How much food do you waste?
 

There was a story in my newspaper today about food waste. They claim the average family wastes $1,500 of food annually.

I’m sure we don’t come close to that. I’m the king of leftovers. If there’s enough, I can make another meal out of them or re-serve what’s left over. Smaller amounts become my lunch or breakfast. Meat, poultry and seafood never go in the garbage. Beverages; the same except drink mixes that become a one-off. There’s a bottle of Collins mix that’s been sitting there since last year with 2” in the bottom.

My freezer is too small for things to get lost. Nothing stays there more than a month or two.

Bread - I might toss a heel every month or two. Bagels, rolls, biscuits, waffles are all consumed 100%.

Unscientifically, I would estimate that we waste maybe $200.

So, what is it?

I buy almost exclusively fresh produce. Berries are the most susceptible. I feel like the mold starts to grow on them while I’m driving home from the grocery store. Lettuce: I like packaged salads and sometimes a head of lettuce sits in the drawer for a month or more. I use half a cucumber at a time. Three days later, the second half has turned to green goo. I eat the wrinkly grape tomatoes from the bottom of the package. I trim the turned part of broccoli or celery or zucchini and cook/eat the rest. Fresh herbs never get finished. I’m learning to find them in jars. Since I started buying jars of minced garlic, I haven’t tossed a single clove.

Condiments and ingredients. Sometimes that jar of pesto or jerk sits in the fridge door for a year. I just never got excited about using it again. I tossed 1/3 of a jar of Polish mustard last month. It was too spicy to serve with anything but smoked sausage and I was the only one using it. We do suffer somewhat due to being a 2 person household. I imagine it’s worse for singles.

Restaurant leftovers: not me. I finish almost every meal I order in a restaurant. But Mrs BV needs to be reminded that the box in the back of the middle shelf came home with her. If I don’t remind her, it gets binned when she turns her nose up the following week.

What about the rest of you?

We truly do have very similar eating habits. It’s pretty rare for anything to sit in my fridge over 24 hours. As my Mom used to say, “waste not, want not”.

Not sure an exact amount, but I plan and cook my meals so nothing goes to waste. I grew up eating leftovers, so I have no issues eating the same meal for dinner two or three nights in a row. I like grabbing the buckets of salad from Sprouts and mixing it in with dinner.

I’ve definitely got some sauces for several months and haven’t noticed anything adverse about them.

We are about the same as you. The main waste are things like lemons/limes/cilantro/celery/etc that we always want on hand in case. Occasional stray hot dog bun or 1/4 loaf of bread. Maybe a few potatoes out of a 5lb bag. Very little really. We both do bring restaurant leftovers home regularly, and those usually end up being used in a breakfast burrito or some such. Larger things like lasagna/enchiladas/casseroles get frozen after 2 or 3 meals and eaten later when we're in a hurry. I love leftover cold steak or chicken sliced for a snack. Friends like to give us all kinds of bottled hot sauce as gifts:rolleyes:, and unfortunately, most of those go in the bin after tasting. I would be surprised if we wasted $200/yr.

We have bins outside where we put leftovers, then the municipality comes and empty the bin once a week and use it to make bio gas and bio fertilizer (we even get paid a little for it). So we see quite well how much we throw away, and it not even near $1500. Maybe $200 as you.

What country was this story from?

I read it in a Florida newspaper. While I don’t recall that it specifically mentioned the US, I don’t recall any detail that made me think otherwise.

I hate wasting food too. I am happy to eat leftovers or pop something in the freezer for later. I freeze half a can of chicken stock or milk or buttermilk in zip freezer bags if I only needed to use a little for a recipe. I have a small freezer but bags lie flat and don't take much room. I always have frozen dill that I can snip off a little into a sauce, frozen almost brown bananas or other leftover fruit (not great for just eating but good in a smoothie or more likely a margarita). My local Mexican place always gives tons of homemade tortilla chips with any order. I will freeze those in small bags and use them to make chiliquilles or add to soups.....good portion control for me too. Leftover bread always goes in the freezer even if it is just a couple slices...I can use that to make croutons. I make a big batch of rice in the rice cooker and freeze in smaller portions. Some refrigerated things go bad such as a jar of roasted red peppers growing fuzz after opening. I live near the water so things in my pantry do tend to get stale fast even when I seal them in zip bags...crackers, pretzels, nuts (which I also freeze) etc.

