Ways to Reduce Food Waste

By Hescott Nutrition Services | posted in March 2023 | Ways to Reduce Food Waste, Save Time, Save Money, Save the Environment, Tips to Reduce Household Food Waste, Boost Relationships and Community, Freeze Food and Enjoy Leftovers, Know the Dates, Share Extra Food, Optimize Your Fridge and Freezer, Composting, Use Grocery List and Meal Plan.

If you've ever tossed out a container of yogurt approaching its expiration date, discarded veggies that have gone limp, or thrown out a salad that's just starting to turn a bit brown around the edges, you're not alone. While food waste is a worldwide phenomenon, the U.S. is a big contributor. Would you believe me if I told you that food takes up more space in U.S. landfills than any other type of waste? Unfortunately, it's true. At home, up to 40 percent of the U.S. food supply goes to waste. That's almost 20 pounds of food per person every month.

Talking about and sharing solutions to food waste is important because there are a lot of less-than-helpful and less-than-healthy ideas out there. I want to share some of the best tips to improve your health while saving you time and money. Before diving into the solutions, let’s talk about some of the benefits of reducing food waste.

Benefits of Reducing Food Waste

The impact of food waste is wide-ranging. The less food we waste, the more time and money we can save—and these are very important right now. By reducing the amount of food wasted, farmers can use less fresh water, land, and fertilizers because they’re not producing food that's going to be discarded. Reducing food waste also reduces the amount of food that needs to be processed, transported, and stored, sometimes in unrecyclable packaging and energy-intensive refrigerators and freezers. Plus, with less food waste, less space is used in landfills, and less greenhouse gas is produced. Not to mention that there are a few not-as-obvious societal impacts that I'm going to discuss. Let's dive deeper into each of these benefits of reducing food waste.

Save time

Leftovers may not be the most glamorous meal, but they allow you to cook or buy once and eat twice. This uses your precious time more efficiently because you're not making a huge effort to decide what new meal or snack to make or buy and spend even more time preparing or heading to the store or restaurant. Plus, if you're like me, spending less energy on multiple new meals every day means more time to do other important things.

Save money

You probably don't want to spend your hard-earned cash on something you won't use—even when buying food—the amount of produce wasted by an average American family of four costs about $1,600 per year. Imagine what you could do with that money by simply buying only what you need and will eat.

Save the environment

Reducing food waste helps us use critical resources like land, water, fertilizers, packaging, transportation, and storage much more efficiently. That's because these investments will go toward food that we will use and enjoy, not producing excess that will be discarded. These efficiencies can help to reduce our environmental impact.

Throwing food away wastes not only the water and energy that went into all of the steps needed to get the food to you, but when it's in a landfill, food waste releases greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) estimates that 95 percent of discarded food is in landfills instead of compost.

Boost your relationships and community

When you share extra food with people you know and care about, you build relationships with them. Plus, there are plenty of people who may need to use community services to access food. By sharing food with them, you can help increase food security in your community.

Tips to reduce your household food waste

Now that you know some benefits of reducing food waste at home, here's how to make it happen.

Food is indeed wasted at every level, from farm to fork. Farms, manufacturers, grocery stores, and restaurants all waste some of their food. While you may not be able to control these other areas, reducing your food waste can make a significant difference. That's because household food waste accounts for the biggest amount of food wasted at 43 percent—more than restaurants, grocery stores, and food service companies combined.

Freeze food and enjoy your leftovers

Sometimes we buy or make too much food to eat in one day. As a registered dietitian-nutritionist, I don't want you to force yourself to eat more than you need to reduce food waste. Instead, safely store uneaten food in a sealed container in your fridge or freezer, and then enjoy it another time as a "leftover."

Pro tip: Pack up and safely store perishable food within 1-2 hours if it sits at room temperature.

Leftovers can also save you time and money when you're super busy because you can quickly take a meal out of the fridge or freezer instead of spending the time and money to prepare or buy a whole new meal.

