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It's a well-known fact that Americans waste a lot of food. We can't help it. Our portion sizes are enormous, and our stomachs can only hold so much. So, unless you’re training for an extreme eating competition, you’ll likely waste a little bit of food. Aside from our tiny stomachs, other factors that contribute to our food waste include shelf life. We've all had that moment where we buy that carton of strawberries from the grocery store only to get home and realize that some of them have already spoiled. Nothing is more irritating than that!
Finding ways to reduce food waste is easier than you think, and with just a few simple tweaks to your food behavior, you can save yourself from extra trips to the grocery store and keep whoever is in charge of the household budget happy. Here are seven tips on how to reduce food waste.
Make More Trips to The Grocery Store
Most families make a weekly trip to the grocery store. You might even stretch it to a biweekly outing if you have a lot on your plate. Who isn't juggling a lot in these crazy economic times?
Still, the longer you wait between grocery store visits, the more you end up packing into your shopping cart when you do finally go. It also makes it more likely your food will spoil before you’ve had the chance to enjoy it.
That’s because when we wait a long between trips to the store, we tend to buy in bulk. Buying bulk is acceptable unless you buy 15 packages of chicken breasts and then forget to put them in the refrigerator. Whoops! So, your first tip to reduce food waste is to buy less and make more frequent trips to the store to avoid overbuying.
Don't Fall for Those Best by Dates
The FDA fools us all with their best-by dates. We see that food is expired, and we throw it out. We assume that once it's gone past its expiration date, it must have gone bad, right? Wrong! Most food is good well past the expiration date, so before you toss your food out, try the smell and look test. Does the food look bad? How does it smell? It if your chicken smells like feet, then please, don't eat! But if it smells fine and looks fine, then it probably is. Taking a second look at your food can help you reduce food waste and keep you from spending too much on groceries.
Make a List
Ever hear the advice, don't go grocery shopping on an empty stomach? Well, that advice comes from a long list of people who've ended up with too many bags of Cheetos in their shopping cart. When you don't make a grocery list, you make impulse purchases based on your current mood. This often causes you to waste food because you're buying things you likely won't cook later. Meal planning and creating grocery lists are a great way to make sure you only buy what you need.
Store Your Food Properly
Everything has a place in your kitchen. Don’t believe us? You wouldn't store your coffee pot in the fridge, would you? The same goes for your food. You can get the most extended shelf-life out of certain products by storing them correctly. There’s also lots of wrong information getting passed around about how and where to store specific food items. Here are just a few wrongs we want to right:
- Milk spoils quicker when it's stored in the fridge door. For best results, keep it in the back of the refrigerator.
- Tomatoes don't belong in the fridge. I know, crazy, but they go bad quicker in your refrigerator than they do on the counter. You shouldn't store them in a bowl together either, no matter how pretty it looks, because when one spoils, they all spoil.
- Bread sprouts fuzz two times as quickly when stored in the fridge.
- Avocados should only be moved to the refrigerator once they are fully ripe.
- Onions get soggy in the crisper drawer; they belong in a cabinet that's cool and dry.
- Olive Oil turns rancid when you store it near your stove. While it might be convenient, the heat is what makes it turn. Keep it in the cabinet where it belongs.
Reduce Food Waste with a Product Like Freshly Fridge
It's no surprise that one of the leading causes of food waste is food that goes bad in your refrigerator and freezer long before it's time. Purchasing a product like Freshly Fridge can extend your food's shelf life by up to 50%, meaning you can reduce food waste — and prevent forest fires. Smokey Bear would be proud!
Freshly fridge works not just on your fruits and vegetables but also on your meats, dairy, and fish, so you'll have more time to eat your food and more time to avoid doing tedious tasks, like grocery shopping.
Be Thrifty
Did you know that we throw away a lot of food that doesn't need to be thrown away? When you cook celery or broccoli, you cut off the stems and toss them, right? However, you can use vegetable scraps to make homemade vegetable broth. Are you a pumpkin lover? Use the whole pumpkin. Make a pie with the flesh and cook the seeds. Finding ways to use all the parts of the food you buy can be a great way to reduce food waste and save you money overall. Who wants Swanson's broth when you can have homemade?
There's No Such Thing as Too Ripe
Okay, this one isn't entirely true; some things really can over-ripen. But many fruits and vegetables still have use after they've over-ripened. An excellent example of this is bananas. When cooking with bananas, the browner they are, the better they are in baked goods. Have you ever tried to make banana bread with a yellow banana? It just doesn't taste the same. So, next time, show some love to your over-ripened produce and vegetables. It might just reduce food waste and put a smile on your face.
Freshly Fridge
As you can see, there are plenty of ways to reduce food waste and get the most out of your groceries. Of course, our favorite way is to use Freshly Fridge. Like you, we were frustrated with food waste and the high costs of fresh food, so we designed a product to help you get more life out of your food purchases. Our American-made products will extend the life of food in your fridge and freezer by up to 50%, and they won't break your budget!
If you're ready to stop wasting food and start saving money, visit our site to learn more about our convenient products!