Probably me. My spouse asks me to get stuff and then nobody eats it. I recently composted mozzarella that had a 4/21 date. Ugh. What bothers me is when my spouse whines about my bakery purchases for baguettes etc while ignoring the many fancy cheeses that are bought and then left to sit in the fridge.

I did overbuy ice cream in 2020/2021 and am just slowly tossing it.

I would say 95% of my wasted food is scallions, cilantro, and limes. I get the first two for a recipe where I don't need much, save the rest thinking I'll use it, and then they're green mush in a matter of days. I buy enough limes for multiple drinks if we're having friends over, but it seems like we always only use one or two.

I get that. Cilantro and parsley are sold in bunches far larger than I need and I don’t usually have another way to use the surplus before it goes bad. I’ve learned to slice larger lemon wedges so half a lemon won’t be tossed. I suppose it’s a subtler form of waste.

I guess I should know that dill freezes. But your post is the first I’ve read that. I have a half package at home that could be frozen. But it’s at home and I’m not. Next time ……

A big part of the challenge with cilantro is how wet it is when you first purchase it. Many supermarkets just keep misting the bunches so that they're bright and green but waterlogged when selected.

If you can open up the bunch once home and let them dry out a bit in a colander, the bunch will keep much longer. Also, avoid storing in the fridge back in the bag used from the store given how much water was in there in the first place.

David

We like to wrap the cilantro loosely in a towel and then into a bag. Seems to keep for quite a while.

The dill is wilted when frozen but that doesn't ever matter for what I use it for. I never refrigerate cilantro...wash & dry and put the stems in a glass of water like it is in a vase and keep it on the counter. I have (when feeling energetic) also chopped it in the food processor with a little garlic and oil and put that in the freezer & I can just break off a bit but again...not the same as sprinkling fresh cilantro on something. You can freeze whole lemons...they can't be zested because the skin is mushy when thawed but they are super juicy because freezing breaks the cell walls. Maybe ok for a wedge in a drink or if you just want some juice but too mushy for a nice lemon slice. I always freeze ginger or just use pickled sushi ginger in a jar that keeps years it seems. I haven't found a work around for the scallions yet either and I have thrown those away.

Fulsome
 

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...cc73229267.jpg
I was in Riyadh for work, and my hosts were worryingly generous.

The photo was 75% of everything that they wanted me to try for dinner. I kept trying to remind them that I was but one person, but no success.

Truthfully, I ate a lot of it (especially the baklava, and liquorice juice). But what I couldn't eat, I gave to some workers while out on my constitutional.

I try to waste as little as possible. Occasionally there are a few things that go bad but that's rare in my case. In the last few years, I've been trying to grow a little bit to suppliment what I buy as not everything was available. Still do these days for a different reason (office work is now cloud-based so a lot fewer trips and need something calming after dealing with developers who don't understand if they have a security breach, they're screwed).

But that said, there are only a few things I toss.... mainly meat or dairy products gone bad (not counting egg shells). I keep a few holes (not big ones, maybe the width of those industrial sized ketchup cans) in the garden that I toss raw veggie ends into (think carrot tops, outer layers of red onions, the butts of romaine, etc.). As the holes level a bit, I'll layer them with a bit of cardboard and dirt (part of the "hot compost" methodology) and after it's nearly full, I'll top it off with dirt. Give it a few months and you can see that area of the garden has sunk a bit and that spot is effectively ready to be used to grow something.

As for the fridge door, I only keep sauces and drinks I plan on chilling. I try not to buy really exotic sauces, however I try to finish them even if I don't like them. It might just take time.

We have a green bin program here where we can toss organics. They collect once a week and the contents get composted or biogased as you guys do. It's a handy program, but for the size of our bin, to keep it full, you'd have to be burning more than $1500 a year in groceries.

