How To Reduce Food Waste In Our Households (And Why It Matters)

Why it’s a global problem and how we can begin to tackle it at home. Includes 11 easy ideas to reduce waste.

I’ve inherited an obsession with food wastage.

My mum grew up in a family of 10 in Malaysia. To feed the ‘clan’, my grandma would load a big bowl with steaming rice mashed with beef potato meatballs — then spoonfeed each kid in turn. Much like a pelican feeds its little ones.

When I was young and left rice on my plate, mum told me off by repeating what her dad taught her — not a grain of rice should be left behind. With 12 mouths to feed (including he and my grandma), I can understand where he was coming from.

Now, many years after I’ve left home, I can’t help eating everything on my plate — though I may be full. So in between the pre-conditioned “Eat everything on your plate”, I urge my daughter to “Stop when you’re full ok?”, and “Take only as much as you can eat”.

Poor confused kid.

So the thing is, I thought I did enough to avoid wasting food. Yet what I often forget is that food wastage is about far more than eating what’s on my plate.

I often buy too much and forget what’s in my fridge — until my husband points out something stinks in there (I have a shocking sense of smell).

My pantry gets shoved with nuts, grains, and mysterious loose flours I bought with great intentions — but don’t cook with because I have no bloody idea what they are because the text has disappeared from the labels.

Over time it adds up: I waste more than I realize.

And how about every other household? How much food is wasted in my local community? My country? Our world? It doesn’t seem like a big deal in my daily life. So it’s been pretty easy to ignore.

It wasn’t until I attended a start-up event in my city, Melbourne, and listened to Jane, founder of Bring Me Home that I realized there must be a problem if she’s seen the need to creat a company — and an app — that offers excess food from stores and cafes — to households.

A novel, practical, exciting idea. So easy to understand. So satisfying to know we save money while eating good food that would otherwise get thrown out.

Still, it’s easy to dismiss food waste as a natural, normal part of households. Part of life.

So do we really need to bother changing how we approach our food?

The Startling Story About Global Food Waste

There’s enough food to feed everyone in the world — yet one in nine people — 793 million people — go hungry each day, undernourished, according to FAO (United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization) The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2015.

The sad thing is, one-third of all food produced for humans to eat is lost or wasted. (FAO’s report: Food Wastage Footprint: Impacts on Natural Resources)

Yet if one-quarter of the food currently wasted could be saved, it would feed these hungry people.

On top of the battle with hunger and malnourishment, there are other worrying impacts of food waste: loss of land, water, biodiversity, and negative impacts on climate change. Economic loss is also an issue.

For instance, the FAO found that the economic cost of food wastage of agricultural products is about USD 750 billion — equivalent to the GDP of Switzerland.

What’s more, agriculture puts pressure on water resources. It degrades soil in areas that already experience strong land degradation. And farming threatens biodiversity — the genes and species of trees, plants, animals, and the natural ecosystems on Earth.

Overall, agriculture was found to be responsible for 66 percent of threats to species globally — it negatively impacts mammals, birds, and amphibian life.

The decomposing food we don’t eat generates greenhouse gases — equivalent to an estimated 3.3 Gtonnes of Co2.

Though the total costs of food wastage haven’t been fully quantified, it’s obvious that reducing food wastage at a local, national, and global level can make a positive difference.

And it’s not just food waste. The resources that go into producing food are also wasted.

Reducing food wastage can take the pressure off our natural resources — and decrease the need to increase food production by 60 percent to meet the estimated growth of the world’s population by 2050.

But how can we make a difference?

Fortunately, some effort is being made to tackle food wastage. I dug around to find out what companies and governments are doing. You’re sure to be as fascinated as I was with what I found.

Then, we’ll look at what we, as individuals can do in our own households.

Fascinating ways companies and governments around the world are reducing food waste

Culinary Misfits (Berlin, Germany)

Run workshops and events to teach people about food waste and how to create delicious vegetarian dishes from vegetables that won’t make it to supermarkets. Partners with farmers and other suppliers.

Australasian Packaging Innovation & Design Awards (PIDA) (Australia)

Encourages packaging designers to consider sustainability and the reduction of food waste to meet the 2025 National Packaging Targets made in 2018. This includes the goal that 100% of all Australia’s packaging will be reusable, recyclable or compostable by 2025.

French Food Waste Law Changing How Grocery Stores Approach Excess Food (France)

In 2016, France was the first country in the world to ban grocery stores from throwing away edible food. Supermarkets with an area of 400m2 or more had to sign contracts with charities to set up regular donation. The cost of not doing so? Fines or prison.

Winnow and Costa Cruises team up to halve food waste by 2020 in industry first (Italy)

Costa Cruises is the first cruise liner to make a public food waste reduction target. Costa Cruises works with Winnow, a company that uses AI to track food waste. Winnow gives chefs and staff data to run more efficiently with meal preparation.

Stop Wasting Food Movement (Denmark)

Led by Selina Juul, a woman passionate about food wastage, this movement has had an incredible impact on bringing government attention to food waste — and reducing Denmark’s food waste 25 percent between 2010 and 2015.

