What You Can Do to Reduce Food Waste

Food Loss and Food Waste

It is estimated that a family of four loses $1,500 in uneaten food each year (in the United States).

And much of this food waste is food purchased for preparation and consumption but not.

What does this mean?

It is not the leftovers you put in a container to eat later and forget. That is food waste, but not the majority of it.

It is not the food left on the plate. As much as our parents or grandparents, and even us as parents, tell the kids to clean their plates, this isn’t a significant contributor to food waste.

The concern and issue here are that all this food is going to the landfill which contributes to methane greenhouse gas.

The food waste from home is more likely the batch of lettuce you bought but got lost in the crisper drawer, and it is not even close to “crisp” now.

The can of food that is long past its “use by” or “sell by” date. So even though the food is just fine, people will toss it. Learn more about what those dates really mean in my post, Eat, Keep, or Toss?

Now there is a difference between food loss and food waste.

Food loss is related to the food before reaching the retailer or the consumer. Not the food misplaced in the fridge.

Examples of food loss include a freeze or other weather-related incidents that damage or destroy a crop, transportation issues like the truck full of lettuce that was in an accident, and lettuce heads are all over the Interstate.

Years ago, when I would buy our milk at Costco – it was two gallons tied together. Then it changed to the two gallons in a cardboard box. Of course, I commented about the increase in packaging. But I quickly changed my tune when I learned how many gallons of milk they lost with the plastic milk jugs getting damaged and the food loss of milk. Even an accidental nick with a cutting blade and the whole container was gone. The addition of the cardboard box significantly reduces the food loss in that instance.

An example from 2020, when the COVID pandemic closed schools and restaurants and the food they usually purchased was not being used, let alone ordered. There was no place to store this food long-term. Huge losses.

Hopefully what happened in 2020 was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, but at the time the food just had nowhere to go.

Most of these things are just out of our hands as consumers (and even retailers). I won’t get into supply chain issues since that is not so much related to food availability but the availability of resources, including humans.

Food waste is more what I want to address – and what we can do about it.

Food waste is the retailer’s food thrown out when we, the consumer, will not buy it—the weird-looking veggies, the boxes bent at the corners, the slightly dented cans. I am not saying to ignore food safety, but if the package isn’t open and the product is still good, why not buy it.

Again the ‘use by’ and ‘sell-by’ dates also contribute to food waste since retailers won’t sell it, and consumers won’t buy it even when it is still good.

And at home – stop the food waste!

 FIRST: Stop buying things you don’t use.

Then plan your meals. Check the fridge, pantry, and freezer for what you have and plan around that.

You can plan around the food you have AND plan items you want. But always double-check what you already have.

Don’t over-prepare food unless you plan to freeze it (and not toss it later).

One of the more significant challenges I found was when our household went from three people and one being a teenage boy, to a family of two.

I had to scale back how much I prepared and stock up on containers for leftovers. I make our meals for two or three, and the third serving is tomorrow’s lunch for one of us.

There is an additional step – potentially. Compost the foods. I am not an expert on composting. Not even close. I took a class at my county extension and attempted it for a summer, but it didn’t work out for me. I may try again, but I will do my best to minimize the waste in the first place.

Now there will always be some waste since when we cut up veggies, portions will be tossed like onion skins, avocado peels, banana peels, and the cores and tips of many veggies. But don’t be tossing the whole onion, avocado, or other produce in-tact because it was never used.

We are not perfect – not even close. But I only have one bag of trash each week unless it is spring cleaning in the house.

What are your tips to reduce food waste?