Reducing Food Waste

The correct storage of food greatly reduces your risk of food borne illness, and can also keep your fruit and vegetables fresher for longer. Here are some tips and tricks to reduce spoilage:

• Store leftovers in clear containers or jars. If you cannot see it, you may forget about it.
• Mark leftovers with the date they were stored so you know what needs to be used first.
• Check your fridge settings and if needed adjust the temperature to be between 0 and 5 degrees Celsius.
• If you find food degrading too quickly try these tips:
• Save large glass jars and lids and use them to store fruit and vegetables such as leafy greens, spinach, berries, cut-up shallot stalks, asparagus or celery.
• Use air-tight containers lined with paper towels underneath and on top of vegetables, and store in the fridge crisper.
• Limp vegetables need soaking in cold water. Chill in the fridge until you prepare the meal.
• Our Queensland summers can deteriorate food quickly if left out of the fridge or freezer. Ripen avocados and fruit for a couple of days, then store them in the fridge and use them within the week.
• Bread, rolls, muffins and crumpets are best stored in the fridge or freezer. If using the freezer, open the packaging and separate the slices for easy access to portions/slices.
• Bananas are best out of the fridge. If they become too ripe, freeze them and use them to bake a banana bread or make a smoothie.
• Unwashed potatoes will happily last in a cool dark place for longer and won't take up valuable fridge space.
• Check labels of pantry items for correct storage after opening.

A well organised fridge, freezer and pantry will help food items getting forgotten about and getting tossed in the trash.

Planning your weekly meals is a great way to manage not buying unnecessary food resulting in wastage, however it is important to allow for unplanned events.

• Doing a rough prep of meal ingredients and having them ready to go can help relieve the stress of preparing a meal after a long day.
• Allow a few days a week to use up leftovers or allow for unplanned takeaway meals or eating out.

Using leftovers is a great way to save time and money. Here are some great ideas for reducing or using leftovers:

• Avoid buying prepared meals if you have leftovers at home.
• Take your leftovers to work or school for lunch.
• Freeze leftovers and repurpose them into a new meal such as leftover curry as a pie filling.
• Keep older food at the front of your fridge or pantry, so they are used first.
• Add recipes to your weekly meal plan for food items that you often forget and end up having to throw out. Like roast veggies into a curry, cooked rice into fried rice and carrots into fritters.
• Use online or app based recipe finders like Saveful, Love Food Hate Waste, Foodwise and OzHarvest. These will provide you with recipes based on ingredients you currently have in your pantry or fridge.

• Food should be used in the order that is placed in the fridge.
• Making sure that new items are placed at the rear of the fridge so that older food is used first helps avoid wastage.
• Check use by dates to make sure new items aren't going to expire prior to older food items.
• Don't let that open jar or container get shuffled to the back, storing small bottles, jars and containers in a basket or drawer can help keep note of what is on hand and save opening new products before the previous one is finished.

• Maintaining a shopping list and sticking to it is a great way to stop unnecessary purchases. This in turn saves you money and stops food being thrown out from not being eaten.
• Stick a list on your fridge and record when an item is nearly empty or finished.
• Do a quick check of the fridge, freezer and pantry before you head to the shops to make sure you get what you need.
• Don't let deals distract you or convince you to buy more food than you need or can consume before it spoils.
• Placing your shopping orders online are a great way to prevent impulse buying as you traverse the isles.

• When you cook the right amount, food waste is minimised, no leftovers to package and less room to find in the fridge or freezer to store them.
• Understanding serving sizes can help reduce leftovers, for example 1 cup of rice produces 3 cups of cooked rice.

Serving smaller portions onto your plate allows for the food to be finished and if still hungry, you can go back for seconds or package up for tomorrows lunch or store for an easy meal at a later date.

By not serving up large meals onto your plate, you can prevent any un-eaten portions from being thrown in the bin.

• If you have food that is approaching its use by date (including leftovers) and is not going to be used prior, pop it into the freezer for use at a later date.
• Recording the date frozen on the package can help keep track of how long the product should last once defrosted before it is unsafe (for example the use by is 10 December and you freeze it on 8 December, you should have 2 days once thawed to use the product).
• Check with local charities who may accept food donations if they can accept pre-packaged foods that are approaching use by dates. Check out OZHarvest for a list of food relief agencies in your area.
• If food has expired and cannot be re-used or re-purposed, it may be able to be disposed of in your compost heap or worm farm, or as food scraps for chickens etc. If you don't have any facilities at home, perhaps try reaching out to others in your community who may wish to utilise the waste in their compost or similar.