How much food do you throw away? $640 a year???

[Deleted]

There is actually a movement about stuff like this I read about somewhere... I know that helps, lol... But they went around and used going to be chucked foods from groceries and like potatoes in the field after the machine pickets went through, to prepare and host community meals...

[Tiny]

I try my hardest to not buy food I wind up not using. But, despite my best intentions the things that get throw out (or cut up and tossed out for the Yard Critters) tends to be a piece or two of fruit that's well past it's prime or a collection of veggies that 'went bad' - a zuke, a cuke, or celery or lettuce.

I have the hardest time with milk - some of it inevitably goes down the drain. (I tried freezing it in small portions -- but it seems to never thaw and I don't want to leave it on the counter.)

I'm pretty good with planning a weekly menu and actually sticking to it atleast 4 days out of the 6 I planned.

[kittensaver]

As "bad" as we think it may be about individual households who throw away food ($640 to $1500 per year, depending on who you believe) -

IMHO the waste that comes about through the food industry (supermarkets, restaurants, school, public institutions like hospitals, farmers who can't get a good price for their crops turning them under, etc etc etc) is FAR worse than any "damage" us little people can do in our homes. A quick internet search will show that something north of 30% of the food that is grown in this country never reaches our plates. That's a whole lotta waste coming from elsewhere other than our homes. Just sayin' . . .

Not that we all shouldn't try to cut back on waste, because we should . . . I just think the problem and the burden is much bigger than what goes on in our homes and families.

[alabamagal]

Best thing we do to try not to waste food is make a weekly menu and plan meals. It works a lot better with no kids at home as our schedule is more predictable.

Neither DH or I drink milk just use for cereal, tea and cooking. I buy a gallon and freeze half in a Rubbermaid container. The first half usually lasts 1 1/2 weeks. When it is getting near empty I put the frozen half in the fridge. It takes about 2 days to thaw but you can use it after 1 day. When DS is home from college he complains because he says it doesn't taste as good, but then when he is drinking it we go through much faster so don't have to freeze.

[Tiny]

kittensaver - I agree with you - there is a lot of waste at different levels in the food chain.

I think food waste at the "family" level is what most effects people's budgets. And that they can control (even alittle bit). If you (the generic you) don't really have a good grasp of what you are eating and what's in your fridge/pantry and if you keep buying food (especially in large quantities) you could be tossing out $10 or $15 (or more) of something you bought and didn't use every week (a head of lettuce, some rotted fruit, a round of leftovers you were going to serve the family - but you got takeout instead, etc). But if that happens on a regular routine basis -- you could be throwing a lot of money right into the trash...


It's always good to review how much stuff is hitting the trash...

[Deleted]

May 5, 2016 16:55:38 GMT -5 kittensaver said:

A quick internet search will show that something north of 30% of the food that is grown in this country never reaches our plates. That's a whole lotta waste coming from elsewhere other than our homes. Just sayin' . . .

Yeah, I know- remember when grocery stores marked produce down for quick sale when it was about to spoil? Perfectly fine if you could use it in the next day or two. I was happy to find that our local grocery store does that with bananas (I peel and freeze them) but I never see it anywhere else. I wonder where it goes.

[sarcasticgirl]

Leftovers. DH won't eat them. I don't understand it because SO MANY THINGS are better as a leftover. so if I can't eat them all, they end up in the trash. I try and make less... but I always seem to cook for an army when I'm making things like soups and roasts. I guess because I learned basic cooking skills from my mom and she was feeding  a family of 7.  plus... I like leftovers! 

I have tried to pay more attention to what we have and freeze things before they go bad. it doesn't always work but I really am trying! 

[CCL]

May 5, 2016 11:05:03 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Lettuce.  Drives me nuts how much of that gets thrown.  I avoid fresh fruits and veggies outside of things I know we'll eat because I hate throwing food.   A lot of what we eat comes out of the freezer.

I freeze leftover fruit and toss in smoothies, yummy. I freeze the veggies, then cook in my steamer. We have steamed veggies with just about every meal. Some things I chop into different sizes before freezing so it's simple to use in different ways. Peppers, for example, I chop up small for chili or soup and chop bigger for stir fries. 

[whoisjohngalt]

OMG this is such a sore subject for me - I throw away way way way too much.  I keep promising myself to do better, but....

