Food Waste is in Poor Taste: Learn These Five Simple Tips to Stop Wasting Food
Welcome back. In part I we discussed the environmental impact of food loss and waste (FLW). We also saw some examples of how the world is responding to this issue. You may be interested in how you can reduce your own food waste — so step up to the plate and read on!
Create Better Habits
Okay, let’s reach for the low-hanging fruit first: the tried and true shopping list. Make a list before you go shopping, which will prevent you from buying items you already have or purchasing impulse items that you may not end up using. Of course there’s an app for that. Many of these apps can also help you with meal planning and they also store recipes. (Or if you’re old-school, here’s a template for a list / meal planner that you can print out.) Shopping more frequently and buying fewer items is also a good strategy. Consider devoting one shelf in your refrigerator to items that need to be used more urgently so that they are easily seen. If you are inclined you can print out a “Use Me First” sign like these ones.
Use Common Sense on Scents
Maybe you consider yourself an adventurous food eater, but the idea of eating food past its supposed expiration date is not the thrill you are looking for. Historically there have been several different date labels on food which can lead to uncertainty about when food is actually still good to eat. To reduce consumer confusion and wasted food, the Food and Drug Administration recommends that food manufacturers and retailers use a “Best if Used By” date. This simply lets you know that the product will be of best quality if used by the calendar date shown, but it’s not the whole story. Foods not exhibiting signs of spoilage should be wholesome and may be sold, purchased, donated, and eaten beyond the labeled “Best if Used By” date. Consumers can use their senses including smell to make a judgment on how long the food is edible after this date. The main exception to this is infant formula. This has a “Use By” safety date. Do not buy or use baby formula after its “Use By” date.
Bin There, Done That
Food scraps and bones may be inevitable. As you may recall from part I, it is essential to keep these out of the landfill where they will decompose and release methane, a greenhouse gas 28 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide. Fortunately, we can put these items in our compost bin. Composting is the decomposition of organic matter in the presence of oxygen. This “brown gold” can then be applied to farms and landscapes to improve soil health, retain moisture, and prevent erosion. We can all make sure that we are putting the correct materials in our compost bins — municipal or in your backyard. To be beneficial, compost needs to be of high quality, meaning free of contaminants such as plastic. This unfortunately includes bioplastics in most jurisdictions (check with your recycler). Among other issues, these materials (even if they are labeled “compostable”) may not fully break down and the finished compost can be contaminated with bits of partially degraded material. This lowers the value of the compost and is not desirable for farmers. For example, Paul Muller of Full Belly Farm in Northern California stopped using urban compost because “the compost we were getting had a good deal of foreign material in it, there was glass, plastic, forks… We were concerned about microplastics and also about handling safety for our crew if small bits of glass were spread around.”
To the Rescue
Are you feeling the impact of the rising cost of fresh produce? 1 in 8 Americans is food insecure. Fortunately you can still get access to fresh fruits and vegetables. There are several organizations that are working to rescue surplus produce from farmers and deliver it to food banks. Since 2005 the California Association of Food Banks’ Farm to Family program has delivered over 160 million pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables annually to food banks throughout the state. It is a win-win situation as food waste is reduced and quality produce gets to where it’s needed most. Farmers are also eligible for a 15% tax credit to help keep farms growing. Moreover, it provides food banks with nutritious fresh produce (compared to the more typical canned goods donations). In Southern California, Food Forward rescues fresh fruits and vegetables from backyard fruit trees, orchards, farms, farmer’s markets, and wholesale produce vendors, preventing this nutritious food from going to waste. They then donate this produce to over 350 hunger relief organizations. Nationally, the Feeding America network and its partners rescued 3.6 billion pounds of groceries last year. That food went directly to meals for people facing hunger. This makes Feeding America the largest food rescue organization in the country. They work with manufacturers, retailers, and farmers to reduce food waste and provide rescued food to food banks.
Saving Some Dough
Finally, reducing FLW not only benefits the environment but also our pocketbooks. Take this to the bank: you can save money by reducing your food waste. The US Department of Agriculture reports that it could be as much as $370 per person annually (that’s $1,500 for a family of four!). A 2020 Penn State study found an even higher number with food waste costing the average household $1866 per year.
In Conclusion
As we have seen, food loss and waste is a systemic issue — but fortunately we all have weapons at our disposal to reduce our individual waste. Hopefully this knowledge will jumpstart your journey and inspire you to come up with other ways to continue to reduce your food waste. Whether it is using your food scraps in new recipes or supporting organizations that rescue surplus produce from being wasted, we can all continue to do our part in reducing food loss and waste that is contributing to climate change.