Do you throw out 400 pounds of food each year?

[flash]

Sunday's Today show had a segment on how the average American dumps more than 400 pounds of unused food every year. Mostly meat and vegetables.

Don't want to know how they figured this one out!

But, do you "waste" that much food every year?
Any frugal tips to help others?

[Ima saver]

I know we throw out a lot. My biggest problem is milk and bread. There are just two of us and we hardly ever use those two items, but once in a while we need milk for a receipe.
I never throw meat out . If we don't eat it, I give it to the dog.

[PRICEPLUS]

I think the problem may be that Americans cook too much. I remember a dietician showing me what a portion should contain I almost fainted. We live in the land of the super sized everything.

Cook less, eat less, and save your health as well as money!

[Ima saver]

We don't cook that much and we have very simple dinners. One piece of meat and something else. If I make a baked potato, my husband eats half of it. When we have meat, we have one piece usually. Since being on a low carb diet, we have really cut down and don't miss it. I buy the smallest thing of milk I can, an d still wind up throwing out most of it. I throw the bread out into the yard by the creek. Something eats it!!

[PrincessPerky]

I have two kids who are klutzes, I prolly throw out enough to feed a small country just from the floor! but on real wasted, growing mold in the fridge, not so much, though we have our 'failed' meals that must get tossed.

Mainly to avoid ditching, I plan meals based on what must be used, if not tonight then the next night. I am not perfect, but I try. And what food I do toss, I put out for the cats or my failed compost pile.

[flash]

I agree, Princess. If I buy a large lettuce, I'm thinking salads, sandwiches, etc. for the week. DH, now, he will buy whatever he thinks sounds good, without a plan, like asparagus at $5 a pound. and that tends to get tossed if I'm not aware of it. I do try not to let him shop alone!

[lrjohnson]

This area is one that my partner and I have been tackling recently. Milk is never a problem because we are all non-fat dry powdered, or shelf stable quarts of soy milk when its on super sale. Bread we get from thrift store and freeze, that's fine too, older ends get oven dried and ground into breadcrumbs. Meat, we don't eat so much, so that works. If I do buy meat we freeze it. Leftovers, I stick in cottage cheese tub "tupperware" right away, and they do not go in the fridge.

Where we do have the most issues is with fresh produce. It took many, many tossed heads of lettuce and tomatoes before we figured out that we needed to change. I stock more frozen veggies now, so that I don't buy fresh because we *have* to have it. I live with the fact that even though we think we eat salads a lot, we don't. I buy spinach leaves instead of lettuce, and when it's getting older I steam it and freeze it (cottage cheese tub tupperware again) for work lunches. I am more willing to buy more expensive fruit/veggies I KNOW we eat than cheaper ones I was composting. I always thought I would use bulk carrots fresh and for cooking, and I never prepped them, and ended up with them dying. so now I buy the fake baby carrots, or go without. I eat snow peas and mushrooms all the time, so I treat myself to them because it's healthy food. Same with cherry/grape tomatoes. They do cost a lot more, but I composted so many of the cheapies it was not economical. I make breakfast smoothies with older fruit, or mash them into muffins. We are making a lot of improvement.

We still sometimes have problems with cheese molding (light mold I'll just cut off). I've heard wiping with vinegar helps but haven't tried it yet. Also, sometimes lunch meats get lost in the shuffle. I'm trying to put some in the freezer right away and leave a half pack in the fridge.

I can report progress but not perfection.

[Tree0164]

I would say that I am probably close to the 400lbs. One of my goals this year to make sure that I make less and use more. Mostly it is leftovers, fresh fruit and veggies-trying to buy more frozen and canned.

[ChillPhatCat]

When I make a dish I either eat everything I've made if it's a small quantity or I eat the leftovers over the next few days... about 10% of our milk expires before we've finished it, the little that is left is still good for cooking (tastes the same trust me) so we usually use all that up, the only meat I eat is usually steak and all that I do with that is trim off the fat. Salads are best when they come pre-mixed in a bag, that way you have the right amount of everything and it can be consumed quickly before it get's soggy. I don't eat the end pieces of my bread loaves because I'm picky so I feed that to the squirrel. I probably throw out 1 lb of food a week if that.