I would avoid composting cheeses. That attracts pests and often starts to smell when decaying. Considering the expiry date (assuming you mean 2023), that cheese should still be good. I would have made a few grilled cheese sandwiches or maybe mix it into a mac and cheese dish myself. About the only time I wouldn't would be if it's one of the smellier cheese (eg, blue).

As for the ice cream, unless it thawed and refroze, I would still consume it. Never waste ice cream.

Scallions freeze well. I will usually buy one or two bunches (a bunch has 5 stalks here). chop them up until the white part, regrow them (stick'em into a jar with some water and ANY light source) two or three generations and toss them into a ziplock bag. Do that a few times and you fill the bag. I find if you just use water as the growing medium, after two or three generations, the whites become mush. If you want to extend the number of times you can regrow them, use dirty and a sunny location.

As for what you can do with them, ramen dishes, fried rice, if you make asian pancakes from scratch, scallions are a very common ingredient.

Any leftover lemons (or any citrus really) I get, I just dry on a paper towel (might chop them up if the pieces are big). The peels and whatever you call the guts of a lemon (I know there's a technical term, I just can't remember it) make great amendments for soil. I just mix the bits into the dirt before planting and then mulch new stuff as I get them. Does wonders for any tomato plants I grow. Raspberry plants love it too.

Tiburones
 

This thread also brought to mind supermarkets, and to some extent food halls in Japan.

Depending on when a fresh food item was placed out -- and certainly before closing time -- karaage, tempura, yakisoba, and a host of other foods get discounted.

And sushi. I've always considered those who know about these deals to be tiburones, or sharks (in Spanish; eh, it sounds better than the Japanese word same.) That means we're all looking for the chum. Coincidentally, sushi makes for great pun-riddled chum.

We have those here as well. More the asian markets than western, but some do. There's a supermarket nearby that discounts their salads if they've been out for too long (their estimates). I often head there just after they open and grab one or two and make a nice lunch out of one. The other one goes in the fridge and can be used as a snack later in the day or next.

I applaud you for your recycling and conservation. :tu:

Thanks but I'm not that great a recycler. I'm pretty sure I generate plenty of waste in other ways, but as life changes, so must I. I haven't hit prepper or homestead level yet. :) Although I wouldn't mind a larger garden to work with.

There's no way I waste anywhere near the amount in the article either. I'd guess maybe a few dollars per week in waste, and it's almost exclusively leftover produce. For some reason, our most convenient grocery store has the shortest-lasting produce. When we drive further, it will last twice as long. Convenience often wins, so we try not to buy too much at one time. But there's always something that goes bad within 1-2 days after purchase...although I'd say it's actually the grocery store causing the waste not us.

I always have some tiny storage containers in the refrigerator. If nothing else, a lot of things can simply be added to scrambled eggs! And I save all those leftover condiment packets from takeout and use them too. When my outdoor garden herbs start to fail in the fall, I pick them all, dry them, and use throughout the winter. None of this takes much effort...effort might change my habits :).

However, I don't doubt the article at all. Watching my brother's and sister's family's habits, I can't believe they were raised along side me. Neither believes in eating leftovers. I also think it's a generational thing. They're both younger and I've definitely noticed more food waste with younger generations. Sad to see that we've become such a consume-and-discard society.

The amount of food waste and scraps from food preparation that ends up in the food waste paper bags placed in compost bins over two weeks is both impressive and stunning at the same time. Based on what I have seen at homes with 7+ categories of sorted garbage, I suspect that families with kids may generate more such waste than elderly, childless couples and empty nesters. $1500 of average household food waste per year in countries with GDP per capita of $40k or more? Wouldn’t surprise me at all. What surprised me initially is how sometimes going for environmentally-friendly packaging contributes to increased food waste —example, yoghurt packaged in paper cartons results in more yoghurt being tossed than yoghurt packaged in plastic containers.

In watching my nieces and nephews, I'd wager this is probably a fact rather than a mere suspicion.

This doesn't surprise me at all if it's truly paper. Kind of like why one plastic plate = 2 paper plates at a picnic. I'm not a yogurt-eater, but for similar packages, I usually see a wax lining which at least works almost as well as plastic.

