Food wastage is a huge problem in Australia, America, the UK and most Western Countries. The amount of food that gets wasted by Western countries could easily feed people in the poorer countries. So we need to look at what we waste and what we can do about eliminating the wastage.
The biggest source of waste comes from products that are bought and never opened but left to go out of date or go off. I’m sure that’s something we’ve all been guilty of at times. You know what I mean, things that get pushed to the back of the pantry or fridge and forgotten about. By the time you realize they are long past their use by date.
My mother always taught me to keep a well stocked pantry and I do, so this is something I have to be careful of watching. The best solution is to make sure the pantry gets cleaned out on a regular basis. Put anything that is close to its use by date near the front and find or create a recipe that will use those items before you buy any more.
The same goes for the fridge and even though freezers can store food longer, it doesn’t mean they have an indefinite shelf life, so date food as you put it in. It doesn’t take that long to stick a label on saying what it is and when it was put in the freezer and it will save you time and money on the long run.
The other trick is not to overbuy. For example I never buy more than a few bananas at a time even when they are really cheap, because they get ripe really quickly particularly in warm weather and once they are fully ripe, I can’t even look at them let alone eat them. As for making banana cake, it’s never going to happen. I know a lot of people like it. But to me it just tastes like rotten bananas. So it would be a false economy to ever buy too many bananas.
Join me next time for some more tips for the kitchen.
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