Dubai Government signs MoU to reduce waste by 75% (Dubai)

Uses Winnow’s technology (same company used by Costa Cruises mentioned above) to help large hotels save more than $45000 per annum in food costs. They save an estimated 33 tonnes of food from landfill — equivalent to 231 meals each day.

Crowd-feeding movement: Amp Your Good (US)

Initiative to help groups organize campaigns to collect fresh food (rather than canned or non-perishable goods) and deliver it to the people that need it.

Combat child hunger: Satisfeito (São Paulo, Brazil)

Restaurants that are part of the Satisfeito Program include a specific icon next to menu items. The icon offers the plate with an option to order it one-third smaller. The restaurant’s savings from serving the smaller portion is given to non-profit organizations that fight child hunger.

Sustainable consumption: Save Food Asia-Pacific (Asia)

An educational outlet that provides resources to combat the waste issue related to post-harvest losses — it works to promote sustainable consumption.

Improving global food security: World Vegetable Center (Taiwan)

The center helps farmers increase vegetable harvests, raise incomes in poor rural and urban households, create jobs, and provide healthier, more nutritious diets for families and communities.

We don’t need to start a business. Start a protest outside our local supermarkets. Or preach about the word’s poor, starving kids to our friends and family. Instead, here are 11 easy ways we can all reduce food waste in our households:

11 Ways to reduce food waste in your household

1. Don’t shop as often

I’m sure you’ve discovered, as I have, that if you visit the shops more than once a week, you end up buying a crapload more than you expect — and spending far more than you’d like.

Limit your shopping to once or twice a week if you have to. You may like to plan your meals — or if you like spontaneous cooking, get creative in using what you’ve got in your pantry.

2. Use smaller dishes to serve food

If you’re used to eating everything on your plate — use smaller plates!

3. Learn how to store fruits and vegetables

I used to store fruits and veggies using the plastic bags provided at the shops. But I noticed that my cucumbers got soggy faster. My lettuce wilted. And my zucchinis melted from the condensation that built up in the bag.

Instead, now I grab the mushroom paper bags. They’re more environmentally friendly — and they keep my veggies from sweating and going off ridiculously fast. Here are more ways to keep fruits and vegetables fresher longer.

4. Organize your storage

What you see gets eaten. Anything else quickly gets forgotten. There’s a system used in stores to move product called FIFO: First In First Out. Apply this to your fridge, freezer, and pantry to make sure your food gets noticed — and eaten before it goes off.

5. Don’t throw out all food after use by or best-before dates

“Most foods have a best before date. You can still eat foods for a while after the best before date as they should be safe but they may have lost some quality. Foods that have a best before date can legally be sold after that date provided the food is fit for human consumption.”

— Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) guidance on Use by and best before dates.

6. Compost

Composting is a great way to recycle and nourish soil you can use to grow food — or simply avoid waste.

7. Schedule an eat-leftovers day once or twice a week

Don’t cook. Leave the dishes in the sink. Grab a glass of wine, put your feet up, and catch up on Man Vs Food, MasterChef, or Oliver’s Twist. Bliss…

8. Buy loose

Avoid buying food with packaging as much as you can. Instead, bring your own packaging or use paper bags. I’ve discovered plenty of foods can be bought loose or measured out at my favorite nut and seed shop: rice, lentils, miso soup, cranberries, and so much more.

9. Share food

Check out Olio. It’s an app that connects neighbors to share food, and other things, rather than chuck them out. It’s fast, free, and friendly.

It was started by 2 mums in 2015 after their market research found that 1 in 3 people are “physically pained” throwing away good food. It’s available in more than 100 countries.

10. Connect with stores, cafes, and restaurants to buy their excess food

Find a service such as Bring Me Home or Y Waste in your country.

Bring Me Home uses an app to bring affordable, accessible surplus food to everyone — no matter your income.

Y Waste recognizes that many people in the world still do not have sufficient income to purchase (or land to grow) enough food or access nutritious food. It brings people experiencing food insecurity into shops to pick up donated food instead of relying on charities having the resources to pick up and redistribute.

11. Get creative in cooking leftovers

Whether you’ve got leftovers from cooking a roast turkey or a chickpea and pumpkin curry, there are great ways to transform these into tasty new dishes.

Some of my favorite ways to re-create leftovers include:

• Pizza eg. Turkey and mango
• Fried rice eg. Lamb or ham with any veggies
• Tacos eg. Pulled pork
• Noodles eg. Roast beef and veggies
• Toasties eg. Roast chicken, avocado, cranberry and brie
• Omelettes eg. Runner beans, olives, and mushroom
• Spaghetti bolognese eg. Roast veggies
• Pies eg. Curry

Summary

The stats about food wastage are too shocking to ignore. Let’s not ignore this issue any longer. Especially when there are so many initiatives and ideas that can help us help others. Our communities. Our world. Ourselves. Our children and their children — your actions, your beliefs will be passed on.

It doesn’t take much to reduce waste. Tweak what you currently do. Try something new. Share. Repeat. Baby steps with intention.

Together, we can all make more effort to reduce food waste. Together, we can make a greater impact together. One household at a time.

Which of the food wastage ideas do you currently use? Are there any more you use that aren’t listed?