Food waste is a worldwide epidemic, and it's more important than ever for the average person to start fighting back
More than one-third of all food produced in the world  is wasted. Americans throw out about 40% of the food they purchase, and organic material in landfills accounts for 20% of all methane emissions, a potent greenhouse gas that contributes substantially to climate change.
And yet millions of Americans live without sufficient access to safe and nutritious food.
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In this Nutrily series of four articles, you already learned how to reduce food waste by
- planning your meals and understanding food labels,
- storing food properly,
- blanching, freezing and cooking your foods adequately
This last article will teach you how to preserve surplus and discard food correctly.
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Click to watch - Food Waste: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO)
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Let's start with our Nutrily tips...
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- Fermenting & canning: these are great ways to preserve food and increase its shelf life for months. In addition, fermented foods are sources of probiotics. Past issue: Make your own probiotics!
- Stocks: produce that’s past its prime can be used for soups, casseroles, stir-fries, sauces, baked goods, pancakes or smoothies.
- Donations: donate to food banks where you can bring items you know you're not going to consume before they go bad and give them to people in need. Locate a food bank near you.
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- Portion control: don't over-serve food to you, your friends or family. Start with less food in your plate and follow the Okinawan's rule of eating until you are about 80% full.
- Eating out: split the dish with your companion and take home leftovers. At all-you-can-eat buffets, take only what you can eat. Be mindful in a cafeteria and don't carry more food than you can actually eat. One trick is to go trayless.
- At home: don't forget to eat your leftovers. Store them at eye level in the fridge.
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Leftovers Safety
Divide leftovers into small, flat containers so that they cool faster and avoid contamination.
Store all leftovers in airtight, glass reusable containers. Examples: here & here. If you are using BPA-free plastic bags, make sure you remove as much air as possible to keep foods fresh longer.
Refrigerate leftovers within two hours of cooking.
Avoid packing your fridge too full to keep your food at a safe temperature.
Put the most recently cooked food behind earlier leftovers.
Eat leftovers within four days. Or freeze them for up to 3 months (don't forget to label them).
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- Monitoring: keep track of what you throw away. You can create a waste log, add dollar signs to each food you throw out or designate a week in which you write down everything you're throwing away.
- Donation: donate to farmers that accept food scraps for animal feeding or composting. Find a local farm.
- Composting: try this as your last resort. Check out these home gardening infographics.
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Apps
Handpick: anyone can discover new dishes and recipes based on ingredients they have on hand.
Zero Percent: the safest, easiest, most reliable way to donate surplus food.
Books
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Now, it's your turn to educate others! Being aware of the issue of food waste can help make people more attentive to wasting less.
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