5 anti-waste habits to save money

Reducing food waste is the third action to adopt in the list of actions to fight climate change*. We often waste more than we think, but waste also means expenses. Thanks to simple and effective tips, it's possible to save a lot of money on your grocery bill. We're sharing 5 effective habits to adopt to reduce food waste. It's much easier than you think!

Prepare menus in advance

It happens that you waste food you thought you were going to eat, but to limit the risks, we suggest you prepare a list of your weekly menus.

When you take the time to plan your week's meals, you have no choice but to take inventory of what's left over from the previous week. Don't panic, two or three planned meals should help avoid the surplus and wasted leftovers that linger at the back of the fridge and go unseen.

With a grocery list in hand, you save time and buy only what you need. Less spending. More savings.

Cooking and storing leftovers

Every week, a fridge-free meal is a welcome way to reduce kitchen waste! Soup is often a quick and easy solution to prevent vegetables from ending up in the trash before they're even started.

Similarly, some parts of food are often thrown away even though they could be eaten in a lunch box. Examples include peelings, beetroot leaves, and radish tops, for which there are many anti-waste recipes: fries, vegetable broth, candied citrus peels to make little candies... Yet these are materials that should be recycled and incorporated into our habits.

Otherwise, when the cold weather comes and the garden starts to wither, you can pot your aromatic herbs with olive oil and you get great flavored oils.

We no longer throw away stale bread, even though it's tempting. Instead, we add spices to the leftovers and blend them into a food processor to make breadcrumbs.

Organize the fridge and pantry

The first-come, first-served rule may already be familiar to you. Similarly, to better manage your grocery inventory, learn how to store food in the right place.

Store in a cool place

Some good habits to adopt when you get home from the grocery store could be to put food in the right place and adopt good storage techniques. To avoid excess moisture, reserve dry cloths for vegetables by putting them in an airtight container for those already cut and in the bin provided for this purpose. Mushrooms can go in a paper bag to avoid ending up in mushroom juice. A damp cloth or a little water (to be changed every two days) helps keep broccoli, celery, leeks, spinach, endives with herbs, and arugula crisp. A tidy fridge means less food is wasted!

Jams, condiments, drinks, and juices should be placed in the warmest part of the fridge, which is the door. Leftovers should be placed in the coldest area, which is the top shelf, and dairy products should be placed in the middle. If you want to see even more clearly, you can opt for transparent containers.

Store on the counter in the open air

Since the refrigerator isn't ideal for storing all foods, some are best stored outside in a cool, dry place, away from light and heat. Some vegetables can be stored very well for several days at room temperature until fully ripe and can be transferred to the refrigerator as soon as they start to spoil. This is the case with bananas, which you can eat after 3 to 4 days.

Other fruits also make others ripen faster (or even rot). To avoid this, several baskets will do the trick.

Freeze leftovers

One of the most well-known anti-waste tips is freezing. Fresh fruits and vegetables that have gone bad freeze well in small portions for 1 person or more for families or multiple meals. In any case, we strongly advise you not to freeze your leftovers in a single container. It's a great way to quickly prepare soups, broths, and smoothies when you're short on time.

To make a great broth, vegetable scraps and peelings belong in the freezer, just like carcasses. And tok, in a large pot with herbs, it makes chicken or vegetable broth for vegans.

Just as you can cut and freeze vegetables and fruits that you don't plan to consume quickly, the ice cube tray is very useful for adding aromatic herbs and a little olive oil. Ready-to-use for future recipes!

Order your anti-waste groceries

Since some fruits and vegetables aren't suitable for display due to lack of standards, we've decided to combat food waste. Our surprise basket of rescued fruits and vegetables offers a discount of up to 30%. Our unsold and surplus produce is a great way to eat healthy and balanced meals on a budget.

Simply reserve your basket online and have it delivered to your home or collected from a drop-off point each week.

You can even take the opportunity to add products from our anti-waste platform to your order. Like recycled cookies, granola, or spent grain flour from our partner Still Good , which recycles beer waste from local breweries.

The last piece of advice we can give you if you still have leftovers and our list of simple tips isn't enough is to give them to friends, family, or a community fridge. You'll end up wondering how you ever managed before!

Article powered by Millie Jacques-Bouchard, communications and human resources coordinator at Still Good.

Photo credit: Bruno Zara

Source :
The Drawdown Report: Climate Solutions for a New Decade , 2020