Reducing Wasted Food at Home

In practically all developed countries, agriculture is wholly dependent on subsidies financed with taxes. The price of alimentary products in the supermarket does not reflect the true cost of production. This, coupled with countries like China subsidising exports, leads to a "race to the bottom" situation in which there's constant pressure to drive prices down.

One way to reduce waste would be to stop subsidising agriculture on a global level. This might be also be accompanied by raising the price of fuel and electricity. Before screaming bloody murder and downvoting, please consider the following:

- roughly 50% of food in the US goes to waste [1]. Meaning you already pay double what you think you pay. - About 40% of people in the US are obese [2]. We're eating too much. - Modern agriculture is an environmentally destructive practice [3]. Reducing food consumption can reduce its environmental impact. - We have all become used to abundance - in practically all domains of life: water, food, energy, travel, communication. We have become desensitised to the real value of things, we have no conception of the externalities involved in producing them, and pass our lives on an infinite binge of blind consumption.

On a personal level, each of us can make the transition to consuming food in a more reasonable and sober manner. Finally, educating people about food waste is not enough. What's needed is rather a coordinated effort to move to a new model where people consume what they physically need, rather than indulging momentary craving.

[1] https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2016/07/america... [2] https://web.archive.org/web/20190629233657/https://www.cdc.g... [3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_impact_of_agricu...

Buying frozen, rather than fresh, vegetables is a good way to avoid waste. They are processed and frozen soon after picking, so nutrients are well preserved. They are kept in large frozen food warehouses which are energy efficient. There is no reduction in nutrients during transport, distribution and retailing, compared with fresh produce which spends several days deteriorating in refrigerated trucks and warehouses before it gets to the store. And, frozen vegetables can be kept a long time once they're in your freezer, especially in a chest freezer without automatic defrost.

We've managed to eliminate a ton of food waste (and cost) by simply not buying frozen or bulk foods. Paradoxically, whenever we buy food like this, it always comes in boxes that are much too large to use at once and inevitably will end up forgotten at the back of the freezer or pantry until we throw it out later.

Now we buy maybe 2 or 3 days worth of food at a time and our fridge basically just has raw ingredients and a few condiments in it. Usually a package of never frozen meat (beef or chicken mostly) and a few fresh veggies and mushrooms for side dishes (many of them keep well or even better outside of the fridge). The most prepackaged thing we eat these days is on pasta night, and that's just for the sauce out of the jar and some premade noodles. The rest of the sauce is fresh chopped veggies and it makes a delightfully chunky sauce. A favorite side dish is mashed squash in lieu of mashed potatoes.

It takes time to cook a nice meal, and if it's possible to get the time (it's not easy!) I think everybody should do it. The frozen and bulk foods never resulted in a meal half as good. One nice side effect, if we increase the portions a bit, we get a quality packed lunch from the left overs.

Our meals also have dramatically increased the volume of fresh vegetables and are definitely much more healthy than anything we used to eat. Are we trying to reduce waste? Not really, just trying to cook and eat better, but the side effect is great (and much cheaper as well!) It's also a nice change in daily routine to stop at the grocery a couple times per week.

Our fridge went from slam packed full to mostly empty and we eat far better.

I love when I tell people that I garden and they say things like "that's a nice hobby".

Growing your own food is not a hobby, you are literally participating in the economy.

It is great exercise and really helps you understand just how much labor and time goes into making food from seed to harvest to storage and consumption.

I feel like there is a growing movement of more and more people trying to relearn these skills.

As for food waste, the way I compost kitchen scraps is to dig a 1-2 foot deep by 1 foot wide hole in my yard where I dump a week's worth of scraps into. I chop it with my shovel and bury it while chopping. In 1-2 months time it will be completely taken in by the soil life.

I use a 5 gallon bucket with a lid that seals in the kitchen to collect scraps.

Each year I pick a new place to dig my holes. I keep the holes about a foot apart and I remove rocks as I go.

They next year I plant a crop in the location.

I like this method of composting because it enriches the land and the soil life does most of the work without any smell.

I'm slightly tilling, preparing, enriching, and de-rocking(?) My land over the course of months. It takes about as much time as emptying the trash.

You end up doing a lot of work, but it doesn't feel that way because you are "eating the elephant one bite at a time".

A huge change in my food waste output took place when I stopped going to the supermarket, and instead started going to the local market once a week.

Having to plan out what I needed for the week really changed my behavior for the better.

