Ways to decrease food waste

Food Waste

Have you ever thought about eating bugs? Well, it might be something you might consider doing if we keep wasting so much food these days. I say this because bugs and insects may be an alternative future to normal meat and foods that contain protein. Wasting food has many effects on our environment and most likely even our future. All effects caused by food waste might affect the way our future will shape out to be. And if you don't plan on eating bugs anytime soon I suggest that you start implementing the following simple steps to waste less food.

The first step to wasting less food is as simple as it gets. When you go to the supermarket to buy groceries, just buy what you need. Don’t be the type of person that buys a product because it is on sale or because they think they might need it for some special recipe that never ends up being prepared. More times than not those are the products that do not get eaten or even used and end up being thrown away. Instead of getting everything you want you can get maybe one item that you don't know if you might use, and then next time that you are there again you pick something else out. The reason I say this is because most supermarkets don’t stop selling items in a week or less. They keep it in stock especially if there is a demand for it. Knowing this you won’t end up wasting as much food and this might even cut down the expenses from the shopping.

Second, this step might be the most obvious of the three but is still very effective. Do you know those big bulk sales on products such as fruits and vegetables? This could possibly be the reason you waste so much food. Buying fresh produce in big bulk is really never a good idea unless you are certain that you will finish everything before it goes bad. Before you buy something like this, ask yourself if you will finish it and try to make the wiser decision. It is one thing to buy toilet paper in bulk but not natural foods, because toilet paper doesn’t have an expiration date and doesn’t go bad after a week or two, unlike food. Sure, the sale price may be convincing but stay away from offers like this, because the most common outcome is that a portion will not be eaten and thrown away.

Finally, but not the most obvious and known tip may seem strange but yet can help reduce massive amounts of wasted food. This tip is to buy as many organic products such as milk, butter, and many other dairy products people may use everyday. Now I know what you’re thinking, organic is just like another word for healthy and non-fat and stuff like that. Well that’s not why you should buy it, it’s because organic food is processed differently and because of this it has the characteristic to last longer. Yes, it might cost slightly more than regular products, but you won’t need to throw it away half full a week after you buy it. So technically the normal product is more expensive since the relation of the amount eaten to price is less convenient. So buying organic is the way to go.

Not wasting is important for many reasons. For example to grow the food that you throw away everyday takes water, and if you throw the food away you are basically wasting water. Water is a basic element to life in general and without it life wouldn’t be possible, so this makes it a valuable resource. So just imagine how much water has been wasted just from the wasted food each day. This is just one of the many reasons that could have big effects on the future of how we live. By using these simple steps could save us millions of pounds of wasted foods, in which the resources  that were not wasted could be used for something useful and innovative for a brighter future.

Works Cited:

“Facts.”Foodwasteeffect.eu.foodwasteeffect.eu/en/facts.web.8 Mar, 2019.

“Food Waste.” ec.europa.eu/food/safety/food_waste_en.Together Against Trafficking in Human Beings. 9 Nov. 2018.web.8 Mar, 2019.

Shanker,Deena.”34 ways to waste less food”.BuzzFeed.com.BuzzFeed Staff.22 Apr, 2014.web.8 Mar, 2019.

Ainara Fresneda

Three ways to reduce food waste at your home.

Did you know that 88 millions tons of food per year are wasted in the whole world?
We should not throw away that much amount of food. So, if you want to start reducing food
waste at your home you can follow these three easy and fast steps; plan your shopping

list, freeze the food and serve small amounts of food.

Firstly, you should plan your shopping list. Planning
is important because when you

plan your list, you will buy the food you need so you
will not throw away food that you buy but you forget
you have it because you didn’t
need it. Also, you will buy food that you like
and that you will eat so you will not throw it away.
So, by planning it, this will not happen
because everything will be more organized.

Secondly, you should freeze the food you

buy but you do not feel like eating it in that moment.
Once you buy it, you put it in the freezer
until you feel like eating it and you take it out of the freeze.

Anyways, you should not forget you have it in the freezer

because if not it will expired and not be good anymore.

So, as I said before, if you plan your shopping
list, as someday you will need the food, even
if you put it on the freeze, you will
know it is there and you will not forget

it is there.

Thirdly, you should serve small amounts of food to the people who are eating. So,
just in case, to not waste food, you serve only a little and after if you still being
hungry, you serve more until you are full. So, in this case you will not throw
away anything. Also, when you do not eat something, the food that is left on
the plate, we could just use them to cook something new. Make sure that next
time you will not buy too much of what you didn't eat last time.

As a conclusion, this is a very important topic because it is a thing that we do
everyday and we should not do it so that is why we have to learn how to not
do it that much. Basically, just by following these easy steps, food waste can
be reduced and it could be able to reach to more people. There are lots of ways
to reduce it but from my point of view, these three points are the easiest way to
start and to stop throwing away that much quantity of food so we could see that
all together can make a better world without wasting that amount of food.