[whoisjohngalt]

May 5, 2016 11:01:42 GMT -5 yogiii said:

Almost zero.  Occasional scraps from kid plates but they are good eaters so it doesn't happen often.

Please please teach me to be like you!!!

[Tiny]

May 5, 2016 17:49:36 GMT -5 @athena53 said:

May 5, 2016 16:55:38 GMT -5 kittensaver said:

A quick internet search will show that something north of 30% of the food that is grown in this country never reaches our plates. That's a whole lotta waste coming from elsewhere other than our homes. Just sayin' . . .

Yeah, I know- remember when grocery stores marked produce down for quick sale when it was about to spoil? Perfectly fine if you could use it in the next day or two. I was happy to find that our local grocery store does that with bananas (I peel and freeze them) but I never see it anywhere else. I wonder where it goes.

There's a really big "food pantry" here, where a lot of food from local stores and warehouses goes...

I've volunteered where the 40 plus volunteers for that 'shift' were gleaning potatoes (from HUGE boxes of 20 pound bags). It obviously came directly from a warehouse (we were pulling the bags, opening them, removing any rotted potatoes and then rebagging the potatoes into more manageable 5 pound bags.    There weren't that many 'spoiled' potatoes... it was a case of one rotted potato 'spoiled' the entire pallet of potatoes.

I've also been on a volunteer shift where we were broken up into small groups to deal with 'gleaning' produce that arrived in 'small quantities' - so all the unsellable produce picked up from a handful of big grocers.        

Depends on how big of an operation you live near.      (the food pantry warehouse usually hosts 2  4 hour shifts a day 7 days a week of 'volunteers' - each shift is between 30 and 50 people. There's a  'wait list' for shifts.)   

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

I'm adamant about not throwing out food. I have trained my family fairly well, but there are definite slips and certain food that don't lend themselves well to leftovers. My estimate would be we throw out less than 5%. Five percent would be $510/year for us. That's damned annoying. I'm going to have reduce that. 

[cronewitch]

I try not to waste much and switched to almond milk from dairy because here buying less than a gallon is almost as much as a gallon. I would have to cook with, eat cereal and drink milk to use even most of a gallon before it spoils and don't care to freeze milk. Almond milk last months so a half gallon is enough for a couple months then I run out for a few weeks and buy again. I was making soup from dry beans and other stuff and the last two pots I didn't eat at all and tossed so not making soup now unless I am hungry for soup. I buy limited quantities of fresh food like one cucumber, one lettuce and one tomato and use more frozen so I can just get what I want for most meals. When I want salad I usually go to my ISOs house and go shopping buying him all the stuff for a month of salads then make a huge salad with everything in it. Then I go home and he eats the salad since he hates waste he will snack on celery, cucumbers, cauliflower, carrots or most other veggies. I bought 10lbs of potatoes and dumped half on his kitchen counter, he found them after I left and made steak and potatoes, I told him he has potatoes in his pantry but he used the new ones. I will go back to his house soon and boil his oldest potatoes and some farm fresh eggs and leave them in his frig. He knows the recipe for egg salad sandwiches and likes fried potatoes from boiled. I tell him I come to eat all his food so it is only fair to buy food and leave in his pantry and frig so when I visit he has food I like. Not my problem if he needs to eat leftover so they don't spoil.

[resolution]

I am doing pretty well by making a weekly meal plan and buying only the items on the meal plan. However, I sometimes I experiment and end up throwing out dinner when it is just awful. For example last week I threw out a whole 9x11 pan of baked chicken mush when it came out as mush. Thank goodness for restaurants.

[Tennesseer]

May 5, 2016 14:49:07 GMT -5 Miss Tequila said:

I'm still adjusting to cooking without a man in the house to eat. My ex was a gym rat so he ate a LOT of food. He probably ate more than the kids and I put together. I lived with him for over 20 years and I seem to only know how to cook in large quantities. 

I also feel like I should skip the middle man and just toss fresh produce right into the trash...I normally end up tossing about 1/4 of the milk each week. But if I buy a smaller milk we seem to run out (my oldest loves milk).

And I hate that I waste so much food.

Cannibalism?

[Knee Deep in Water Chloe]

May 5, 2016 20:38:05 GMT -5 Tennesseer said:

May 5, 2016 14:49:07 GMT -5 Miss Tequila said:

I'm still adjusting to cooking without a man in the house to eat. My ex was a gym rat so he ate a LOT of food. He probably ate more than the kids and I put together. I lived with him for over 20 years and I seem to only know how to cook in large quantities. 

