How to Minimise Food Waste in Your Home

According to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations, roughly one third of food produced in the world goes to waste. In Australia, we throw away $8billion worth of edible food every year, with most homes chucking out 20 percent of the food they buy. The constant drain on the planet’s natural resources is enormous.

The recent documentary series ‘War of Waste’ in Australia shone the light on this very issue – which we hope will encourage some changes, both by consumers and businesses – especially the major supermarket brands in Australia. If you didn’t watch the 3-part series by the ABC, we definitely recommend it. The show also highlighted what some companies are doing to combat the waste – for example the innovative and successful re-purposing of food waste by Oz Harvest.

Our eco writer Linda McCormick shares her tips on how you can minimise food waste in your home to help lessen the impact on the environment, even if in a small way.

Top 5 Tips to Minimise Food Waste:

• Buy Less. Make a note of what you eat for a few weeks, then hone your shopping list and buy only what you need.
• Shop Smart. When you’re buying fruit and veg, buy some fruit that needs to ripen up. Opt for the green bananas and hard avocados – they will eventually soften.
• Only cook what you need. It takes practice, but with a little fine tuning you will soon know how much food you need to cook for yourself or your family.
• Love the leftovers. If you have yet to fine tune point 3 and have leftovers each day, either freeze them for use at another time or have a ‘leftover lunch’ the next day.
• Get creative. Use what you have in your fridge before you head to the shops. While it might be easy to buy what you want every day, using up your pantry produce will not only minimise food waste but also your expenditure.

If you have other tips on how to reduce food waste, we’d love to hear what you do.

Image: CC license for reuse

Resources/Reports:

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Oz Harvest
ABC – Food Waste
Department of Environment & Energy
ABC – War on Waste documentary 

LINDA MCCORMICK

Linda McCormick is a freelance journalist and travel writer living in Melbourne. Originally from Northern Ireland, Linda’s obsession with travel started at a young age when she set off in search of a warmer place to call home. While travelling she became more aware of the negative impacts of globetrotting and the importance of sustainable and responsible travel. She now travels with a different attitude and shares her passion for the natural world and eco travel in her writing. Linda’s work is published in a number of leading magazines, papers and websites, and on her own travel blog: www.EcoTravellerGuide.com

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