Works cited:

Dicke, Marcel. ‘Why not eat insects’. Ted.com. Tedconferences LLC.
Jul. 2010. Web. 1 Mar 2019.

European Commission. ‘Food Waste’. EC.Europe.eu. European Union.
2016. Web. 1 Mar 2019.

‘Facts’. Foodwasteefect.eu. Avactechnologies. 2016-2017.
Web. 1 Mar. 2019.

Lyons, Kate. ‘Cutting Food Waste by a Quarter’. The guardian.com.
The guardian news and media limited. 12 Aug. 2015. Web. 1 Mar. 2019.

Three ways to reduce food waste at your home

“Wasting food is not only an ethical and economic issue but it also depletes the environment of limited natural resources.”  Every year, more than 88 tons of food are thrown away only in the European Union countries, while about 1.3 billion tons worldwide.  Many careless and unnoticed actions, that could be easily avoided, are the main reasons that are threatening the health of our only planet. Such actions take place mostly in our own homes. Regulating our shopping schedules, storing food wisely and cooking only the needed quantity, are small steps that can bring to a big change.

Most of us prefer buying all of our ingredients all at once. What we may see as a convenience and a way to not plan trips to the supermarket every day, is actually one of the main factors of food wasting. This does not only make us buy more food than needed, but it also causes us to get what may be already in our refrigerator or cupboards. Instead, planning your shopping and creating a list make you focus more on what you really need. In this way you can also buy more fresh products that need to be consumed either way and not products that can be preserved for longer periods that then become often forgotten.

Next, one of the main reasons that we throw out our food is because it might not have the expected quality anymore. It is very important to know how to store food properly, especially when dealing with fresh products such as fruit and vegetables. The products can become ripe very easily, leading to spoilage. This is why you should always either consume them as soon as possible, or store them properly. Check when the “use by” dates are due, and remember to not confuse them with “best before.” “Best before” refers to the date up until the food retains its expected quality, so even after the date, the meal is safe to eat. Instead, you should not eat the meal after the “ use by” date. Details such as this are small and mostly left unnoticed, but these are also the most important ones.

One last change that you can introduce in your kitchen, is to cook only the needed amount of food. Cooking for gatherings and dinners can lead to making more food than required, especially when the servings are more than each can take. This not only means throwing out precious food, but also a lot of money. Of course one way to avoid this is to be more careful with the amounts, but there are also other alternatives. Instead of throwing out the leftovers, you could store them for later. The quality might not be as fresh as before, but it is still a very valuable meal. Many have also started to freeze their food. This preserves the food for a longer time, and it also saves time and money. Or you could also turn them into new meals. Soft fruits could be made into smoothies or desserts, while vegetables could be cooked and be put into soups.

These three ways to stop wasting food at your home are some of the many that can prevent the world from suffering more. Not only does the environment suffer from the consequences of it, but also those who can’t afford proper meals every day. Global warming, clearing of trees, and malnutrition are only a few of the results of throwing out food. By following these easy and small steps, great changes can be made.

Dicke, Marcel. “Why not eat insects.” Ted.com. TedconferencesLLC. Jul.2010. Web. 10 Mar. 2019.

European Commission. “Food Waste.” Ec.Europe.eu. European Union. 2016. Web. 10 Mar. 2019.

“Facts.” Foodwasteeffect.eu. Avac Technologies. 2016-2017. Web. 10 Mar. 2019.

Lyons, Kate. “Cutting Food Waste by a Quarter.” TheGuardian.com. The Guardian News and media limited. 12 Aug. 2015. Web. 10 Mar. 2019.

Kubala, Jillian. “20 Easy Ways to Reduce Your Food Waste.” healthline.com. Healthline Media. 20 Nov. 2017. Web. 10 Mar. 2019.

         3 WAYS TO REDUCE FOOD     

                     WASTE AT HOME

In Europe, around 88 million tonnes of food is wasted every year. Food waste
not only an ethical and economic issue, but it also depletes the environment of
limited natural resources. Something that i have been doing since i was younger
and still do now are these 3 easy steps: start freezing your food, start using up
leftovers, and plan your shopping.  

First of all, To reduce food waste we could easily start
freezing food, and for example if the portions were too big at dinner
we caneasily divide them into
different baggies and set them in the freezer, and they
can be consumed between
4 to 6 months, and certain things like cooked pasta,
cooked rice, and cooked fish
are better not to be frozen. They can be kept in the fridge and consumed in 1 to
2 days.