Know your dates

One of the biggest reasons people throw away food is because they think it's spoiled. This is understandable because no one wants to eat or serve food that has gone bad and may make them sick. Sometimes, the date food goes bad is unclear because manufacturers may use different dates on their packages. In an effort to reduce confusion, the U.S. FDA is recommending the use of the following:

• "Best if used by" to describe the quality of the food (not its safety); the food may not taste or perform as expected, but it's still safe to consume as long as it is stored properly.
• "Expires on" is mostly reserved for infant formulas which should not be used beyond that date.

Try "imperfect" or "ugly" food

Did you know that food is sometimes dumped because it doesn’t look "perfect" enough? Looking for "imperfect" or "ugly" food, or food that's approaching its "Best if used by" date, is another way to save money and reduce food waste. Some markets and grocery stores package food that may be "ugly" or not as fresh as their latest shipment and sell them at lower prices than the "perfect" food we're used to seeing. These imperfect foods can still be used in smoothies, soups, and baking.

Pro tip: Check to make sure the imperfect foods are still safely edible and are not spoiled; then, prioritize freezing or eating these foods first.

By choosing "imperfect" or "ugly" foods when you're out shopping, you can help prevent them from going to waste while saving money at the same time.

Share extra food

If you know someone who would love to join you for a meal or appreciate your leftovers afterward, consider sharing with them. You can invite them over or drop your extra food off for them.

Another idea is to find a food bank or shelter in your area and see what foods they accept. If you have extras of those, simply donate them. If you want to go the extra mile, consider donating the amount of money you saved from reducing food waste to your local food bank or shelter so they can purchase what is most urgently needed.

Optimize your fridge and freezer

Don't forget to regularly check your fridge and freezer to watch the food approaching the end of its useful life. If you find any, enjoy them first.

Pro tip: Keep your fridge set to a maximum temperature of 40°F and your freezer to 0°F or lower to keep your food fresh as long as possible.

Compost whenever you can

The U.S. EPA estimates that just 4.1 percent of wasted food is composted, so composting is a huge opportunity. If you have a backyard and can compost food scraps to make nutrient-rich soil, that is a great place to start. Alternatively, if your city, town, or region has a composting program, you can contribute to that instead of putting food waste into the garbage, which goes to the landfill.

Use a grocery list and meal plan

When you plan the meals you want to eat and stick to your grocery list, you're less likely to purchase and make too much food. If you create a thoughtful grocery list—and stick to it—you can buy only what you need and will reasonably eat each day or week.

How Meal Planning Can Help Reduce Food Waste

Having a plan for your meals—whether you make the plan yourself or invest in one that works for you—is a great way to reduce your food waste. That's because when your meals are planned out, you can create a grocery list of the foods you need for that plan. If you double-check your pantry, fridge, and freezer before adding something to your grocery list and stick to it when you're out shopping, you will buy only what you need and plan to eat.

By using a meal plan to reduce the excess food you buy in the first place, you're cutting down on food waste at the source. This is called "source reduction." According to the U.S. EPA, source reduction is the most impactful step toward reducing food waste, so it's a great way to focus your efforts.

Meal planning has other benefits beyond reducing food waste and saving time and money. Using meal plans can help you create meaningful and sustainable changes for your health. For example, a recent study published in the Annals of Behavioral Medicine examined people who joined a weight loss program. They found that participants who planned more meals lost more weight than those who planned fewer meals.

In conclusion, by reducing food waste, we can save time and money, reduce our impact on the Earth, and even build our relationships and communities. It truly is a win-win-win situation.

One of the best ways to tackle this problem is by using a meal plan. Meal plans can inform your grocery list and reduce extra food purchased when shopping at the market or grocery store. But, only some people want to spend the time and effort to create their own plans. If this is you, I would love to help with your meal plans!

We customize meal plans for specific dietary needs. Contact us via email:info@hescottwellness.com
or call 347-915-3738 for more information.