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7 Ways to Waste Less

Food

by Maria Gracia Updated on November 3, 2023 Join our newsletter to be notified when new content is added to our website. According to the US Department of Agriculture… • The average American family of four throws out $1,600 a year in produce alone. • Roughly 20% of all food put on the plates of Americans is trashed every year. • Produce, dairy and meat, in that order, are the foods Americans tend to waste the most. That is a whole lot of food waste…food that we spent our hard-earned money buying. Here are seven easy ways to waste less food: 1. Only buy what you need. This means you know what you’re cooking in the days ahead and you only buy the ingredients needed to make those meals. 2. Shop more often. I’ve found that smaller, more frequent, grocery store purchases forces us to eat what we have before we shop for more. This usually results in less leftovers being pushed to the back of the fridge as well. 3. Use your freezer. For foods that freeze well, freeze them if you can’t eat them right away. If your meal plans tend to change due to your busy schedule, plan meals that can be made with frozen veggies instead of fresh. 4. Don’t buy in bulk unless you never throw food away. Most families can’t use up what they buy before it goes bad. 5. Use your veggie scraps to make vegetable stock…which you can use right away or freeze. 6. Know the vocabulary. Know what “sell by,” “use by,” “best by,” and “toss by” mean. 7. Eat leftovers for lunch the next day.  If you don’t eat most leftovers within one or two days, they’re going to spoil and will need to be trashed. Back to Green Living Index