Next, Many people have ordered takeouts, for example Chinese takeout but
didn’t eat all of it because it was too much, so they just set it in the in the fridge
and don’t consume it and it goes bad so it has to be thrown away. In this case
, i think people should ask how big the portions are before confirming their order,
or could try and eat the leftovers of their food may be at lunch or dinner time
the next day, so it’s not going to be wasted and thrown away, for example,
my favourite leftover meal is chicken i usually get leftover chicken take it off
the bones and add pickles, tarter sauce, mustard, and if you want you can add
some boiled eggs but i don't like to and them, and that makes a chicken salad
and you can throw into a sandwich and its going to be delicious!!      

Something that i find very useful is planning your food shopping, for example
you could go around the house and ask your family what foods they prefer and
what food they do not prefer so if everyone gets
what they like food will not get
wasted. Another very useful thing about planning your food shopping is that you
will know what to get when you’re at the grocery store and the food that your
family will eat, something that my mom always does is asking me what foods
i prefer to eat for dinner and for lunch the next day before she goes to the
grocery
store so with asking your family what they prefer food will not get wasted.  

In conclusion, I think this is a very important topic because a lot of people
around the world can not afford food for their whole family and we waste tons
of food every day, with food waste we are also hurting our environment by
producing methane gas and it hurts the environment, and also by wasting food
can
also go in the air and cause pollution. And by following these easy steps we can
reduce food waste and so the environment will not be polluted.

Work cited

“Facts.” foodwasteeffect.eu.com. european union. 2016.web. 5 Mar. 2019.     

FOOD WASTE ON THE PLANET

Do you know how much foods we waste on our planet?

In 2013 about 2 million tons of food has been wasted.

Food waste is a widespread problem in the world, because the modern society is a
really consumer society,that leads it to spend and consume more and more.
Moreover food waste causes many problems, including hunger, but the 3 main effects on our environment are
wasting water, consumer waste ,and releasing methane.

First of all wasting food means also wasting water used to produce food and knowing the 
amount of water contained in the food that we throw away, for example in the potatos there 
is 80% of water, can cause us not to do it.We are the ones who with the our food choices to determine how many water is wasted and if we want to reduce water consumption we 
should be more careful to what we eat instead of the wasting water in the kitchen,in the 
bathroom or in the garden.Obviously saving water whenever you can is definitely advisable,but if we think of limiting ourselves to reducing domestic consumption we will not be able to have a positive influence on the serious water and so also food problems in the world.

Consumer waste is really important, because the consumer refuses the “not beautiful” 
products and therefore pushes companies to discard all of the food not bought by the 
consumer.Moreover the consumption behavior is refers to the checking of the expiration 
dates.”Best before” you can still eat the food but when there is write “use by” you can not 
eat anymore the food. The increase in production volumes leads to a greater emission of 
methane caused for its production in industry and for domestic consumption.Moreover 
methane is a gas responsible for the greenhouse effect and the consequent rise in 
temperature in the Earth's atmosphere (global warming).

In conclusion wasting food is an important topic because it is one of the causes of climate 
change, so by knowing that we should be more responsible about the food that we throw 
away.Also a lot of people not have nothing to eat so when we throw the food away we have to think about all of the people in the world less lucky than us.Finally, when we waste food 
we waste also the money that we used for bought it.In conclusion, food waste and his 
causes can be solved by being more careful and by following some direction,for example 
you can surgelate food that you don’t eat the night before or doing a list with all the food that are missing instead of for example go to the supermarket and buy whenever you want just because you like it even if you don’t eat it.

European Comission. “Food waste”. Ec.europe.ev, European.union. 2016. Web. 6 Mar. 2019.

Ethan Ritchie

Tuesday 12 March 2019

Three Ways To Reduce Food Waste At Home

Food waste is a serious problem for our environment.  Every year, millions of pounds of food is thrown

out and rots in landfills.  The main issue of all this food being wasted is that it causes methane emissions which

is a major contributor to global warming and climate change.  There are many ways you can reduce food

waste in your own home.

To start reducing food waste, you can only buy what you need and avoid buying

in bulk. You can eat leftovers, and compost the rest, You can learn how to store food properly, and pay attention

to expiration dates. The first way to reduce food waste is to plan your meals in advance so that you only buy the

food you need.  By planning your meals, the food that you buy. has a better chance of being used and therefore less food will get wasted.  Buying food in bulk seems like a good idea to save money, but most of the time you end up throwing out food because it goes bad before you have a chance to eat it.

