How to Reduce Food Waste? Food waste is a serious problem that occurs in nature and many people do not realize that this food waste is a problem for life.
Nearly 1/3 of all food produced in the world becomes waste and this means that every year nearly 1.3 billion tons annually.
Industrial countries like America are countries that make more food than developing countries. Based on data from the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in 2010 the average American produced around 99 tons of food waste.
How, do you already know how dangerous this food waste is. So it is very important to know how to reduce food waste.
Throwing away edible food doesn’t just cost money without benefits. But more than that, every food that decays, it produces methane gas, and this is the second most greenhouse gas. In short, let you know that throwing food in the trash can cause climate change.
Not only does it change climate, but food waste also affects water loss. According to the World Resources Institute, around 24% of agricultural water disappears as a result of food waste each year and this means loss of water around 45 vtriluin gallons. The amount is 170 trillion liters. It’s fun, isn’t it!
How to Reduce Food Waste
Even though this seems very dangerous, we can reduce this by following the way below on how to reduce food waste. Eliminate bad habits in our lives and follow the health guidelines for a better life.
1. Smart Shop
Remember! Most people tend to buy more food, even though they don’t need it. This is a bad way of running life, the effect you will throw away some of the food that you buy due to rot, and so forth.
This poor shopping method actually causes more food waste to accumulate and can increase the amount of household waste every year.
One of the tips not to shop like this is to be diligent at your pocket shop for shopping every few days. Don’t make it a habit of mass shopping every two weeks, because this drains a lot of the contents of your wallet and makes a lot of food waste.
Make a list of important foods that you have to shop, stick on the wall. Avoid shopping for items that you don’t need. Every time we go to the store, there can be something to buy other than what was planned. By making this food list you realize that this item, and this does not need to be bought, so you can wait for shopping.
2. How to Reduce Food Waste by Learn to Preserve
food preservation techniques are important things you know so there are many foods that you don’t need to throw away. This is not a new method, but for centuries, food preservation methods have been practiced.
One form of preservation is to use salt water or use vinegar, this has been practiced since 2400 BC. Drying, preserving, fermentation and canning are important methods in preserving food so that it lasts longer so that it can reduce food waste.
Food preservation methods like this if applied in your home, it not only saves a lot of your money but also can reduce your carbon footprint.
For example, excessive apples can be used for cans. You can turn apples into sauces, or preserving carrots that you do can save your household budget and make kids love the carrot camel you make.
3. Store Food Correctly
The next way to reduce food waste is to store food properly. If you don’t know, you must learn how to make your food last longer.
According to the Natural Resource Defense Council, in the UK about 2/3 of the waste there is a result of food waste being thrown away. Shocking isn’t it!
Also see: How to Store Cucumbers
Many people do not know how to properly store food to last a long time. Many of them store it away and eventually the food becomes rotten and thrown into the trash.
For example: garlic, potatoes, tomatoes, cucumbers, and shallots. This kitchen material should be stored at room temperature for long life.
One way to avoid food rot is to separate food that produces ethylene gas from what does not produce this gas. Ethylene gas accelerates food maturation and can cause spoilage.
List of foods that produce ethylene gas when cooked are:
So, any food that is sensitive to ethylene gas must be kept away from this food, the goal is to prevent spoilage. Among the foods that are sensitive to this gas are potatoes, apples, leafy greens, peppers, berries.
4. How to Reduce Food Waste by Don’t Be a Perfectionist
Being a perfectionist can sometimes cause more food waste. The point is to tear apart fruit and only take the good ones will cause more waste. The rest of the food that is not good will all become waste, but if you take all kinds of food even if it’s not too good, this can reduce your waste a little.
Consumers whom always ask for good food, it is caused marketers to buy only a really good food from farmers. Finally, there are many or many tons of less good food (classified as good food) must be discarded because it does not sell well in the market.
That is why, many large stores such as Walmart and others start selling unfavorable food by giving discounts. That is one way to reduce food waste.