[PrincessPerky]

Milk goes bad???? it is never around long enough for that here!!!!! (4 gals a week is what we limit it to.)

[ChillPhatCat]

Originally Posted by PrincessPerky

Milk goes bad???? it is never around long enough for that here!!!!! (4 gals a week is what we limit it to.)

I don't trust milk very long after it's been open... 3 days tops, I can't stand sour milk. Sometimes we drink a gallon in a day and sometimes go a couple days without any milk.

[contrary1]

I know this is one area I've been working on for the last couple years. But, no way do I throw out 400 pounds of food. Gads!
My area of difficulty is that stupid refrigerator............in goes the food, sometimes never to see the light of day again.
I'm getting better. If something is leftover........I don't put it in the fridge unless I have a concrete plan for it. If it is something that can be frozen, I re package it right away & label it, then into my wire basket in the freezer for emergency meals.
I am re working leftovers until they squeek here too. Fortunately no one is that picky, nor do they pay close attention..............just as long as there is enough food to fill them up!
Leftovers turn into Buffet Night here.............where everything is heated up and people can choose what they would like. Makes for some pretty strange plates of food, but things are used up!
400 pounds............... I can't imagine!! I could feed the whole street for months with 400 lbs of food!!

[Tree0164]

Originally Posted by PrincessPerky

Milk goes bad???? it is never around long enough for that here!!!!! (4 gals a week is what we limit it to.)

Milk is one thing that I am always running out of. We are usually at 3 gallons a week. Dh doesn't drink milk. So it is just me and the 3 kids.

[PrincessPerky]

Heh, DH and I are the worst we could finish a gallon a day between the two of us! especially if there are cookies to be et!

[ISAYHI]

IMA SAVER - I've had good luck freezing milk & bread. Maybe you could just freeze part of each as soon as it is purchased & thaw it when you run out. Milk does turn a funny yellowish color when frozen, but it comes back just fine when thawed. My kids can't taste any difference & they're very picky.

[Ima saver]

My husband is the picky one and he won't eat frozen anything. We don't throw out much in food cause we have an outside dog that will eat anything. I only use the freezer for ice cubes and low carb ice cream bars.

[shelbylovesmelby]

I doubt it! I have a dog also that will eat anything & everything. dd & I always have left overs for lunch. Dh isn't always a fan of left overs, but thats how he is. Kitchen scraps & or produce thats going bad always gets composted.

[Ima saver]

I do pour a lot of milk down the drain. I have a small container now that is full and needs to be tossed.

[frugalfarmwife]

We don't use much milk so as soon as I get it home I separate it out into two cup amounts in cottage cheese containers and freeze, no waste that way.

We eat leftovers, I cook large amounts and freeze portions, we grow a garden and freeze for the winter, we raise our own beef and not an ounce gets wasted! I buy bread at the thrift store and freeze.

The ONLY waste here is the occasional bread crust and crumbs in the bottom of chip/pretzel bags and those go to the dogs

I'd be suprised if we wasted 10 pounds a year, let alone 400 but I bet the inlaws make up for us with their pickiness and their kids pickiness!

kj

[wummaker]

Hi, my first post on this site so I don't know if its been mentioned before, but...

I made a surprising discovery a few years ago when I bought 2 ionizers [in my case surroud air xj2000] and put one in the kitchen over the food preparation area.
After about 3 months I suddenly realized that food going off in the fridge [ which used to be a regular and rapid occurence] had stopped.
The ionizer was cleaning the air of mold spores and bacteria and nothing was going bad. I even ate leftover chicken after almost 3 weeks in the fridge and it was fine!!


So I think it paid for itself pretty quickly in terms of food saved, and it uses 6watts of power.

Hope that helps y'all

Wummaker