Reducing Food Waste at Home - Section Three
How can you reduce your waste?
So, we’ve pledged to reduce food waste down to the bare bones (literally!). But how do we do it?
There are a handful of key tools that are essential for making the most of food before we even get to the cooking stage. These include planning ahead, storing food correctly, portioning, and knowing what date labels really mean.
Plan your meals for the days or week ahead
Simple habits like checking the fridge and cupboards and making a list before going shopping can help us avoid overbuying. Plus, meal-planning can help us shop for only the ingredients we need for the week.
If it’s not something you’ve done before, making a meal plan for the week is a great place to start to ensure only what you need for the week ends up in your basket – and it gets used up. Why not start by planning for five meals out of seven, so you can keep some spontaneity?
Use your freezer
Storing perishable food like fruit and veg correctly can also seriously cut our food waste, as it keeps produce fresh for longer. For instance, did you know your potatoes last longer in the fridge and that unpeeled bananas can be frozen? Be sure to check your fridge temperature is between 2-5°C to keep your food fresher for longer.
Meanwhile, resisting the ‘need to feed’ and sticking to realistic portion sizes can really help us cut down on plate waste.
Check labels
Finally, understanding ‘best before’ and ‘use by’ labels is a biggie in the effort to reduce food waste. The knowledge that ‘use by’ is the only label we really need to adhere to can help us all avoid throwing food away unnecessarily, as it’s the date after which food may no longer be safe to eat. Whereas ‘best before’ is an indication of quality rather than safety.
Food waste quiz
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Section 3 out of 5 complete
Congratulations!
You did it! You’re now one savvy food shopper and planner! You know just what to do to make the food you love, last.
Ditching food because it’s past its ‘best before’ date is also now a thing of the past for you. You know that the ‘use by’ date is the only one that matters.
All of these little tips can help us all make a big dent in the food we waste. Let’s find out about some of the simple tools that can help us on the next page…