(+ supporting local farmers + reducing plastic consumption)

We waste practically zero organic waste. We have chickens which eat our waste food, which is minimal in itself. What they don't eat becomes compost n about three months time. We eat the eggs, approximately ten a day, and use the compost to grow food in our yard most of the year. All of this is on a .25 acre of land in a downtown setting.

I've found that the best way to reduce wasted food at home is by establishing and maintaining your food budget (groceries _and_ eating out), and gradually reducing it until you don't have any wasted food.

People (myself included) get carried away buying stuff, even groceries. Without planning you will quite easily blow past your budget and then stuff will sit in your fridge and rot.

Or another scenario: you buy a bunch of groceries and then eat fast food all week and throw most of your groceries away. Gotta use what you bought or it will go bad.

It's very easy for a family of 3 in the US to spend $2K/mo on food and throw most of the groceries away. If you drive that down to $1K/mo, you can eat pretty well, and there won't be much wastage.

Personally, I've reduced my food waste by eating almost primarily freeze-dried foods. They have a 30 year shelf life in most cases and just need a bit of hot water to be rehydrated, and it tastes just like fresh. The process of freeze-drying apparently keeps the nutritional value intact, as opposed to other preservation methods. It's great for planning meals for the week, and it's excellent for making delicious backpacking recipes!

It seems in any given pack of fresh blueberries/strawberries/brocolli/whatever, inevitably some part of it gets moldy or subpar eating conditions. With the freeze dried equivalent, I know I have as-good-as-fresh ingredients that won't spoil anytime soon. I don't see myself ever buying fresh berries or brocolli or chicken ever again now that I've discovered freeze dried foods. It's just too efficient and convenient to have all these good quality foods on-demand that virtually never spoil.

Edit: well actually I'd still buy fresh food... If I had my own freeze drier and freeze-dried them myself!

Do these food waste statistics count what factories throw out? Recently, I met someone who works in quality control on a Kelloggs line. He told me that day they threw away 1,500 lbs of food on his line alone and that is a fairly common stat.

I'm personally very conscientious of my food usage and throw little away, but the EPA telling the consumer this is their problem is irritating.

> Find out how to store fruits and vegetables so they stay fresh longer inside or outside your refrigerator.

That was my first thought when I opened the website. I kind of expected to see the answer to this on the site, not a tip this general, or maybe a reference to look it up.

People go their entire lives without knowing what it is like to go without food for a day. They take it for granted.

Also, I believe parents generally don't teach kids to respect food. It probably starts by letting a toddler feed him/herself too early and in the process normalizing food wastage.

There is also a first world etiquette of leaving some food in the plate. I have seen people habitually do it.

I rarely ever throw food away, and if I have to (once every two months or so) I consider it a shame.

Storing things the right way is important, but much more important is not buying too much. My solution is that I never use a shopping cart but my own bag. When you have to carry it you will have a much better feeling if it is too much.

This is ofc harder if you have kids.

There's an app (I know) called toogoodtogo that let businesses to sale things that won't be allowed to be sold next day. It's a cute step in the right direction.

ps: also, who made a kind of compost bin to at least avoid bagging organic material to go into the recycling system ?

The American food supply chain has a luxuriously high waste rate. It’s an issue that a few companies are trying to tackle, eg Imperfect Produce.

Wasted food in the home though is mostly a cultural/price issue, as well as a misalignment issue between seller and consumer. Grocery stores try and increase AOV by selling you a 3lb bundle of carrots because they believe it to be profit maximizing to do so, at the cost of deadweight loss borne by the customer if they don’t eat all that they buy.

There's a tiny grocery store just a five minute walk away from my apartment. I treat it like an extended fridge. Whenever I need something it's just a short trip away. So there's no need to overstock food at home for me.

But I get that not everybody has that opportunity.

This message is not a new one and it isn't really working. People kind of know - nobody walks into a supermarket to specifically buy stuff just to put in the rubbish bin, do they?

I think there needs to be more radical solutions. For instance a sugar tax or a different tax band for microwave ready meals.

We have all been there, after a hard week to have gone shopping to get the healthy veg and some ready prepared meal items, e.g. microwaveable or just a pizza that can be shoved in the oven. We get back tired from the shopping trip and don't make that salad, we put the pizza in the oven. The next day we do the same. Then the working week takes over and that once prime condition veg is not looking so good. We can't bring ourselves to throwing it out so we hold on to it until it is truly rotten. Meanwhile we have some other lazy beige foods.