I also feel like I should skip the middle man and just toss fresh produce right into the trash...I normally end up tossing about 1/4 of the milk each week. But if I buy a smaller milk we seem to run out (my oldest loves milk).

And I hate that I waste so much food.

Cannibalism?

Hahahahahahaha

[msventoux]

I'm getting better.  It doesn't help that I absolutely HATE to go shopping, so tend to stock up when I do go.  Milk always went bad, so I've started getting shelf-stable milk or almond milk.  Bread and other baked goods go in the freezer if I know I won't use them up in time. 

As far as other ingredients, that's gotten better since I got a Vitamix and electric pressure cooker.  If produce starts going bad I either up my green smoothie intake to use it all up or, depending on what it is, throw it in the pressure cooker with some meat to make some sort of stew/goulash/concoction.  What produce does manage to go bad I've been composting. 

[Cookies Galore]

I've made a concerted effort to meal plan and stick with the plan, but I know it's also easy when you're just shopping for two adults and no kids. We only use milk for hubs' cereal, so we can get away with a pint a week. I eat a lot of salads for lunch and cook a lot of veggies with dinners, so I started sticking post-its on my cabinets with notes about what I'm cooking for dinner that week and what fruits and veggies I bought that week. If I know what veggies I have, then I can easily come up with a plan B meal if plan A doesn't come to fruition.

[tallguy]

How much food do you throw away? $640 a year

I think somebody must have missed a decimal point in there.  

I probably toss about $6.40 worth of food per year.  The only things I remember recently have been a few slices of bread, an occasional bagel or English muffin, and partial containers of both sour cream and salsa.  It helps that I make it a point to use things up, that I don't mind eating the same thing two or three days in a row to do it, and that I know that expiration dates do not mean expiration dates.   

Oh, and I also never buy vegetables or salad stuff.  That crap should be thrown out before it gets TO the store.      

[tskeeter]

May 5, 2016 10:43:54 GMT -5 Tiny said:

I didn't want to hijack the Organic thread...

But, I'm curious... do you pay attention to the amount of  'food'  you throw away?    Does it bother you when you wind up tossing out something you meant to use but didn't?  How often does that happen?

If you are tossing out food -- what kind of 'uneaten' or 'it went bad'  foods do you throw away on a daily, weekly basis?  

If you AREN"T throwing away a lot of 'food'  what are some tips or strategies you use for 'using up' stuff before it goes bad?

ADDED:  found some numbers:

www.today.com/money/americans-throw-away-least-640-food-each-year-t29026

Americans estimate they waste about $640 in household food each year, according to a new survey by the American Chemistry Council.

But government figures say our trash bins are much fuller. The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that a family of four wastes closer to $1,500.

Probably more.

When you cook for two, you can't buy lots of items in small enough quantities not to experience spoilage, even when you freeze the excess.  I like leftovers.  But, eating the same thing for two weeks straight stretches my limits.

[lynnerself]

We throw out some. Less now that we are retired and can eat left overs for lunch.

We are lucky here that our green veggie waste and scraps can go into the green yard waste can right along with the grass clippings and stuff.

[Anne_in_VA]

We've made a greater effort recently to stop throwing out spoiled food and it seems to be working.  What doesn't get eaten gets frozen so it gets used eventually as a thawed entree/ingredient.  

Right now I've got some apples to use up.  I think I'll make a pie or apple crisp.  

[Deleted]

May 5, 2016 16:55:38 GMT -5 kittensaver said:

As "bad" as we think it may be about individual households who throw away food ($640 to $1500 per year, depending on who you believe) -

IMHO the waste that comes about through the food industry (supermarkets, restaurants, school, public institutions like hospitals, farmers who can't get a good price for their crops turning them under, etc etc etc) is FAR worse than any "damage" us little people can do in our homes. A quick internet search will show that something north of 30% of the food that is grown in this country never reaches our plates. That's a whole lotta waste coming from elsewhere other than our homes. Just sayin' . . .

Not that we all shouldn't try to cut back on waste, because we should . . . I just think the problem and the burden is much bigger than what goes on in our homes and families.

I don't know if our school still does this, but leftover food cannot be served the next day.  So the school participated in a program that used this food to prepare plates for the homeless.  They made sure that the food was arranged appetizingly, etc.  A volunteer group picked up the food.

