Easy Tips to Deal with Food Waste in Your Home
According to a study conducted by the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology (SIK) in 2011, about a third of food edible parts intended for consumption by humans globally goes into waste. Approximately 1.3 billion tons of food goes into waste annually. Yes, this is how much food wastage you might be contributing, and it’s time you tried to cut on it. Do you know how to deal with the problem? Well, we have compiled some easy tips that you can apply to help you cope with this problem. Let’s get started, shall we?
Avoid Stocking Food Bulks
Are you prone to buying food ingredients in bulk only to dispose of them because they went bad? Instead of buying more food ingredients on a single trip, how about you plan for several trips in a week? You can even get perishable items such as vegetables only when you need them. Plan on what you want to buy before you go to the store. You will get the necessary items and avoid purchasing food ingredients that you do not need. Another interesting tip to avoiding wasteful food buying is to go shopping for food when you are not hungry as you tend to buy more. Make sure you are somehow full before your next trip to the store. It’s one way to reduce impulse shopping and wastage. In case you think that the food you have may spoil, then don’t wait. Donate it to the hungry or food banks if you can.
If frequent trips to the store are overwhelming to you, get door delivery of food ingredients. This way, you will order ingredients when you need them to avoid overspending and wasting them.
Keep an Eye on the Way you Store Food
Incorrect storage of your food could be the reason why you are disposing of a lot of food. Your choice of storage should ensure the food remains as fresh as possible. You need to know the temperature you should store food and how to store your food. It is important to also store food in tidy and clean places to avoid contamination. Let’s explain this in detail:
Install a Garbage Disposal Unit
You should also install a garbage disposal unit for food waste management. It will shred your waste food waste into small pieces that can drain into the waste system. This is one way of dealing with food scraps right before you feed it into the public sewage system. In other words, it makes it easy for the food waste to be managed and they can even be converted to fertilizer and energy.
You, however, need to maintain it well by avoiding disposal of large, hard, starchy or fibrous food items through it. You will be able to minimize food waste as you will find a way to reuse food waste that cannot be disposed of through the garbage disposal unit. Removing garbage disposal can be a bit tricky when you want to replace it, though. If you are struggling with it, then here is a step by step guide on how you can remove your garbage disposal. In most cases, you might be forced to remove it if you have a faulty drain pipe.
Store at Room Temperature
Some of your ingredients will do well at room temperature and will go bad when refrigerated or frozen. Dry foods such as cereals and legumes will do well at room temperature when you store them in airtight containers. Do not place them in cabinets above your cooking place as they will tend to spoil faster. Foodstuff like carrots, potatoes and, onions are best stored in dark and dry conditions at room temperatures. You can, therefore, put them in the pantry or cellar.
Refrigeration
In the fridge, you can store food that you want to remain fresh such as food leftovers, cut vegetables, open canned foods, dairy products and, juices, etc. Generally speaking, set your fridge at a temperature below 4.4 ºC and occasionally check to avoid any fluctuations. Quite often, the food will go bad fast above this temperature as bacteria start thriving. Again, keep in mind that there are types of foods that go bad even in a fridge.
Freezing
If you want to store food for a long time, keep it frozen below -18 ºC. You can store your vegetables, fruits, and meat in the freezer where they can stay fresh for months. You need freezer bags to store food in your freezer. Squeeze the air out to avoid freezer burns on your food. Portion your food well before freezing so that you get only the portion that you need at a time. It is not advisable to freeze your vegetables raw, so before you freeze, then blanch them.
Heat Food at the Right Temperature
As we have discussed above, control the temperatures of your storage device. Any deviation in temperature could lead to spoilage of large quantities of food. Also, when you are heating your food, be sure to warm it above 70 ºC for over 2 minutes to ensure that kill bacteria, which could otherwise multiply on storage leading to food spoiling.
Label Your Food & Check Expiry Dates
You should also label your food, indicating the dates of storage, the name, and allergen information, if any. Practice ‘FI-FO'(First in-First out) where you use food ingredients that you stocked first. You should check for expiry dates and use the ones that have a close to use-by-dates. It’s a simple tip, but practicing this will reduce food spoilage that results in wastage.
Control How Much You Eat
When you are preparing food, keep in mind the number of people you are cooking to avoid excess food that you will otherwise dispose of. By doing this, you can use the food ingredients that you could have wasted for another meal. Try as much as you can to control food portions and only serve what you are sure you will be able to finish.
Try to Reuse Food by-products
When you are preparing food, you can reuse the by-products you can, instead of disposing of them. For example, you can prepare stock from meat bone and vegetable peelings and trimming. Also, instead of disposing of the bread crust, use it to make bread crumbs that you can use in the preparation of other dishes.
Conclusion
These are just a few ways to cut on food wastage in your home. With this information, we hope you are now enlightened on how to minimize food waste in the kitchen. Remember, reducing global food wastage starts with you, and it’s time to put the tips into practice!