
It’s a Staggering Problem
Why do we waste so much food?
How can we improve?
What can we do on our end?
- Make detailed weekly meal plans that has room for leftovers
- Ensuring that our fridges are working properly
- Use wilting vegetables that are on their way out for soups or stocks
- Make better use of leftovers
- Don’t serve so much in the first place– serve a reasonable portion so its less likely that there’s leftovers in the first place
- Keep a running tab of what’s in your pantry and fridge
- Rotate older food items to the front of shelves
- Freeze surplus items
- Composting, if you are lucky enough to have a backyard
Ask for the ugly
Think about your grocery store: the perfectly aligned rows of fruit and veggies. Six billion pounds of ugly fruits and veggies are wasted because they don’t meet visual standards. This wastes 20 gallons of water per pound. Revisions of these regulations and standards for fruit and veggies are so needed!
Grocery stores need to know that the public is okay with irregular shaped produce. It’s not only perfectly safe to eat, but it tastes exactly the same once it’s prepared. You can follow the @UglyFruitandVeg movement on Twitter.
Hi! I’m Emily, Registered Dietitian Nutritionist and self-taught intuitive chef. I firmly believe that cooking is the simplest and most important step we can take to improve our minds and bodies and build healthier communities. Join me and let’s bring food back to the kitchen!
im very guilty of doing that too..sometimes i over estimate what i will consume…esp sometimes produce will wilt away. this is such a undertalked subject but a very important one. i think making a detailed grocery list really helps.
What a great post Emily – lots of food for thought here. The statistics are staggering and really make you think twice about how much food you purchase and how to use it. I have become a lot more careful about keeping tabs on what’s in my fridge, freezer, and pantry so I can plan my meals based on what I have on hand, not just the recipes that catch my eye on pinterest and in magazines. Sometimes my best new recipes come about that way. Can’t wait to see your food waste posts over the next six weeks!
I was SO happy when I saw that Whole Foods would start embracing the “ugly” produce. I think they are a model for so many food things that hopefully it will help change mindsets.