Cut Down on your Food Waste!

The average Canadian household throws away one in four produce items, that’s equivalent to about $600 each year! Shockingly, according to the David Suzuki foundation, close to half of all food produced worldwide is wasted or discarded during the processing, transport, supermarkets and in our kitchens. What a shame and waste of good food and valuable resources spent growing and transporting it!

Simplest way to Reduce Food Waste?

The best way to cut down on food waste is to become both a creative meal planner and a savvy grocery shopper.

• Take an inventory of what you have in the fridge, freezer and pantry before grocery shopping. This helps you to avoid food duplication and know which foods need to be used up first.
• Plan your meals for the coming week in order to use up perishable items. For example, if you have hard-boiled eggs you can plan to have a spinach salad or make egg salad for lunch.

Benefits of Being Conscious of Food Waste:

Saves Time:

Shopping for only items on your grocery list reduces times spent in the store. Additionally, batch cooking to use up perishable items will save time on those busy nights when you have a ready-made meal waiting for you in the freezer.

Saves Money:

Incorporate flyer items when meal planning. If you buy in bulk, pre-portion into amounts that can be consumed in one serving.   For example, if you buy pork tenderloin from Costco, portion it into one loin servings instead of defrosting three at once.

Improves Health:

Homemade cooking is much healthier (and often cheaper) than going out to eat!  Plan a cook night to use up your fresh ingredients and then freeze meals.  When you start to throw away less food, you will buy more fruits and veggies (wisely) because you are confident they can be used before going bad.

Top 3 Creative Ways Reduce/Reuse Food:

• Leftover cooked chicken can be shredded and frozen in individual sandwich bags.  It is ready to be added to sandwiches, stir-fry’s, quesadillas, soups or to salads!
• Cook up extra veggies and include them in omelets, personal pizza, soups, chili or pasta sauce.
• Leftover fruits can be added to fruit smoothies or homemade popsicles.  Your over-ripe bananas are perfect for banana bread or muffins!

Bottom Line:

Let’s do our part to reduce food waste, after all, it will save you time, money and can improve your health!  If you plan on storing your leftovers, keep in mind safe food storage.  Leftovers can stay in the fridge for a maximum of two to three days and can stay in the freezer for two or three months.