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Know What’s In Your Fridge
Hellmann’s and Best Foods want to help people to enjoy good, honest food for the simple pleasure it is, without worry or waste. They believe that food is too good to be wasted. And that is why they have committed themselves to helping reduce food waste.
In their journey to understand the food waste landscape, they found that approximately 70% of people globally agree “avoiding food waste” has become more important in their lives – almost as important as “eating healthy”[1]. However, people don’t yet acknowledge that they are part of the problem. 73% of Americans say they waste less than the average American[2]. ReFED has uncovered that in the United States, approximately 40% of all food waste occurs in our homes[3].
ReFED’s analysis of the top prevention, recovery, and recycling solutions shows that 13.2 million tons — over 20% of annual food waste — can be reduced over the next decade in cost-effective and scalable ways.[4]
Here are a few of the suggestions from ReFED’s Dana Gunders to help you reduce your in-home food waste[5].
1. Plan, and then stick to your plan – The plan should include a dose of reality–if you’re probably going to be too lazy to cook on Wednesday, don’t buy ingredients you won’t use.
2. Take a food waste audit – For a couple of weeks, keeping track of everything that goes in the trash can help you figure out where things could change in your routine.
3. Optimize your fridge – The lower shelves in a refrigerator are a little colder, so they’re a better place for the things at biggest risk of going bad. Nothing but condiments should go in the door, the warmest place in a fridge.
4. Freeze anything – If you’re going on vacation and didn’t finish your food, pretty much everything in your fridge can go in your freezer. Same goes for leftovers or ingredients you aren’t ready to use.
5. If all else fails, compost – Composting is a last resort, after freezing and feeding pets whatever they can safely eat. But because food pumps out methane–a potent greenhouse gas–in landfills, composting is a whole lot better than tossing food in the trash.
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[1] Hellmann’s Purpose Toluna Global Review, US, UK, BR, ARG – 2018. / Edelman Food Waste Global Study, 2017 / NRDC Report US.
[2] https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4465675/
[3] https://www.refed.com/?sort=economic-value-per-ton
[4] https://www.refed.com/?sort=economic-value-per-ton
[5] 6 Simple Ways To Cut Down On Your Food Waste (fastcompany.com)