It's a good plan, but it wasn't free for the school.  However, it did model for the students how not to be wasteful.  Ours is not the typical school cafeteria, however.  We have 2800 kids so it is arranged like a food court.  The cafeteria manager is also very "good" about not preparing too much food.  We have last lunch, and they frequently run out of food at some stations.  We don't have as much choice.

[alabamagal]

May 5, 2016 18:05:51 GMT -5 sarcasticgirl said:

Leftovers. DH won't eat them. I don't understand it because SO MANY THINGS are better as a leftover. so if I can't eat them all, they end up in the trash. I try and make less... but I always seem to cook for an army when I'm making things like soups and roasts. I guess because I learned basic cooking skills from my mom and she was feeding  a family of 7.  plus... I like leftovers! 

I have tried to pay more attention to what we have and freeze things before they go bad. it doesn't always work but I really am trying! 

My DH claims to not like to waste food and  supports the idea of eating leftovers, but rarely does it himself.  He will eat leftover pizza the next day, that is about it.

I LOVE having leftovers for lunch the next day!  Best case for us is to fix a dinner with 3 portions, have 2 for dinner (DH and I) then leftovers for me for lunch.  We got all out of whack when DS was home last summer because suddenly there were no leftovers!

[gregintenn]

Is this supposed to be a sin or crime? I'd suppose it would be good for the economy, and for the ag industry in particular.

[ohmomto2boys]

Lettuce would have to be the most frequent.  I really make a big effort to watch how much food is wasted.  I think food is one of the biggest ways for my family to save money.  DH and I both take leftovers to work so I definitely plan meals to have extra, but not too much.  I do freeze some things if I see we are not going to get it used in a few days time.  

[resolution]

I am lazy with lettuce and buy the pre made mixes rather than heads of lettuce. I found that the ones in the clam-shell plastic containers last a lot longer than the bagged ones.

[Deleted]

May 6, 2016 8:41:38 GMT -5 gregintenn said:

Is this supposed to be a sin or crime? I'd suppose it would be good for the economy, and for the ag industry in particular.

Certainly not a crime, but definitely an area where we could do better.  I've run my life with the philosophy that I waste as little as possible- time, food, money, etc.  That doesn't mean I never splurge wildly or spend an afternoon reading a good book.  It means that I try to avoid situations where my time and money are wasted- e.g., buying on-line instead of driving someplace and waiting in line, finding the cheapest cell phone plan that works for me, buying used vehicles and taking care of them, not paying for food and then throwing it out, etc. 

France is addressing food waste from all angles- encouraging stores to sell odd-shaped produce (potatoes and tomatoes that aren't perfectly round, etc.), providing ways for restaurants to donate food that's been prepared but never served, etc.  In countries such as India, there aren't many refrigerated trucks and the roads are bad (and it's a big country) so by the time a lot of produce gets to the market, it's too spoiled to sell.  With increasing world population, and with increasing demand for food from countries such as India where prosperity is increasing, we need to waste as little as possible.  The alternative is more big-business farming with the chemicals and Frankenfruits and Frankenvegetables resulting from genetic "modifications".

[yogiii]

May 5, 2016 18:45:27 GMT -5 whoisjohngalt said:

May 5, 2016 11:01:42 GMT -5 yogiii said:

Almost zero.  Occasional scraps from kid plates but they are good eaters so it doesn't happen often.

Please please teach me to be like you!!!

I think it's a combination of psychosis and luck .  The kids eat almost as much as we do and I start with a portion I know they will eat.  They can always take more or have fruit after dinner or whatever.  I can't stand wasting food because I'm cheap and because I spend so much time cooking.  So all of that added up means I'll always eat something I don't really feel like having before I'll ever throw it away.

[ArchietheDragon]

May 6, 2016 12:29:45 GMT -5 yogiii said:

May 5, 2016 18:45:27 GMT -5 whoisjohngalt said:

Please please teach me to be like you!!!

So all of that added up means I'll always eat something I don't really feel like having before I'll ever throw it away.

Me too, but I am trying to stop.   I should just throw away the kid's half eaten hot dogs and mac and cheese.  I should just throw away the kid's half eaten hot dogs and mac and cheese. I should just throw away the kid's half eaten hot dogs and mac and cheese.  My body will thank me.