits and vegetables are even nutritionally on par — if not superior — to their fresh and frozen counterparts, according to data from Michigan State University. Low-sodium and low- or no-sugar-added options are always available too.
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Stop Wasting Food (and Money) With These Simple Hacks originally appeared on usnews.com