Next, Buy meal planning throughout the week, you can also reduce food waste by eating the leftovers, either for lunches or for supper.  You can even add leftovers to your meal planning to be sure that you don’t forget about them. It is inevitable that some food will not get eaten, so it is important to take that food waste and compost it.  So much of the food that we throw away can be composted which is a natural fertiliser for plants and gardens.
Another way to reduce food waste is to learn how to store food properly and pay close attention to

expiration dates.  Storing food in the proper way is important to make sure that food lasts longer and

doesn’t go bad unnecessarily. By putting food items in proper containers, in the fridge or in the freezer

will ensure that the food you buy will stay fresher and last longer which will reduce food waste.  Paying

close attention to best before or expiration dates is another way to reduce food waste. If you have some

thing that has an expiry date, it’s good practice to eat that item first so that you don’t end up throwing it
away.
In conclusion, food waste is a very important issue in today’s society.  The amount of food that is being thrown away is wasteful and expensive. The harmful effects of all the food waste to the environment is dangerous and something each one of us should be trying to fix.  The ways to reduce food waste in our homes are simple, and if we all started doing our part, the impact on our world could be amazing.

Works Cited

Debra.“How to Reduce Food Waste at Home (7 Simple Tips).  Microabode.com. May 10, 2017. Web. 12 Mar 2019

Vigoreaux,Gabriella . “5 Super Simple Ways to Reduce Food Waste at Home”.  www.goodhousekeeping.com. Apr 20, 2016.  Web. 12 Mar 2019

Donna. “How To Help Your Family Reduce Food Waste At Home”. www.wholefoodbellies.com
Whole Food Bellies.  

Jan 29, 2019. Web. 12 Mar 2019

HOW CAN WE SAVE  OUR FOOD ?          

When I was in seventh grade, I saw students in the school cafeteria like me, who usually didn’t eat all the food of their lunch, such as soup, green peppers...Nearly half of the food wasn’t eaten. I always wondered where the food went. Was the food eaten by other people or sent to another place? Then I figured out that the food wasn’t eaten by someone else. It was sent to a huge area called landfill with trash to be rotten. Since this area included trash and rotten food it had a very bad scent. I learned also this land caused a lot of damages to the environment such as releasing greenhouse gas called methane.

In that time I thought some ways to avoid these harmful effects of these lands. As these lands are mainly formed from uneaten food, I realized that by preventing food waste we might stop it. Preventing food waste is not as hard as it sounds. There are some easy ways to do it, such as planning the shopping, storing the food correctly, and using the leftovers.

  First of all planning your shopping is very simple. To do this firstly check your kitchen (your fridge, cupboards) to detect what you have. Next, write a shopping list that just includes your needs. While you are doing shopping, don’t forget to look “use by” date. Also, avoid going shopping when you are hungry, tired, lonely, bored or upset because these emotional states lead you to overshop items that you don’t want or need. You should choose loose fruits and vegetables rather than packed ones. These fruits and vegetables are both good for your health and more importantly, you can decide how much food you will buy. Even you can do some research by going to different supermarkets to know the different prices of the same food. In this way, you may also save some money.

       Second of all, after shopping, store the food appropriately or your food will

spoil so quickly. If you have packed food, store it according to the instructions on the package. For fruits and vegetables, you must store them in the fridge. In addition, after using some of the bread, you can store rest of it by freezing, and later you remove it from the fridge and wait at least half an hour to let the bread get to the room temperature or heat in the oven. You can also arrange your fridge to consume food by date, for example, put the old ones in the front and the new ones in the back the same as in the fridge.

        Last of all, you can do a lot of things by using your leftovers. Firstly start to

think that your leftovers are your new ingredients. You can create new meals.

For example; You made pasta more than you consume, and after two days of eating you didn’t want to eat it anymore. Make a pasta salad with corn and pickles, instead of throwing away. If your bread is stale you dip them into eggs and put some tomatoes on it then cook it in the oven. Also, you can make soup from uneaten vegetables. Moreover, even uneaten vegetables and fruits can be converted to compost for your garden and for your houseplants.

       As a result, there are a lot of options to avoid food waste and, by using

these methods you may not only prevent food waste, you may also save money and

consume healthy food as well as preventing the world from exhausting resources. With these methods we might reduce using lands to store food trashes thus we can use those lands and grow flowers, plant trees.

        Works Cited

  

  Chivers, Jill.“Top Ten Shopping Tips.”myyearwithoutclothesshopping.com.Web.7 Mar. 2019.

    Dicke, Marcel.“Why not eat insects.”Ted.com.Ted conferences.Jul2010.Web.1 Mar.2019.

      European Commission.“Food Waste.”EC.Europe.eu.European Union.2016.Web.1 Mar. 2019.

    “Facts.”Foodwasteeffect.eu.Avac Technologies.2016-2017.web.1 Mar. 2019.

       Lyons, Kate.“Cutting Food waste by a Quarter.” The-Guardian.com.

The GuardianNews and media limited. 12 Aug 2019.web.1 Mar. 2019.