10 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Food Waste

10 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Food Waste

This past year we've had a lot of time to sit and reflect on our daily choices. Whether you've started recycling, cooking more meals at home, or dabbling in meal planning, you may have also noticed how big of a problem food waste has become. In fact, before food even hits the grocery store shelves, loads of it is discarded for various reasons. More often than not, the food tossed is entirely edible; however, it may not be shaped, colored or sized exactly how most consumers expect. Tossing edible and spoiled food isn't just a waste of money and a farmer's time. It also has a large effect on our environment. Discarded food is commonly sent to landfills. In the landfill, it rots and produces methane gas, a harmful element for our environment. Tossing food can also be linked to wasted water as significant amounts of water are used each year to grow the food that will soon be tossed. While this type of food waste may seem out of your control, taking small steps daily to help reduce food waste will help in the long run. Continue reading to discover 10 ways that you can reduce food waste in your household.

Only Buy What You Need

When individuals head to the grocery store, they tend to purchase more food than they need. While buying in bulk is often convenient, it can often lead to more waste. To ensure that you only buy what you need, we recommend planning your weekly meals out in advance and making a grocery list of the ingredients you'll need for each meal. Not only will this help you buy less, but it will also ensure that your ingredients are fresh when you go to reach for them. Additionally, try to avoid shopping the "2 for 1" sales in regards to produce. If you know that you're not going to use two full lettuce heads in one week, stick to buying one. This will prevent you from having to throw the spoiled one out later on.

Learn to Store Your Food Correctly

10 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Food Waste | Bob's Red Mill Blog Taking the time to learn how to store your food correctly can help you keep your food fresher for longer, meaning you'll have less waste! This is especially so when it comes to fruits and vegetables. Produce is the most common improperly stored food, as many people are unsure of where to put it. While each food reacts differently to temperature and moisture content, here's a quick guide on which produce goes where.

Room Temperature Produce

Tomatoes Garlic Cucumbers Onions

Refrigerated Produce

Asparagus Beans Beets Broccoli Brussels sprouts Cabbage Carrots Cauliflower Celery Corn Green onions Lettuce Mushrooms Parsnips Peppers Rutabaga Spinach Sprouts Squash

Pantry Stored Food Items

Quinoa Brown Rice Bulgur Farro Millet

Separate Foods That Produce Ethylene Gas

10 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Food Waste | Bob's Red Mill Blog To ensure that your fruits and veggies stay fresh, it's crucial to separate those that produce ethylene gas from those that don't. This type of gas promotes the ripening of foods and can cause your produce to over ripen before you've even used it. Here are a few foods that produce ethylene gas that you should separate:
  • Bananas
  • Avocados
  • Tomatoes
  • Cantaloupes
  • Peaches
  • Pears
  • Green onions
Keep these foods away from sensitive produce like potatoes and apples, and store in a brown paper bag to prevent premature spoilage.

Save Your Leftovers

Saving leftovers is a great way to reduce your food waste at home. While many people only consider saving leftovers on holidays or after large gatherings, leftovers are easy to keep year-round. Whether you make a bit more rice than you needed or didn't finish that delicious homemade dessert, save what you don't eat for later! Storing your leftovers is just as important as saving them. There may be times when you took the extra step to keep excess food and then forgot about it until you find it in your fridge weeks later. If that's the case, don't worry. This is a no-judgment zone, and we've all been there. To help you remember what leftovers you've saved, we recommend keeping a list hanging on your fridge and then checking it off as you use them. You can also use the list to determine what leftover foods you can add to your meals throughout the week, meaning you don't have to make as much! Additionally, storing your leftovers in a clear glass container will help you better see the food when you open the fridge, ensuring that you don't forget about it. Making a point each week to sift through your leftovers and check what needs to be used right away will better keep you from wasting food and help you save you time and money!

Eat the Seeds

10 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Food Waste | Bob's Red Mill Blog While not all fruit seeds are entirely edible, some seeds can actually be great for you! Fall is the perfect season for growing squash. Butternut, spaghetti squash and pumpkins are a staple in many fall recipes. The problem? Most of the pumpkins that we carve each year end up rotting and are reduced to waste that piles into the landfills every December. Now, we're not saying that you should skip pumpkin carving all-together. Pumpkin carving is a great family activity and a fun way to get the little ones excited about the changing seasons. However, there are simple steps that you can take to reduce the waste it causes. When carving your pumpkins this year, encourage your family to carve out as much tasty flesh as possible. This flesh can be used to make a delicious pumpkin pie, or added to a Pumpkin Spice Smoothie like this one. Additionally, the seeds of the pumpkin can be cleaned and baked for a delicious and healthy treat! Pumpkin isn't the only seed you should be saving. The seeds of butternut squash can also be roasted or baked to enjoy as a healthy snack to keep on hand. Eat them fresh out of the oven, or pack them in your children's lunch boxes for a fun on-the-go snack.

Blend Your Food

Want to learn how to reduce food waste? Blend your fresh produce into a smoothie or tasty soup! Though fruit skins, leaves and peels might not taste good in their whole form, they make for a nutrition-packed addition to any smoothie. Use the stems of your greens like kale and chard for an added boost of fiber, or blend the tips of beets, carrots and strawberries into a savory soup. You can use several creative ways to use up all of the edible parts of your food and turn it into a waste-less meal.

Make Homemade Broth

10 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Food Waste | Bob's Red Mill Blog Chicken broth, bone broth and even vegetable broth can be used for a variety of recipes. When boiling your veggies or meats for a meal, don't let anything go to waste. Instead, add spices and herbs to the leftover water to transform it into a flavorful broth or a tasty soup like this Kasha Yam and Carrot Soup. Leftover bones can also be simmered into water and veggies to make a homemade stock that you can pair with your week's meals!

Know What You Should Freeze

Freezing food is an excellent way to preserve it! Get familiar with the fruits, veggies and meats that are best frozen and start purchasing some freezer-safe bags. Greens can be frozen and then added to smoothies, herbs can be chopped, mixed with olive oil and then frozen into ice trays for a quick flavor boost, and leftovers from meals can be preserved until you're ready to eat them. Freezing foods is also a great way to at-home meal prep, helping you cut down on food waste even more.

Begin Composting

10 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Food Waste | Bob's Red Mill Blog Though this tip might be a bit advanced for beginners, if you're serious about learning how to not waste food, you'll want to look into composting. Composting is a great way to reuse your food and turn it into energy for your garden plants. Now, you might be saying, "I don't have room to compost." If that sounds like you, don't worry. We understand that not everyone has room for an outdoor composting system. And even if you do, you might not want to commit to something that intricate yet. The good news is, there are various countertop composting systems that you can begin to care for your houseplants or herb gardens!

Pack Your Lunch

While heading out to eat every so often is a fun experience, eating out regularly is costly and can also contribute to food waste. An easy way to cut back on this food waste (and save money) is to pack your lunch with you. Whether you plan on heating leftovers from earlier that week or preparing your lunch the night before, packing a home-cooked meal to-go will ensure that your food is being used to the fullest. Plus, you'll also have more control over what goes into your food, leading to a healthier diet and lifestyle. As you can see, there are endless ways that you can reduce your food waste. Not only will the tips in this article help you waste less, but adding them to your at-home routine can also help you save time and money. From freezing certain foods to baking pumpkin seeds, there are many small changes that you can make daily to help yourself and this planet become a bit healthier!  
Bob's Red Mill
November 01 2020

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