Viva Vitality: Preventing household food waste

By Alison Van Dyke on May 24, 2019.

communityfoodconnection@gmail.com

We’ve all been there, standing in the produce aisle, filled with good intentions. We look at the fresh, crunchy vegetables, and vow that this week we’ll make those healthy side dishes, and prep that fresh vegetable tray for easy snacking. A week or two later and those once crispy vegetables are lying wilted and abandoned in the back of the fridge, along with those good intentions. Before you know it, you’re tossing all those veggies in the garbage.

In 2017 the National Zero Waste Council conducted research on household food waste in Canada, and discovered that 63% of the food Canadians throw away could have been eaten. For the average Canadian household that amounts to 140 kilograms of wasted food per year and is an approximate cost of more than $1,100 per year.

All that food that you’re throwing out has, or could have had, an impact on not only your wallet, but your waistline and the environment.

Here are some simple ways you can curb your food waste:

1. Plan ahead before grocery shopping. Assess what you already have in your fridge, freezer and pantry before making a grocery list based on the week’s sales. Try to use some of the items you already have, especially if they have a best before date such as eggs or dairy.

2. Don’t forget to cycle leftovers into your meal plan. You can take those leftovers in a thermos for your lunch or incorporate them into a meal the next night. Leftover cooked chicken? Shred it up and use it in chicken burritos the next night, or in a chicken Caesar salad. Don’t feel like you need to make a bunch of new recipes, incorporate familiar recipes that you’ve made before that you know you and your family will enjoy.

3. Try to avoid selecting different recipes that don’t fit together or else you’ll be buying a lot of different ingredients. Select one, look at the ingredient list and let that help you select recipe No. 2 and so on. For example, if recipe No. 1 uses half a head of cabbage, find another recipe that needs cabbage, so that it won’t be wasted.

4. Be realistic while shopping. Yes, we all should be eating more fruits and vegetables, but is it likely that you will suddenly begin to prepare multiple vegetable side dishes each day this week when you haven’t before? Make a plan; maybe this week you aim for two days where you prepare additional healthy recipes. Once you are comfortable with that you can add more.

5. Always use ingredients in order of perishability. Use up those quick-to-spoil fresh fruits and vegetables at the start of the week and rely on pantry staples and frozen fruits and vegetables later in the week or month. Frozen fruits and vegetables are picked and frozen at peak ripeness and are less expensive than fresh.

6. Consider compost. If you do find the odd dried up fruit or wilted greens at the end of the week, consider starting a compost bin or vermicomposting (worm) farm rather than throwing it in the garbage as decomposing food in landfills produces methane gas.

Alison Van Dyke is the food security coordinator with Community Food Connections Association and can be reached at 403-502-6096 or communityfoodconnection@gmail.com

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