The impact of food wastage includes the energy, water and fuel used to grow food that may not be used. When food waste is sent to landfill, it contributes to greenhouse gas emissions.
- Buy less than you think that you need. We tend to over buy on food so remove one meal from your meal plan because you'll most likely have an unexpected dinner out or leftovers!
- Measure ingredients carefully! Follow recipes and adjust the amount of ingredients to the number of people eating.
- Chop and store the produce when you get home from the store so creating meals is easy during the week.
- Store your food properly so it doesn't go bad!
- Ignore the dates. Best-by, sell-by, and use-by are NOT expiration dates. There's no scientific way to predict the exact day something is going to expire so use your best judgement with smell and taste. If it tastes fine - it's probably fine to eat.
- Eat your ends and stems. Are you still throwing the tops of the carrots and beets out? STOP IT. They are delicious.
- Save the peels of your onions, carrots, garlic, and celery ends to make a scrumtious vegetable stock that you can use to infuse more flavor into rice, quinoa, etc.
- Use your freezer to freeze fruits and veggies you might not have time to get to before they turn.
- Use slightly mushy fruits in smoothies or breakfast breads.
- If you do have any leftover food, make sure you compost it!