Use it, buy less, eat more

 

Try to follow these simple tips to reduce your food waste!

The first step to being more conscious about your food waste starts with your grocery shopping. By following several tips you will reduce it in a really short period of time. 

What can you do today to prevent and reduce food waste?

Purchase only what is needed.

• Plan your shopping list and meals. Get only what you will use in your meals to prevent wasting food. Enjoy cooking with your family! 
• Avoid buying promotions like buy-one-get-one-free offers. Most of the time, you overbuy ingredients that may get spoiled quickly, such as vegetables. Keep in mind, it is not a great deal if it will be wasted!

Eat what you buy.

• Don’t prepare too much. Reduce what you cook if you are not planning to eat it later. 
• Eat your leftovers. They are better in your stomach than in the bin. 
• Save food that may be thrown. You can get cheaper food from restaurants and coffee shops at the end of the day using different apps to avoid wasting food. For instance, Karma - Save Food with a Tap on the App Store (apple.com)

Keep food fresh.

• Learn proper techniques to store your ingredients. There are several tricks to keep your food fresh for longer. For example, keep the root of your lettuce in water to last longer. 
• Organize your fridge properly to have access to all your ingredients. It is a great tip not to lose track of what you buy. You can forget the ingredients you have if they are hidden behind others. So, organize your fridge to have more visibility and avoid spoiled food. 

Don’t toss food before it spoils.

• Food expiration dates, those “use by” and “best by” dates. These are suggestions for expiration dates for peak quality. It is a common misunderstanding concept that these are an indication of safe food, which may be better checked off by using your senses to analyze the colour and smells.