Food is something that we buy and eat everyday of our lives. That’s a given, seeing as we need it to live. But, with it, comes the wastage of unwanted, expired or rotten food. Here’s five tips to help you do your bit and cut down on food wastage.
1) Plan Your Meals
No one is asking you to become a master meal prepper. Meal prepping requires alot of dedication and understanding of your own appetite and tastes – something I certainly do not have. What you can do, however, is plan a few meals
The key to picking your meals is to pick things you know you enjoy and love to eat. You’re unlikely to stick to the plan if you add in new recipes. If you must, stick to one per week. Armed with your list, do your weekly shop and don’t buy any extras. This way, you’ll definitely use what you’re buying and cut down on food wastage.
#SpoonTip: Be flexible – just because you wrote chicken and rice on Tuesday, doesn’t mean it has to be on Tuesday. You can swap meals around or omit sections for last minute additions such as buying short date products.
2) Buy Short Date
Save money and avoid food wastage on a wider scale by buying products that are short on date. Most supermarkets reduce the price of food that have a ‘use by date’ on the same day you visit. Just watch our for those lovely yellow reduced tickets on food as you shop! Find out what times your local supermarket is likely to reduce prices here.
Don’t be enticed by the reductions – only buy if you know you’re going to use/eat or that you can freeze and will use in the future. Think bread, meat, veg – freezing them is completely fine and will save you money.
If snacks is what you’re after, or dates that are a bit longer, try looking at bargain site ApprovedFood for short date products (or past its sell by date, that is still safe to eat) at a bargain price! Consider your snack shopping done and dusted, at a fraction of your usual price, all without leaving your home and reducing food wastage of perfectly good goodies.
3) Organise Your Fridge
When you buy new food, place the items in your fridge so that you can clearly see them. Place shorter date items towards the front of the fridge, so you are more likely to grab them. And, before you do your weekly shop, scan all the items already in your fridge. Toss anything that is not safe to eat and incorporate left overs into your weekly meal plan.
As per always, remember that you’re fridge doesn’t need to be bursting with food. If you’re fridge is looking bare a day before your next shop, you’re doing it right.
4) Compost
Compostable waste includes fruit, veg, egg shells and even meat (depending on the type of composting). This will reduce food wastage because you’re letting it do what it needs to do – decompose. Composting is great if you’re trying to
grow your own plants or if you want to do that little bit extra to help out our land fill situation.
Find out more about composting here and many other articles on Spoon University.
5) Beauty
Do you buy lots of fruit and veg, only to not eat them all? We’ve all been there, don’t worry. Save your nutrients from going unused by making a few beauty treatments for yoursel
Lemons will help to reduce the appearance of redness as well as brightening the face. Tomatoes will help alleviate acne break outs. Oatmeal is a great face mask base for oily complexions. The possibilities are endless!
Whatever you chose to do, we can all do our part. If we eat sensibly and shop sensibly, there is no reason why our food wastage wont decrease. And if all else fails – donate. There are plenty of people who need that food that we see as a simple excess.