5. Save Leftovers
Does it often store food for holidays and then forget to take it and eventually it rots and ends up in the trash?
Ok, maybe we often save a lot of leftover food, but try to keep it in a transparent glass place not in an invisible or frosted glass, because it can cause you to forget the food you are storing and eventually the food rot.
So, storing food properly and properly like in a clear glass container is an important tip, this makes you not forget the food because it is always visible.
6. Eat the Skin
Usually when consuming fruit, we often get rid of the skin even if we get rid of the chicken skin. This can add food waste, we should change this habit to a healthier habit that is consuming fruit along with the skin, as well as chicken.
If this is what you do, it’s very embarrassing, most of the fruit’s nutrients are on the skin and chicken is like that. For example, apple skin is rich in fiber, vitamins, pectin and antioxidants. Imagine if you threw it away!
Researchers have found an extraordinary group of compounds in apple peels. These compounds are called triterpenoids. it acts as an important antioxidant in the body and is effective in fighting cancer.
While chicken skin is rich in vitamins as well as vitamin A, B fat and protein. In addition, chicken skin is an excellent source of antioxidants, selenium. This can help restore inflammation in the body.
We are not only talking about apple skins and chicken skins, but we are focusing on all types of fruit skins including layers of cucumbers, carrots, potatoes, kiwi, mangoes, and eggplants. Everything is nutritious and can be eaten together with the flesh.
Eating the skin not only provides many health benefits but also reduces food waste.
7. Keep Your Fridge Clutter-Free
Using food in the refrigerator is important to maintain food quality, but a refrigerator that is too full of food is also not good.
Arrange the food layout in the refrigerator so that everything can be seen, and we know when to buy the food. If the layout is not neat, there will be a lot of food unseen and eventually rot in the fridge and will eventually add to the pile of food waste. The best way to fill a refrigerator is to use the FIFO method “first in, first out.”
If you buy new food, put it in the refrigerator on the back, so you know which foods to take first.
8. Eat the Yolk
Eating egg yolks, you’re often afraid of yolks because they follow a recent dietary trend that says egg yolks are cholesterol-dense. Though not entirely true, there are many other nutrients in egg yolk that the body needs. Yellow does have a cholesterol effect but only in a very small capacity. Precisely if you get rid of egg yolks, this causes a lot of nutrients not to be absorbed into the body.
Also see: Benefits of Egg White to Firm Skin
Did you know that egg yolks contain nutrients such as protein, vitamin A, iron, selenium and vitamin B. Not only that, actually our body also needs cholesterol and this is made in the liver. When we consume foods that contain cholesterol, the liver only need to make a little cholesterol because some of it already exists.
9. How to Reduce Food Waste with be a Seed Saver
America is one of the biggest producers of pumpkins. But the fact that 1.3 billion pounds of pumpkin is produced in America is finally discarded every year. Though carbing pumpkins can be fun for family members. This is also one way to reduce food waste wisely.
Pumpkin fruit can be utilized for various purposes such as making cakes and others. While pumpkin seeds can also be used as watermelon seeds and are very nutrient dense. So, use seeds now as a tasty and nutritious roasted snack.
Pumpkin seeds are very rich in magnesium, this is an important mineral for blood and heart health, as well as preventing high blood pressure and controlling blood sugar levels.
How to use pumpkin seeds is to wash thoroughly, dry, and stir with a little olive oil and a little salt. Then bake it in the oven.
10. Make Homemade Stock
Furthermore, another best way on how to reduce food waste is by making homemade stock. Saute the remaining vegetables such as leaves, leaf stalks, other vegetable scraps, skin and add olive oil, add water, and leave on fire to boil.
Making food from leftovers is not only applied to vegetables but can also be applied to leftovers and vegetables by making broth.
In this way you don’t need to buy broth on the market, and this technique can also reduce food waste, meaning that this can reduce the occurrence of methane from the waste pile.
