Food Waste Solution Ideas

Food waste is just another road I'm going down these days. Did you know the average American throws out on average 40% of the food they buy?!? That's a staggering amount! So, I'm trying to look at what we toss and what I can save.

I don't have composting available in Paris -- at least, I don't think I do. I've read some big cities offer composting but my French is not quite up to asking around, ya know?! So, it's really up to me to buy and cook only what we'll eat. With kids and odd schedules, etc, this is a challenge, but it's certainly worth the attempt.

In my research, I found some really good tips on wasting less food. Those tips include menu planning and shopping with a list (which I've been practicing at for years). And buying only what you intend to eat in the next few days -- instead of stockpiling. This is especially useful for produce that spoil fast here in France, because it's super-fresh.

Then there's the idea of eating up what's in your fridge and pantry before heading to the market; "leftover nights" or "fridge frittatas" that use up all available veg. Just simply taking inventory of what you have left, and plan meals around that before hitting the market.

I recently read this good tip: "Delay food shopping for a few extra days and force yourself to get creative!!" You know I love to be creative!

Besides all these, I'm a big fan of the freezer for saving on food waste. Fruit that are "too squishy" for the kids to eat can be frozen and are perfect for smoothies. Bananas (pealed), too. I'll also freeze chopped vegetables, like onions, peppers and garlic. Perfect for a future stir-fry. I store whole ginger roots in the freezer (they'll last forever), and toss baguette ends in the freezer for bread soup.

I'm also famous for eating yogurt, cheese, open tomato sauce and eggs past the "best by" date. These items particularly will STINK if they've actually gone bad, so I'm not worried. Those dates are arbitrary, at best. Trust your nose. (Unless it's meat, than always trust that date.)

Here are two resources that have a bunch more tips, if you're curious: Slow Your Home is an Australian podcast and episode 169 featured 100 Tips to Reduce Food Waste. And check out the SaveTheFood.com site for plenty of tips (and great design).



Related posts:
Read more about this Less Plastic project
My Zero-Waste Ideas Pinterest board 
More ideas about Reusing stuff instead of throwing it away 

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