Wasting food is a direct waste of all the energy, water and other resources that went into producing, packaging, transporting and preparing and has a high negative impact on our planet. It was an eye-opener to see metrics from across the world that a non-trivial percentage of people do not use leftovers.
The value of food loss
Food loss and food waste together make up 38% of energy consumed in the global food system. That is basically 38% energy wasted in the food industry. In the US, food loss at the consumer level stands at ~30%. People do not consume leftovers for a variety of reasons ranging from stigma attached towards carrying a box out of the restaurant after a meal, to not knowing how to store food correctly, to just plain forgetting it was sitting on the refrigerator shelf all along!
(If you are curious to learn more, here are metrics of total food wasted broken down by country and this report deep dives into the food waste in the US.)
Each year over 100 million pounds of consumable food gets thrown away (food loss) to rot in landfills producing GHGs (esp. methane), in the US alone. Most of this comes from homes and food retail. Using unspoiled leftover food in a timely fashion can save a good chunk of money spent on groceries. You can usually manage to avoid a few takeouts each month and even save yourself the time and energy in putting a whole meal together.
What can we do to reduce food waste?
At home, it is quite efficient to prepare food that lasts a couple of meals. In larger families especially with kids it takes a little bit of planning ahead to purchase the right groceries and prepare some basics ahead of time, but it is possible. Having a schedule and sticking with it helps to a great extent. Keeping a few cute ceramic or stainless steel air-tight boxes handy also encourages you to store the leftovers instead of discarding them. Soups, pizzas, rice, grilled vegetables, pastas among others make excellent leftover meals for that busy work night or a lazy afternoon.
At restaurants, large portion sizes are a huge factor leading to food waste. But this can be used to our advantage quite easily. An ex-colleague implemented a neat idea – when served a large meal she would first partition the food into halves and then eat only one of the parts! Brilliant! It helped set expectations with oneself about when to stop and when to save. Sometimes the meal is neither too large nor too small, and its not just right either. This is where packing up leftovers helps and can be easily supplemented with a piece of fruit or bread or tea on the side.
* Get creative, plan ahead and keep air-tight storage boxes and eco friendly cling wraps handy to minimize food waste.
* Get into the habit of leaving the restaurant with a box of leftovers - it will save you a lot of time and resources!
* It all boils down to 3 rules: Proper preparation, Proper storage and Proper reheating!
Cooking food to the right temperatures, storing in air tight containers or cling-wrap sealed boxes or air-tight containers within ~4 hours of preparation, and reheating appropriately before use will ensure quality of food over subsequent days. Of course there are some situations when the food smells or is visibly spoiled – please toss it out!
Several times I have come across a very curious “concern” where some members of the family especially kids reportedly refuse to eat leftovers. As long as the food is safe to consume, this might be a matter of explaining why throwing away is not advised and setting expectations at the dinner table. This is where adults play a role in educating and nurturing sustainable habits at a young age. It could be fun to involve kids in breaking the monotony by creatively putting together a meal of leftovers for the family!
Unless it’s food that simply cannot be stored overnight there remains very little logic in letting it go waste. Call me scrappy, but the part I love the most about buying dinner at the restaurant is knowing there will be a lil’ somethin’ the next day. I always look forward to enjoying a ready warm meal in the quiet comfort of my chair, in front of my screen, and without my wallet…