Easy Ways to Reduce Food Waste

This is a sponsored post. All opinions are my own. For more information, see my disclosure policy.

I recently teamed up with Glad Food Protection to take the #SaveItSunday pledge to not only help eliminate food waste in my own kitchen, but to show you some cool and creative ways you can reduce food waste in yours.

What is the #SaveItSunday pledge?

Well basically it’s about loving food more and wasting it less, one day at a time.

And guess who else took the pledge? Alex Guarnaschelli. How cool is that?

If you have read my blog for any length of time, you know how I feel about food waste.  I. Can’t. Stand. It.  In days of refrigeration, freezers, dehydrators, canning, etc. it seems senseless to have food waste {not to mention, having already used up natural resources to ship food to the grocery stores in the first place}.

Even though most Americans think they are taking steps to preserve their food, we are typically throwing away totally edible food on a regular basis.

Among the food Americans toss, fruits and vegetables are trashed most frequently {38%}, followed by dairy products 29%, and bread 29%.  That tells me that, one, we have plenty of food to feed everybody on this planet, and two, maybe if we got a little smarter about our food waste, we wouldn’t need to rely on factory farmed food so heavily {meaning we could withstand slower/smaller production methods}?

With the right preparation and protection on shopping day, the food we love could stay fresher, longer. I know that sometimes, life happens, and there is just nothing you can do to avoid food waste.  But, there are tons of simple ways to ensure that most of your food ends up on your plate, instead of landfills.

Here are a couple of my favorite ways to reduce food waste:

1. Meal plan.  Creating a meal plan means you’ll only buy what you need, instead of haphazardly throwing food into the cart with no real plan.
2. Track your waste.  Write down everything you throw away.  If you have to throw out milk because you couldn’t drink it before it went bad, you are probably buying too much milk.  Buy a smaller carton.  It may look like you are spending more ounce for ounce, but if you calculated the money you have to pour down the drain, the numbers will look different.
3. Organize your pantry like a grocery store.  Make sure to put newer items in back, so you can use up the older items first.  It helps make sure that you don’t have to throw an item away due to expiration because you grabbed a newer version of the same thing.
4. Freeze leftovers/surplus.  I am a HUGE fan of GLAD freezer bags and GladWare.  I can toss in surplus fruits and veggies from Mr. Produce Guy or leftovers and freeze them for another day.  It really doesn’t get much easier. 
5. When you can’t eat it, compost it.  Food carries valuable nutrients, even when it truly is past the point of human consumption.  At the very least, throw it in the composter and “feed” your soil.
6. Think about usage.  Just because fruit is mushy or veggies are getting soft, doesn’t mean they are inedible.  Use them a different way.  Get out the blender and make smoothies {smoothies freeze well for later too} or make soup with the veggies.
7. Expiration dates are merely suggestions.  Use common sense–and all of your 5 senses.  If it smells, looks, tastes off, then of course, it’s probably no good.  Beyond that, be flexible.
8. Use smaller plates.  This isn’t just for weight loss.  Less food on the plate means that you will be less likely to have uneaten waste.  You can always get more, but even I don’t scrape people uneaten food on their plates into GLAD bags. 🙂
9. Grocery lists.  Even if you don’t meal plan down to every last detail, make a grocery list and stick to it.  Impulse buys can lead to more food than you can reasonably consume before some of it goes bad.
10. Prioritize.  Eat what goes bad the fastest first {say that 10 times fast}.  For example, if salads are on the menu, plan to have them fairly soon after you grocery shop.  That way, it won’t have a chance to spoil before you get around to eating it.
11. Don’t over prepare food.  Yes, leftovers are awesome, but at a certain point, you can only eat so much leftover potato salad before you are DONE eating potato salad.  Make enough to feed the crowd and be reasonable about how much you will eat in leftover form.
12. Split it.  Can’t eat a whole watermelon before it goes bad?  Ask a neighbor if they want to split it.  The same goes for milk or a loaf of bread.  You can also apply the same principle when eating out–splitting a meal saves on food waste and cost.  It’s win-win.
13. Donate food to your food bank.  Maybe you were starving when you bought a can of chicken with stars soup 3 months ago, and now you can’t imagine eating it.  Don’t let it expire, be realistic and donate it so someone can eat it.
14. Before you go to the grocery store, take stock.  If you have items that are about to expire, you can plan your menu around those items.
15. Store smarter.  Crackers, cookies, cereal, etc. tend to go stale rapidly in their original containers.  Invest in some simple airtight containers and keep the food fresher waaaay longer.

I know you all have more tips on food waste, and I would LOVE to know them so make sure to leave them in the comments below!

Mavis

For more information about the #SaveItSunday Pledge and how you can enter to win a gourmet chef prepared meal in your home, head on over to SaveItSunday.com

Looking for more Glad Protection Pointers? Head on over HERE where you’ll learn lot’s of cool tips and tricks to keep the food you love fresher, longer.

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