It is an easy trap to fall into and we have all been there. But what if that instant pizza cost as much as a restaurant pizza? Or that microwave meal cost the same as a pub meal?

You would probably go for proper food. People could reduce food waste in the days before refrigeration, to not waste a thing. Ask anyone who is old enough to have known WW2. Rationing was a way of reducing waste, but, what else has changed? The junk food. This needs to be taxed so that people don't leave the good stuff to go rotten. Junk also needs to be taxed so poor people who view vitamins as a luxury don't eat it.

> Keep a running list of meals and their ingredients that your household already enjoys. That way, you can easily choose, shop for and prepare meals.

> Make your shopping list based on how many meals you’ll eat at home. Will you eat out this week? How often?

> Plan your meals for the week before you go shopping and buy only the things needed for those meals.

> Include quantities on your shopping list noting how many meals you’ll make with each item to avoid overbuying. For example: salad greens - enough for two lunches.

> Look in your refrigerator and cupboards first to avoid buying food you already have, make a list each week of what needs to be used up and plan upcoming meals around it.

> Buy only what you need and will use. Buying in bulk only saves money if you are able to use the food before it spoils.

Great list. We keep a wiki page on our server that contains "menus" for the week along with the shopping list. We are able to rotate those every couple of months (ie: we have a couple months worth of menus that we rotate through) and it is just grab the list, check the pantry/fridge for what we have and get what we need from the store. Super easy.

Recipes do get tired, so we do rotate those out and some new ones in, but the above is the general flow.

We eat reasonably healthy. We can maximize our spend by looking for deals. We don't have to expend too much effort planning now.

I find a good way to reduce food waste is to plan your meals a week in advance, so you do 1 big shop and get everything you need for the coming week.

That way, you buy exactly what you need.

You also know when you're going to need everything, so if there are any short-lived things (cut herbs, for example) that you need for a meal later in the week, you can get them just in time.

Our chickens love all our food waste.

And any chicken meat waste goes to the local magpies so they won't bomb us.

> Compost food scraps rather than throwing them away.

I wonder: my neighborhood has some common area that I could ask that we set aside for composting. Have anyone on HN ever setup a neighborhood compost? Any tips/suggestions?

If you don't have a garden (ie live in an apartment etc), is there any benefit (reduced methane?) to composting food scraps before throwing the soil in the trash/landfill?

I'm surprised there's been no mention in the article or comments of gardening to grow one's own food. Gardening (generically encompassing both in-the-ground vegetable gardens and alternative growing methods such as greenhouse, hydroponics, and indoor grow stations in the basement etc.) inherently limits waste, encourages you to eat exactly as much as you grow, and allows sustainable replenishment of the soil, the atmosphere, and the general ecosystem.

Of course, if you fill your yard with nothing but squash plants and harvest a ton of squash every fall, that's a bit of an extreme counter-example because you're not likely to eat that much squash, but even then you're going to give it away or sell it at the local farmer's market.

But for the average food grower/amateur homesteader, you'll gradually develop a self-adapted menu of homegrown foods which you will be very pleased to consume as soon as they are ready, free of nasty chemicals and ripeness inhibitors, and full of nutrients that have not been lost in the production, transportation, and storage phases that commercial produce must necessarily undergo.

You will eat locally grown produce that is adapted to your region, when and if it comes to maturity, and waste will not be your main concern, but rather the opposite -- if you have 12 potato plants, and they each produce 5-10 potatoes in August, you will accommodate the bounty by building a rack in the basement to store them over the winter -- literally a root cellar, which is what basements were originally for.

Plus, it's fun, and vastly educational for children. Nothing is more satisfying than having your child help build the raised beds and plant the seeds, then seeing the seedlings come up and develop into mature plants that provide bounty for the dinner table. Experiencing the full cycle also encourages them to eat their vegetables. Raising egg chickens is also highly fulfilling and rewarding.

Lawns are largely wasted in our society. When I visited Hungary a couple of decades ago, newly freed of Communism, every back yard had a garden, a chicken coop, as well as larger farm animals such as pigs and goats. Sadly, this level of self-sufficiency has probably diminished as their society has developed and moved to the Western model of centralized food production and distribution.

Growing your own food means next to zero waste, and what clippings and husks and greens remain after the harvest are recycled into the compost bin or straight into the bed. If you have chickens, a lot of this material, such as tomato skins, carrot ends, etc., are eagerly devoured. In return for your generosity, the chickens provide high quality fertilization of your yard and garden, and as a bonus they eat insects including ticks.

Costco is partly responsible