Food waste is a major climate problem. As it decomposes in landfills, it releases methane, a potent pollutant that traps 80 times as much heat as carbon dioxide in the short term. We talk a lot about composting as a solution to this climate pollution, but you know what’s even better? Wasting less in the first place! Not only will it benefit our climate, reducing food waste is kind to your wallet.
Read on to learn tips and tricks on food-waste prevention, and food-storage secrets like why onions and potatoes should never be stored together.
Here are some strategies that may help. Remember: you don’t need to do all of these at once. Just adopt a strategy or two that work for you to get started.
- Prevent Waste: Avoid overbuying and extend the life of the food you do buy.
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- Plan meals and make a shopping list. Write down what you plan to make for each breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and make a list for those meals. This helps avoid impulse buys and overbuying, leading to less spoilage. Don’t forget to take an inventory of what you already have in the refrigerator and incorporate those ingredients into the meal plan!
- Store food properly: Learn how to maximize the shelf life of your food. For example, keep bananas separate from other fruit, and store potatoes and onions separately. (Bananas and onions both release a gas that accelerates the ripening of other fruit. Potatoes release moisture that makes onions moldy.) Food waste organization Save the Food offers a comprehensive guide on food storage, with detailed pages for a variety of different food items — from beans and proteins, to fruits and vegetables.
- Understand “use by” and “best before” dates: These dates indicate when food is at peak quality, but food is often still safe to eat after the “best before” date, according to The European Food Information Council. Real Simple Magazine has some handy tips on interpreting these dates like: Sell By and Freeze By dates do not indicate food safety, and it’s A-Okay to consume a food after they pass (so long as it passes the smell check). Who knew?
- Use what you have: Before buying more, check your fridge and pantry for ingredients you can use in meals.
- Don’t over-serve: Be mindful of portion sizes and avoid serving more food than is needed.
- Freeze what you can’t eat: Freeze leftovers, bread, sliced fruit, or meat that you won’t eat before it goes bad, says the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. You can even freeze milk — the texture will change a little, making it better for cooking and baking than fresh consumption. Here’s a list of more surprisingly freezeable foods from AARP.
- Be creative with leftovers: Use leftover cooked chicken in salads or soups, or turn stale bread into breadcrumbs. This can be pretty fun. Check out these shows for inspiration:
- Scraps: In this FYI Network series, Chef Joel Gamoran partners with food waste advocates in different cities across the United States to create meals using commonly discarded items like banana peels, shrimp shells, and vegetable stems.
- Best Leftovers Ever!: A cooking competition show streaming on Netflix where contestants transform leftover meals into completely new and delicious dishes in hopes of winning a cash prize.
- Kitchen Scraps: A reality cooking competition showcasing chefs, local change-makers, and other personalities in Hawaii as they celebrate local ingredients, sustainable agriculture, and innovative culinary arts by using food scraps in their creations.
Leftovers that Don’t Taste Like Leftovers: New York Times Cooking has an excellent collection of recipes, all of which use leftovers. Highlights include lobster risotto and morning couscous.
- When Waste is Unavoidable:
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- Compost food scraps: Composting turns food waste into a valuable soil amendment. You can compost at home or use one of the two pick-up services we have in Ashland: Ashland Community Composting or Community Compost.
- Donate to food banks or charities: If you have excess food that is still safe to eat, donate it to organizations that can distribute it to those in need, like the Ashland Emergency Food Bank or Food Angels.
- Other Tips:
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- Buy loose produce when possible: This allows you to buy only what you need and reduces packaging waste.
- Consider shopping more often: If you have the means, shopping more frequently can help you buy only what you need for a few days.
- Be mindful of food waste: Pay attention to how much food you throw away and identify patterns to adjust your shopping and cooking habits.
- Do you have other tips? Drop us a line at Info@AshlandClimate.org. We’d love that recipe for using up all the extra cans of lima beans in the back of the pantry.
