11 Smart Ways to Reduce Household Food Waste

Food loss and waste still poses serious global issues. About one third of all foods produced for human consumption ends up as waste. Aside from the environmental effect of waste that goes into landfill, wasted food also wastes the land, resources, time and effort put into growing them. Below are some ways to reduce food waste in your household:

1. Meal Planning: This is said to be one of the effective ways of dealing with food wastage problem. Just as planning your activities helps to reduce time wastage, creating a menu plan not only tells you what to eat at a particular time, but also gives you a guide on what exactly to shop, thereby, reducing the tendencies of food waste. To make the meal planning process seamless for you, Check out IntelliDigest World Food Tracker here.

2. Cut Down on Peelers: A good number of people enjoy peeling off the back of fruits like apples, cucumbers and cutting off stems of vegetables like kale. Did you know that eating potato with peels taste great? Cucumbers and apples are encouraged to be eaten through their peels, and if for toughness, they are being avoided, then crushing them would help  and don’t forget to wash them thoroughly before eating.

3. Food Portion Control: Another way to cut down on food wastage is to serve smaller food portions. The smaller the portion, the smaller the probability of waste. The Waste & Resources Action Programme (WRAP) carried out a survey to know why food ends up in the bin, 25% said that it was because of cooking and serving too much – a food portion control problem.

4. Ensure foods are properly stored: Storing foods within stipulated temperature helps extend their shelf lives. In other words, befriend your freezer as food stored in it can last for months. Jen Gale says: ‘Most things can be frozen, so if you’ve got leftovers, or things approaching their use by date, whack them in the freezer’. Check out some affordable Bush Freezers here.
   
   
5. Ensure Food Stored in Freezers are labeled:  Most times, food stored in freezers are kept too long and forgotten in the long run. This usually happens when the frost covers the plastic bag used to store it and you don’t even know what you have in there. Labeling helps you identify which food you have and how long they have been there.

6. First In First Out (FIFO): After every shopping, take the time to bring out old food first, then let the fresh food go down the freezer and bring the older ones closer to your reach. By doing this, you ensure that old food is consumed first and fresher food later.

7. Keep Track of Your Waste: This is an evaluation of food waste in your household. By keeping track of the amount of waste your household generates, you become more conscious and intentional about curbing food waste, being aware of the environmental and health hazard it causes, and you begin to ensure ways to drastically reduce it. Waste tracking is a core function of IntelliDigest World Food Tracker. Learn more here.
8. Give Out Food Excess: While you think that food is quite affordable, statistics show that 810 million people still go to bed hungry every night. So the next time the thought of wasting excess food comes to you, remember this, and instead, look out for someone who might need it. Amazingly, technology has made it easy to find someone who might need your excess food through various media. The ‘Olio App’ is one that I found useful for food sharing.

9. Educate Your Household: Food waste is a global issue, and until every individual is aware of the problem caused by food waste, finding a solution seems far, hence the need to educate your household. The more people are educated, the more the consciousness about food waste and the lesser the waste generated.

10. Get Creative in the Kitchen:  Have you heard the adage which says that creativity is life. Yes! Your ability to get creative will bring life into those old foods in the freezer. Think about using your Bolognese sauce as toppings on your toast, or your carrot soup added to your meat/steak pie filling. As horrible as this might sound, the outcome could be a delicious new dish. The idea is to use an already known recipe in a new way.

11. Self-Compost:  Composts are an excellent soil-improver that can be very useful especially to garden owners. Composting is an environmentally friendly way to handle kitchen and garden waste at home and this method is encouraged. A  little drawback is that it takes a lot of time for the waste to be broken down but not to worry, IntelliDigest has introduced  a novel solution that breaks down food waste into useful chemicals in no time. Check out the iDigest Unit here.

Now that you have learnt some new ways to reduce waste, implement them and play your part in the global fight against food waste.