Our country wastes an alarming amount of food each year. The FDA reports that in the United States alone, we waste between 30-40% of our food supply. This equates to nearly 80 billion pounds of food, which means more than $161 billion worth of food ends up in the landfill each year.

Food waste is a huge problem, but we can all do our part to reduce these amounts! Here are 8 easy ways to reduce food waste.

Pay More Attention to the Use-By Dates

While at the grocery store, be sure to pay attention to the “use by” dates, especially with more perishable items like meat and milk. Only buy foods that you know you’ll be able to use before the date listed on the product. If you aren’t sure whether you’ll be able to use it by then, look for another item with a later use-by date.

Be sure not to get this date confused with the “best before” date, though! The best before date is just a suggestion on when that item might be higher in quality, rather than a “throw this product away after this date” indicator. The FDA actually reports that 20% of food waste is the result of confusion about these labels and dates. Oftentimes, people assume that the “sell by,” “use by,” or “best before” dates are expiration dates, when they are not. As a result, perfectly edible and good food is thrown out.

Before throwing out your food items that are past these suggested dates, examine if the product still looks, smells, and tastes like normal. If it does, then use it as quickly as possible and reduce food waste! However, if you are unsure, it’s best to just throw it out and try to eliminate that food waste next time.

Don’t Buy Excessively

You may be thinking something like “duh, of course you shouldn’t buy excessively, this is common knowledge.” However, many people do buy excessively without even noticing it.

Though it’s nice to have that full, packed fridge, this can easily lead to food waste. A good rule of thumb to use when going to the grocery store is asking yourself what you and your family will directly use within the next couple of days, rather than the next couple of weeks. If you won’t use it within the next couple of days, you don’t really need it at that time. So, rather than taking one long trip to the grocery store and stocking up on everything you and your family could possibly need for the next week or two, try taking a few short trips each week, buying only what you need within the next few days. This will surely cut back on the amount of food waste in your household, as you will buy only what you truly need, rather than excessively.

Plan Out Your Meals Ahead

Another way to avoid excessive buying and eliminate food waste is to simply plan out your meals ahead of time. At the end of each week, try to sit down and plan what meals you and your family will eat each day of the week ahead. Once you’ve got your meals planned out, make a list of all the ingredients that you need for those meals, and use this as a grocery list! This will ensure that you are only buying what you need for the week ahead.

Make Your Freezer Your Best Friend

If you want to cut back on food waste, an easy thing to do is to use your freezer! If you have a larger family or simply buy large amounts of food, investing in a deep freezer might be a wonderful idea.

Freezing foods and products can preserve them and extend their life significantly. The shelf life of meats, fresh fruits, vegetables, bread, and even prepared dishes can be greatly extended simply by keeping them frozen. So, if you realize that your family is not consuming something as quickly as you thought or if you just have a ton of leftovers, put them in the freezer to preserve them. Another helpful tip is when buying fruits and vegetables that are in season locally, freeze any extras so that you’ll have them throughout the future seasons and keep them from going bad.

Start Composting

We talked about composting in our previous blog article, so if you need more information on why composting is so great or what it is, definitely check it out!

Composting is an awesome way to transform food waste into nutrient-rich fertilizer that can help to restore the quality of our soil and improve the quality of our foods. It’s hard to truly eliminate all food waste, so when any food waste is added to a compost heap, you can feel guilt-free knowing that it’s being used to benefit our environment. When preparing any meals, all of the scraps left behind, whether it be stems, peels, or slices that don’t look as appealing, can be composted. A surprising amount of cooked foods can be composted too, like grains, breads, pastas, sauces, eggs, beans, and more. Even coffee grounds and tea leaves can be added to a compost pile! So, instead of throwing food out, start a compost heap. If you are ever unsure about whether something can be composted, a quick Google search will give you answers. This step alone can make a tremendous impact on reducing food waste.

Store Your Food More Effectively

There’s an art to effectively storing your food, especially perishable items like fruits and veggies, to maximize their shelf life.

Though there are countless tips on storing food correctly, some basic tips are:

• keeping your refrigerator below 41℉ ( 5℃)
• storing all food in sealed containers
• storing cooked foods above raw foods on shelves
• transferring canned items to proper containers after opening
• keeping bananas, tomatoes, and potatoes in cool, dry, well-ventilated, areas
• poking tiny holes in bags that store grapes, blueberries, cherries, and strawberries to keep them ventilated

Once you have prepared a dish, be sure to follow the 2-hour rule and don’t leave it out at room temperature for more than two hours. If the temperature is above 90℉, don’t leave the food out for more than an hour. We will share more tips on storing your food properly in another blog, but these basic tips will help get you started on reducing food waste!

Eat Leftovers

When planning out your meals the week before, try to include 1 or 2 days out of the week to eat any leftovers you may have. Doing so will definitely cut back on the amount of food waste in your home.

You can even get creative and doctor up your leftovers a bit! For example, Google will show you numerous ways to use leftover rice, spaghetti, mac and cheese, mashed potatoes, meat, and more to create yummy, new dishes.

Turn “Ugly” Fruits or Veggies into Smoothies

Instead of throwing out those apples that just don’t look as appealing anymore, turn them into a delicious smoothie! This can be done with any produce you may have and your healthy smoothie will taste just as great. For example, take those bananas that have been sitting on the counter for a while, grab those strawberries you have in the freezer, add some honey, milk, and cinnamon, and enjoy your delicious, refreshing smoothie guilt-free! You can also google smoothie recipes with the ingredients you want to get rid of; there are plenty available to choose from. Not only does this keep you from wasting produce, but it also gives you a wonderful assortment of healthy items your body will love.

We challenge you to really try to incorporate some of these ways into your weekly routines! Please help us eliminate food waste and better our environment.