The Cook's Thesaurus website ( ) gives thousands of ingredient substitutions.ġ2. Rather than buy a food for use in only one recipe, check if there might be a suitable substitute already in the home. ( Photo adapted from Pete | Ugly Fruit? | CC License)ġ1. They taste just as good and are just as nutritious as those with a "perfect" shape but are more likely to get thrown away. Buy m isshapen fruits and vegetables at farmers' markets and elsewhere. To find more recipe websites, try using such search words as: "recipe websites that use ingredients you have at home (include these words in quotation marks).ġ0. USDA's "What's Cooking: USDA Mixing Bowl" website ( offers several tools for searching for recipes with specific ingredients, nutrition themes and meal course. Look for recipes on websites that can be searched for by ingredients to use up food at home. Do not buy or use baby formula after its "use-by" date.ĩ. The date has been determined by the manufacturer of the product. A "Use-By" date is the last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality.A "Best if Used By (or Before)" date is recommended for best flavor or quality.You should buy the product before the date expires. A "Sell-By" date tells the store how long to display the product for sale.The United States Department of Agriculture/Food Safety and Inspection Service (USDA/FSIS) defines them as: Visit Nebraska Extension for direction on creating compost for your garden ( 8. Compost food scraps for use in the garden. Dish up reasonable amounts of food at a buffet and go back for more if still hungry.ħ. Or, choose a smaller size and/or split a dish with a dining companion.Ħ. Remove take home food from your plate at the beginning of the meal so leftovers are as appetizing as the original meal rather than the picked-over remains. Ask for a take home container at the beginning of the meal if portions look especially large. Take restaurant leftovers home and refrigerate within two hours of being served. Visit the National Center for Home Food Preservation website ( ) for freezing and canning instructions.ĥ. Freeze or can surplus fresh produce using safe, up-to-date food preservation methods. (Refrigerator image source: USDA/FSIS image library).Ĥ.
Foods frozen at 0 degrees F or lower will remain safe indefinitely but the quality will go down over time. Keep your refrigerator at 40 degrees F or below to prolong the life of foods. This makes it more likely foods will be consumed before they go bad.ģ. Move older food products to the front of the fridge/cupboard/freezer and just-purchased ones to the back. Designate one meal weekly as a "use-it-up" meal.Ģ. Shop the refrigerator before going to the store Use food at home before buying more. Here are 14 ways consumers can help reduce the amount of food wasted:ġ. Developing habits to save more of the food we already have will put less strain on the resources associated with producing and buying food and aid in reducing the creation of greenhouse gas emissions. (Photo by Nick Saltmarsh | Food Waste | CC License)įeeding the world will become more difficult in the future as 9 billion people are expected on the planet by 2050, compared to a world population of around 7 billion people in 2015. Food in landfills decomposes to produce methane, a potent greenhouse gas. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates food wastes at almost 14 percent of the total municipal solid wastes in the United States in 2010, with less than 3 percent recovered and recycled. Resources used to produce uneaten food include: 30 percent of fertilizer, 31 percent of cropland, 25 percent of total fresh water consumption and 2 percent of total energy consumption. Preventing food waste saves money and resources. This amount of food waste is among the highest globally. The remaining portion is lost or wasted during food production. Discarded food in homes and foodservice accounts for 60 percent of this total food loss and is mostly avoidable.
Photo adapted from Nick Saltmarsh | Food waste 3 | CC LicenseĪbout 40 percent of the United States food supply (1,500 calories/ person/day) goes uneaten.
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