Throwing away food is something that nobody intends to do, but the reality is that many people waste food quite often. According to a survey conducted by the American Chemistry Council, the average household throws out $640 worth of food each year. This number equates to throwing away around 16% of the food that we buy. This means that for every 100 bags of groceries that you buy at a supermarket, 16 of them might as well go straight into the garbage.
There are many reasons why we waste so much food, but the main reason is because the food that we buy often times goes bad before we get a chance to eat it.
As the saying goes “waste not, want not.” Here’s four ways in which you can preserve and stop wasting food at home for a longer period of time, and reduce your food waste.
Plan Out Your Meals
When most people walk into a grocery store, they enter the store without a plan. They will go down every aisle of the store, and purchase anything they see that catches their eye. Because of this, many people usually buy too much food, and as a result, end up throwing some of it away.
However, if you plan out your meals at the beginning of each week, you will find that you will be wasting less food than you ever thought possible. This is because if you go to the supermarket knowing exactly what you need, and how much of it you need, there will be no reason for you to buy unnecessary items. Meal prepping is a surefire way to ensure that you are always eating fresh foods, and that you are not wasting any of it either.
If you’re the kind of person that just can’t help tossing a few extra items in the cart that look good each time you shop, here a tip: always shop on a full stomach. You’ll end the temptation to add more than you need to your cart, avoid wasting food and save lots of money in the process!
Keep The Air Quality In Your Home Clean
It goes without saying that keeping your fridge and cabinets clean is important for food preservation, but one often overlooked factor in the overall freshness of your food is air quality. The air quality inside your fridge and in your home play a massive role in how long your food can stay fresh for. If your homes air quality is polluted, then your food will not last as long.
One way in which you can make sure your homes air quality is as clean as possible is by installing eco-friendly, washable and reusable air filters. These type of filters do a better job of filtering out your homes air than traditional ones, are environmentally friendly, and will end up saving you money in the long run. Just by making sure the air quality in your home is fresh, you can help preserve your food longer.
Organize Your Fridge is Key to Stop Wasting Food
One of the main reasons why people let their food go bad in the first place is because they forgot that they even had it. Having an organized fridge will help with this because it enables you to clearly see what’s inside of it. As a result, your chances of forgetting about a particular food item decreases dramatically.
Not only will an organized fridge decrease your chances of forgetting about a particular food item, but it also allows you to easily and accurately assess when you need to buy more food. Take a few minutes to organize your fridge now, and reap the benefits again and again.
While checking to make sure you have enough food, you should also be keeping an eye out for anything that looks like they are going bad, or about to go bad. If a food looks like it is about to go bad, try your best to incorporate into your next meal so that it does not go to waste. Checking your fridge at minimum once per week, is something that will definitely help you preserve what you have and stop wasting food.
Check Your Fridge Once Every Week
Aside from keeping your fridge organized, you should also be checking it once a week to make sure that you have enough food until your next grocery store visit.
In summary, people tend to waste a lot of food that doesn’t technically need to be wasted. There are easy and affordable ways in which you can stop wasting food and increase the likelihood of your food staying fresher for longer periods of time. All you have to do is follow these four steps and you will be saving money and preserving your food more efficiently in no time.
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