I’d wager the same as you, if I were a betting person.

I hang out with probably way too many TetraPak types — and also too many IKEA engineer types — but the TetraPak experts also agreed coated paper inside such cartons doesn’t do much to address the issue with the supposedly more environmentally-friendly paper packaging of yoghurt coming with more waste than less environmentally-friendly packaging. For example, the larger paper cartons come with more yoghurt wasted than the smaller paper cartons because they are both designed with bottle cap type openings. And even the ones that were designed to be cut open — rather than poured out of an opened bottle cap — have the same issue with bigger container (by volume) coming with more food waste than smaller containers of the same material and form. Maybe TetraPak and the like should adopt a Pringles chip can type design instead if wanting to reduce wasted yoghurt ending up in the paper packaging waste bins.

Given what’s gone on with food prices, maybe the volume of food waste declines more than the value of the food waste. Especially at a time when people don’t seem to be filling grocery carts like they used to do around those parts where yoghurt is primarily sold in paper cartons.

I've stopped buying "fresh" herbs in stores. This time of year you can get a plant of dill/basil/oregano/mint/parsley/whatever for the cost of one bunch of herbs. That and a flower pot and some potting soil, you've got fresh herbs for months, and come fall, you can dry what's left of the plant.

All fruit and veg scraps & egg shells go in the compost bin, which over time goes in the vegetable garden - so I don't count that as truly wasted.

I raised my kid to eat leftovers, and often cook big batches of stew, pasta, etc, planning ahead for the next night or the chest freezer in the basement. Overall, I would say our food waste is pretty low, nowhere near $1,500 per year.

The volume may be down, but given higher prices, it may be more than $1,500 now.

Could be, especially with food inflation being what it has been. That said, US food inflation is on the lower side when compared to what much of the public has been facing with food prices in high-income OECD countries beyond North America.

I find that there is way less frequent filling of the paper packaging and plastic packaging bins than used to be the case in a place hit by food inflation much worse than the US while also having less of a child (and general) poverty problem. From that and other things, it seems to me than when a consumer’s consumption volume goes down, that consumer’s waste volume probably goes down too. Maybe the food waste volume falls too as people start scraping clean the butter, become more careful with cutting/peeling the skin/fat/blemished parts off meat/poultry/fish and fruits/produce.

Certain times in history, such as wars and the Great Depression, would serve as proof that this is a true statement, at least on an individual level. Not sure times are hard enough today to force people to think differently, but again, on an individual level there should be some of this.

Not only the amount of waste, but the value of the waste should decrease. I have a habit today, based on my parent's saying this to me 40+ years ago when I couldn't finish my restaurant meal -- "At least finish the meat, that's the expensive part". I still literally pick the "expensive" things out of a restaurant salad or whatever when I can't finish my meal.

We also have compost bins that the town picks up every week, so I know we fill about 1-2 of the brown paper compost bags per week. Of course not all of that is wasted food, probably a good 10% is just used tea bags :D

In case anyone else is late to learning this (like I was), if you rinse your berries and store them in a sealed mason jar instead of the little plastic containers they come in, they will last SO MUCH LONGER! At least two to three times longer than they would otherwise.

Depends on the berry. Some of them (especially raspberries) start to spoil soon after picking. Those you need to eat asap actually.

One thing that people do need to research (I found) is how quickly certain vegetables and fruits spoil if you put them in the fridge or freezer. My mom learned this the hard way with bittermelons. A week after putting them into "cold storage" they would quickly turn yellow and become inedible.

This is 100% the case. I have a 2 year old and the amount of waste is disheartening but there's not really anything we can do about it.

We can't force him to eat his food but once we've prepared it, it can only be saved and offered again so many times before it has to go into the bin / compost / disposal / etc. Even the times he does eat it, he may not eat the whole thing and that adds up. The dog is the big beneficiary when it's chicken or beef but when it's vegetables most of the time they eventually end up getting wasted

Interesting. My dogs would have eaten just about any vegetable. All you had to do was drop it on the floor.

