California Food Waste Prevention Week
March 5th – March 9th, 2018
Courtesy @CalRecycle
Here are some of my favorite waste prevention tips from Save The Food:
- Shop wisely: Plan your meals for the week in advance. Shop with a list. Stick to the list and avoid impulse buys.
- Proper portions: Don’t buy or serve more than you need—Save The Food’s handy portion calculator can help! Skip the bulk items, which encourage excess, as it may not be such a bargain if you’re going to toss half of it.
- Love your leftovers: While you’re planning your meals in advance, plan for nights when you’re likely to go out to eat and when you might have leftovers from earlier meals. Get creative to give leftovers another life—could they be the start of a casserole or soup the day after?
- Freeze it: Frozen food will keep longer. Almost anything can be frozen! But portion out, label and date your food so that it’s easy to serve later.
- Shop your kitchen before the store: Check the fridge, freezer, and pantry for items that need to get used up before you splurge on new items.
- Don’t fall for date labels: Food doesn’t magically spoil as soon as the label on the package is passed. Sell-by, use-by, and best-by dates are generally manufacturers’ suggestions for when an item is likely to be at its peak quality. Ideally, the federal government should standardize food date labels to reduce confusion—and we’re working on getting them to do that! But in the meantime, learn how to understand these labels and rely more on your own senses to assess food quality.
- Spread the word: Engage friends, family, community, and businesses in food-saving practices. Share your favorite tips with your friends and family. Encourage your local restaurants and grocery stores to avoid excessive portions and package sizes; and tell them it is ok if they run out of an item at the end of the day (so that they can avoid over-purchasing). Teach kids to value food and not to waste it.
Check out SaveTheFood.com for more.