12 ways to prevent food waste

Worldwide, about one-third of all comestibles produced gets lost or wasted each year. A new U.N.-based campaign, "Think.Eat.Save. Reduce Your Foodprint," hopes to focus awareness on the reasons that about $1 trillion worth of food goes uneaten each year.

Some 35 million tons of food waste were generated in the United States in 2010, according to the Environmental Protection Agency. Almost all of it went into landfills or incinerators -- and, more to the point, it didn't go to people who are hungry.

"Food rescue" programs, from local food banks to organizations like the Society of St. Andrew and the Food Recovery Network, are trying to change that. They pick up unused edibles from a number of locations -- colleges, businesses, sports arenas, supermarkets, farms -- and deliver them to food banks and shelters.

At the consumer level, keep this in mind: When you throw out food, you're throwing money away. According to Think.Eat.Save, some of the main reasons for food waste among developed countries are:

• appearance-based food standards.
• confusion regarding dates.
• buying too much.
• inappropriate storage.
• meals that are just too big.

Any of that sound familiar?

If you want to save money and resources, read on.

Make a plan

1. Create a menu. Then build your grocery list based on those meals, making sure you have everything you need. Sounds simple, right? Yet too often we forget one or two crucial ingredients and the other stuff either goes bad or gets frozen/stored and forgotten.

Without a menu you could find yourself wandering through the market grabbing whatever looks good (which is swell for the store's bottom line but not for yours). Ultimately, you wind up with lots of fun things to eat but not enough for a week's worth of actual meals. 

2. Read store ads two ways. The first way is to focus on the most bang for your nutritional buck, i.e., "What's on sale that my household will actually eat?" The second is to "plan great leftovers," according to Meagan Francis, a mom of five who blogs at The Kitchen Hour. Her menus feature "gap days" between large meals, treating leftovers not as penance but rather as the springboard for new meals. That could mean cooking a special side dish to go with the meat loaf and corn that didn’t get used up, or turning leftover that chicken breast and rice into a stir-fry.

3. Buy less. Get your pantry and freezer stocked, then do most of your "shopping" there. Getting creative with what's on hand reduces the chance that meat, fish and vegetables will become freezer-burned. Plan fresh-food purchases around your menu and stick to it; if you don't make those side salads, your crisper drawer will be filled with liquid lettuce and collapsed cucumbers.

5. Don't buy more than you need. Yes, milk is cheaper by the gallon than by the quart and head lettuce is cheaper than buying greens at the salad bar. But if you can't use larger quantities before they go bad, you might be paying more in the long run -- and in the short run, food goes to waste.

6. Don't judge a cuke by its cover. In the U.S. we too often focus on appearance. For example, some people will pass over a winter squash with a rough patch on its rind even though it doesn't affect the quality of the fruit. Such items might eventually be discarded.

7. Go small. Want to buy only one chicken breast or a quarter of pound of spinach? The meat department or produce manager might be able to accommodate you. It beats buying too much and having to throw some of it away.

8. Don't fear "best by" dates. There's no uniform system for dating food in the U.S. and, except for baby food and formula, no requirement that food be dated at all. "Best by" refers to quality, e.g., canned pears good until August 2014 will probably taste better than pears dated December 2012. Then again, you may not notice much of a difference.

9. Heed "use by" dates, though. If the ground beef package says "use or freeze by Feb. 17," believe it.

10. Love your freezer. One bowl of minestrone or two slices of pizza left over? If you're pretty sure it will get lost in your fridge, pop it into the freezer. (Hint: Small servings make great brown-bag lunches.) This works for leftover takeout or the overflow from your anniversary dinner at the steakhouse. And speaking of restaurants . . .

11. Ask for smaller plates. Some restaurants will serve you a lunch-sized or senior-menu portion even if you're there for dinner. Or split an entrée with your partner (but be prepared for a shared-plate charge). Again: Some of these things freeze well, if you don't want to eat them the next day.

12. Donate! So you bought three boxes of high-fiber cereal to be healthy but found you don't like the taste. Or your roommate left behind cans of Spam and tuna when she moved out, and you're a vegetarian. A food bank, church or social services program can probably use them. Ask before you go, however, since some places aren't set up for individual donations and others have specific rules about what they can and can't accept.

Readers: How do you avoid wasting food?

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