I wonder if the study counted stuff most people would naturally dispose of such as potato or carrot peels. Technically they’re edible and no one living in starvation would consider tossing them, but I don’t eat a lot of peels, the ends of celery or such.

My dog as well.

As for peels and cores, I toss them under my raspberry bush if they're not consumable. They break down eventually and because of the thorns, the raccoons and rats leave the piles well alone. Does amazing things to my fertilizer budget. My green bin gets some traffic, mostly spoilt meat, tough to break down vegetables bits or mixed stuff, but I have a neighbour who's green bin goes out full and reeking of spoiled food. No idea how they do it. Family of four adults (two elderly) and two elementary school kids...maybe 8-10 years old...

Mr. travelmad478 and I throw away almost nothing (luckily, both of us were this kind of person before we met/married!). Meat bones and eggshells are it, really. Very rarely, the produce we buy spoils before we can eat it--cheap Roma tomatoes, I'm looking at you!--but even then the spoiled stuff goes in the compost, which goes into the vegetable garden, so I'm counting that as utilized :D I freeze tons of things, including vegetable peelings/scraps for stock, chicken bones for stock, portioned-out tomato paste, ice cube trays of chopped cilantro, etc. I save and render chicken fat and bacon fat to use for cooking. We strictly save leftovers and do eat them...it pains me to throw anything away. We have in inventory, but rarely use, things like mayonnaise and ketchup, and they live in the fridge for literally years without spoiling--I am living proof that food preservatives work!

I'm only 55, but have the cooking habits of someone who came of age during the Great Depression, for some reason. This does not extend to all things (I like to get a new car every decade, for instance), but I do tend to keep items that still function for as long as possible, within reason.

Egg shells you can toss into the compost pile (or if you're inclined to break out the pestle and mortar or an old coffee grinder, you can blitz them until they're near powder and sprinkle in the garden or feed to chickens if you raise them). Meat bones (if you have the time and patience) you can make into bone meal and also add to your garden (bone meal helps with roots and fruiting... the P in NPK). The disadvantage is that you need to boil the bones for 4-6 hours and then when they dry out, break them down with something. Boiling them down will dissolve any soft tissue as well as any meat.... but smells pretty bad.

There's nothing wrong with not wasting where possible. It's just difficult in today's world where most things are designed with built-in obsolescence.... including the food.

My parents feed their egg shells to the birds, but if I did that (I live in a city), or put them in my compost pile, I'd be seeing a lot of rats. No thanks! Re: meat bones and making bone meal, I draw the line at that much labor/hassle to make something that you can buy for a few bucks. (Like the one time I decided to grow fava beans, and spent money for seeds plus many hours of labor of planting, harvesting, and shelling to end up with maybe two cups of actual beans!)

If they're dried out, and ground up, you won't see rats. I live in the city as well. Rats in my neighbourhood is mostly from people not disposing of garbage (mostly the neighbourhood restaurants) properly. I toss my shells into a container (where they dry out) and every once in a while, I take my frustrations out on them in the pestle and mortar (again, you can use a coffee grinder, just don't use it for coffee after the fact). I've also been planting mint strategically in my back yard (in some small plastic cups... if you plant mint bare, be prepared to do a lot of weeding) on top of making judicious use of my raspberry bush so the rats have been discouraged from feeding in my yard.

I don't cook, and I definitely always clean my plate at restaurants so I guess none - in all seriousness, when I lived alone, my refrigerator often only consisted of a single carton of eggs and nothing more. I hated cooking at the height of COVID lockdowns and am not good at it due to my OCD - cooking a chicken breast took over 3 hours with all of the cleaning I had to do in the kitchen throughout the process to "avoid salmonella." Going out to eat, ordering a single item, and not having any leftovers has been a much better and more fun system for me.
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Same here (51) but with more expensive/exotic ingredients these days :). The "some reason" is likely that it's the way our grandparents lived through the depression and our parents were raised and acted the same because of it. And I love that you save your chicken and bacon fat too. It's the one thing my wife believes in wasting - and it pains me to see that luxurious fat go into the garbage. It also reminded me of another great bacon fat story that involves my brother-in-law, which I'll save for another time!