Who has not felt shame when “purging” the refrigerator? One is sentenced to face forgotten leftovers, moldy vegetables and salad sauce so expired that it seems to have come with the refrigerator. But it’s not like that. You paid money for all that and now you have to throw it away.
Do not be discouraged, you are not the only one to waste food and money. And unlike other more ambitious monetary solutions, reducing food waste is relatively simple and almost certainly yields. In fact, a person can save $ 370 per year on average if they waste less food, according to the United States Department of Agriculture. And a family of four could save an additional $ 1,500.
And if saving money is not enough, reducing food waste helps the planet, since most of the food we throw away ends up in landfills, where it emits methane gas. Less waste, less gas.
Reducing waste also conserves energy and resources, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
Next, a look at how less food can be wasted:
A chilled cleaning
Examine what is spoiled in your refrigerator, says Cassie Bartholomew, manager of StopWaste, a public agency that reduces waste in Alameda County, California. Eliminate and evaluate everything that is happening. Instead of feeling bad, try to learn. “Ask yourself, why am I throwing this food away?” He says. “Examine the causes.”
Did you buy an ingredient you never used? Planning better before shopping can help. Did you forget leftovers, fruits and vegetables? StopWaste recommends dedicating a section of the refrigerator to foods that spoil soon. Identify the section with a label that says “Eat first.”
During cleaning, you may realize that some foods that appear spoiled are still edible. Meals with a past expiration date may still be fine and wilted vegetables can be cooked.
Bartholomew recommends checking the temperature of the refrigerator. A temperature of 40 degrees Fahrenheit or less keeps food, according to the Food and Drug Administration, which recommends using an independent thermometer.
Plan before buying
Keeping inventory of what’s in the refrigerator and the shelves will help you buy less things that are going to be wasted. Bartholomew recommends that before you go shopping, you must identify what products you have and the foods you can prepare with them. (Potatoes and butter? Mashed potatoes. You don’t have to buy those ingredients). Then identify what you need to complete the dish. (Are you missing milk? Add it to the shopping list). Otherwise, it is easy to spend more than necessary buying things you do not need.
Save food to last
You bought the right thing, now make sure it maintains freshness. Search the internet for “how to store fruits and vegetables” and you will learn that some foods must be refrigerated (kiwi, cucumbers) and others not (bananas, avocado). And some fruits, such as apples, emit a gas that makes other products ripen faster.
Save leftovers and cooked foods so they can be preserved and can be identified later. Bartholomew recommends transparent, sealed containers with labels that identify the food and when it was prepared or stored. That is especially important in the freezer.
Use food about to spoil
Check the refrigerator and freezer for food on the brink of extinction, says Lindsay-Jean Hard, author of “Cooking with Scraps: Turn Your Peels, Cores, Rinds, and Stems into Delicious Meals.” Of course, he says, moldy and rotten food is thrown away.
But withered vegetables can usually be cooked. Or you can roast them and keep them frozen.
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