Reduce your food waste

How to reduce your food waste ?

Food waste is any food material that is discarded or cannot be consumed. Almost one-third of global food produced for human consumption every year, which is approximately 1.3 billion tonnes is either lost or wasted. This quantity of food which is valued at nearly US$1 trillion dollars could easily feed the total global population of 7 billion. In Australia, we throw away three million tonnes of food each year which accounts for $5.2 billion. The worst part is that the huge amount of this food waste constitute uneaten leftovers and take always, stale fruit and vegetables or food products that have passed their best-before date or expiry dates. Most of these wastes could easily be avoided through bit of cautiousness and thoughtfulness. When we throw away food we are not only throwing away the food, but also the effort, resources and time we have invested to grow, harvest, transport, process, store and distribute them. As the dependence on the global resources increases with the increasing population, the reduction in food losses and waste should be achieved to sustain global food supply. The major problems with throwing way food is associated with lack of proper shopping planning, cooking incorrect portion size, inappropriate storage and not utilising the leftovers.

Here are few simple and effective ways to reduce the amount of food waste we generate.

Plan your weekly meal
Think about what you will be cooking in that week and develop a weekly meal plan for your family. Check the food and ingredients in your fridge, freezer and cupboards, then write a shopping list for as much as you need or may be just the little extra. This will help you organised for the week ahead and will help to reduce food waste, save you money, save you time, reduce stress at dinner time and improve nutrition.

Create your shopping list
Make a shopping list and stick to it! Creating a shopping list of what you exactly need will help you stay focused on what you need to buy. Don’t get tempted by specials and offers! And yes don’t shop while you are hungry. Buy loose fruits and vegetables instead of prepacked, then you can buy exactly the amount you need. Choose meats and cheese from a deli so that you can buy the exact product and the quantity you want.

Cook right amount of food
Plan the portion size for each family member and cook accordingly. Don’t serve too much instead serve small amounts of food with the understanding that everybody can come back if they want more. This is especially helpful for children, who rarely estimate how much they can eat at once. Any unserved food can be cooled, stored in the fridge and used another day. Best way to utilise the left over is to take for lunch.

Store you food properly
Store your food appropriately to keep it fresher for longer period. Check your fridge and make sure it is working properly. Make sure that the seals on your fridge are good and check the fridge temperature too. Food needs to be stored between 1 and 5 degrees Celsius for maximum freshness and longevity. While storing new food, bring all the older items in your cupboards, fridge and freezer to the front. Put the new food towards the back and you run less risk of finding something mouldy at the back of your food stores!
Freeze: If you only eat a small amount of bread, then freeze it when you get home and take out a few slices a couple of hours before you need them. Likewise, batch cook foods so that you have meals ready for those evenings when you are too tired to cook.

Use your left overs
Think of tasty ways to use your leftovers. Work out a divide-and-share system with a friend or neighbour if you’re buying perishable items in bulk. If you have non-perishable food items that you no longer need such as tins, rice or pasta, you may be able to donate them to a local charity. Ring first to check whether they take food donations, and if so, which items are acceptable.


Recycle your food scraps
There is always some food or scrape that end up as waste no matter how hard we try. There is nothing much we can do to eliminate. Food scrapes or vegetable peelings which is usually regarded as waste and sent to landfill. However there are ways that we can handle these food waste and stop them from landing in the land fill. The best way is to convert the food waste into nutrient rich compost which could be used to nourish and improve the soil condition. Diverting these organic waste not only reduce the amount of waste going to the landfill but also save the environment from the emission of methane gas (one of the harmful greenhouse gas) which is generated during anaerobic (without oxygen) decomposition of the waste. The decomposition of the food waste produces the liquid together with other chemical in the landfill and the liquid leachate seepage through the inner lining of the land fill which can contaminate the surface and ground water making it unsuitable for drinking and causing a various health hazards.

Household food waste could be turned into compost through the following popular methods

Composting:
Composting is the conventional method of converting the food waste into compost. Here, the food scrapes and left overs are decomposed by the action of microorganisms to produce black nutrient compost that can be directly used as fertiliser in your garden. This is the most easy and cheapest method of converting food waste into compost.

Worm farming:
This is another popular method of converting food scrapes into compost through the action of earth worms. The worms feed upon the food scrapes and produce exceptionally rich worm casting and worm juice which could be used as fertilizer to your plants. The best thing about the worm farming is it can be kept in balcony, backyard, garage or even inside the kitchen