SUSTAINABLE EATING: How to Reduce Food Waste at Home

FoodClinic

FoodClinic is focused on providing in-depth insight into the nutrition benefits of healthy food such as leafy greens, whole grains, lean protein and healthy fats. We believe that eating healthy is not just a choice, but a way of life that helps prevent chronic diseases and promote optimal health.

Sustainable Eating

Sustainability simply means the enactment of practices that fulfil the need of society while protecting the physical basis on our long-term survival, our environment. If there is food sustainability food would surely be secured.

Sustainability is a multi-phase issue in which the food production system and our diet play a crucial role. Achieving a healthy and sustainable food future is an urgent matter that depends on global collaborative effort.

How to Reduce Food Waste at Home

Issue of packaging, food waste and sustainable practices are complex. 40% of food wasted comes from household and all these are caused by cooking too much for getting about or not eating up leftover but we can all take actions by changing the way we shop, cook and plan our meal to avoid wasting of food, money and resources. There are many ways to prevent wasted food by tackling leftovers which will be discussed later.

Impact of Food Waste on Environment and Economy

Food waste isn't just a social or humanitarian concern, it's an environmental one. When we waste food, we also waste the resources used to grow our food (water, soils and energy) and all the energy used to process, package and transport food from markets to our homes. 

Most people don’t realize that one-third of the food produced worldwide is wasted. It averages out to about 1.3 billion tons of food wasted every year food that’s discarded, incinerated, or otherwise disposed of. And this is food that doesn’t re-enter into any productive utilization, the majority of it is sent to landfills.

Food thrown into your garbage bin ends up in landfill. Food in landfill breaks down in a way that can create greenhouse gases, including methane, which affect air quality and public health. 

Not only does it waste resources it also wasted a substantial amount of money is wasted producing food that is never used. Additionally, one must consider the wasted labour, material resources, time and energy that go into food production. It’s nearly impossible to estimate the potential economic benefits from redirecting these resources, but the situation carries considerable gravity. The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) recently estimated annual losses of $1 trillion from resource costs.

Tips on how to Reduce Food Waste at Home with Proper Storage and Meal Planning

Most people tend to buy more food than they need. So buying a book may be convenient so to avoid buying more food than you need make frequent trips to grocery store weekly or every few rather than doing a bulk shopping trip once in a month. 

Store Food Appropriately

Improper storage leads to a massive amount of food waste. For instance, potatoes, tomatoes, garlic, cucumbers and onions should never be refrigerated. These items should be kept at room temperature.

Start by only buying what you can eat in a week. Store greens with a paper towel in a plastic container in the crisper drawer, tomatoes and bananas on the counter, potatoes and onions in a cool, dark place and fresh herbs in a glass of water. Have some frozen fruits and vegetables on hand in case you eat all your fresh produce before your next grocery day.

Create a Meal Plan.

Planning at least a few meals for each week is a great way to ensure you have healthy meals. It also prevents you from buying too much food because you feel like you need to be prepared for anything. Coordinate your meals so you aren't using completely different ingredients for every recipe. For example, plan to eat broccoli as a side one night and in a casserole the next.

Be Creative in the Kitchen

One of the great things about cooking your own food is that you can tweak recipes to your liking, adding new flavors and ingredients.

Including parts of foods that aren’t usually used is an excellent way to repurpose scraps when you’re experimenting in the kitchen. Garlic and onion ends can bring flavor to stocks and sauces.

Keep Your Fridge Clutter-Free

While having a well-stocked fridge can be a good thing, an overly filled fridge can be bad when it comes to food waste.

Help avoid food spoilage by keeping your fridge organized so you can clearly see foods and know when they were purchased.

A good way to stock your fridge is by using the FIFO method, which stands for “first in, first out.”

For example, when you buy a new carton of berries, place the newer package behind the old one. This helps ensure that older food gets used, not wasted.

Using Leftover and Turning Food Scrap Into New Dishes

There is perhaps nothing more sad than throwing away good food all because we have left them to go to waste in the fridge certainly this is unintentional for the most part or perhaps your waste don't even make it to the fridge at all it's even more sad to see half plates of food go straight in the garbage can right after a meal. Not eating everything in our place when full isn't a good idea. It is also important not to just throw food away either.

Create a Leftover Purposefully

When you are planning meals think about what the extra can become. It's real-time and a budget saver, if you prepare twice the meal (vegetable) you will need for dinner, you will have the starting point for a soup or pasta dish later in the week. Anticipates using leftover roast chicken on sandwiches, cooked as rice as you need and freeze the extra for later use.

Salvage Stale Bread 

If that loaf of good bakery bread loses its freshness after a day or two do, halve the loaf crosswise drizzle it with good olive oil and rub it with the cut side of halved ripe tomato season the bread with salt and pepper wrap it in a foil and bake until warm.

Coffee Grounds

Coffee grounds make an excellent natural fertilizer for plants and add organic material to the soil to increase growth. They also help attract earthworms while improving water retention and drainage in your garden.

To use coffee grounds as fertilizer, sprinkle them directly around your plants or rake them into the top few inches of soil. Be sure not to go overboard or add too much, as the grounds may clump together and prevent water from reaching the soil.

Whip up Fruit Peel Jam

Instead of tossing the peels of fruits like apples or oranges, you can easily save them to make a tasty fruit peel jam. Simply cook the peels in water for 25-30 minutes, strain the peels, and boil the liquid on high heat with sugar and lemon juice before pouring it into sterilized jars or cans.

Fruit peel jam makes a tasty topping for pudding, yoghurt bowls, etc. Visit.

Conclusion

Nature doesn’t waste anything. When fruit grows on a tree, it’s eaten by animals or it falls from the branch to eventually degrade into the soil. Either way, those nutrients eventually return to the earth to grow something else. It’s cyclical. 

By diminishing our individual food waste we can begin the journey to reduce the impact of food waste on wildlife and nature.

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