25+ Surprising and Easy Ways to Prevent Food Waste at Home

Food waste is the loss of leftover food. This happens in most homes but many people don’t see a big problem. Currently, many homes throw away food almost three times a day. Therefore, with this rampant increase in food waste in homes what are the best and easy ways to prevent food waste?

25+ Easy Ways to Prevent Food Waste at Home

1. Have a List

Ensure you have a list of the food you are missing in your kitchen. Don’t go to the shop without a grocery list. By doing this you will be able to prevent food waste. In addition, purchase perishable foods when you are only in need.

2. Plan on your Meals

Planning for meals is very essential in ensuring you minimize food waste. If you don’t have a plan please ensure you start making one as of now. This will help you minimize food waste at all times. The best things about planning for meals are that you will know what to buy at that time.

3. Don’t Buy Bulk

Are you leaving alone? Then you should know that what you require is so much different than what a more than one person leaving together require. So, if you are going to a grocery don’t purchase a lot. Minimize your budget. By doing this it will help you prevent food waste.

4. First in, First Out

This means that once you purchase new groceries you need to change the position of the older groceries in your refrigerator. Always be sure that you arrange the new fruits and vegetables at the back of your fridge and older near the door of your fridge. This will help you use the old groceries instead of the new ones.

5. Take Count of What you Throw

Be cautious of what you throw. Take a count of it and this will enable you to know what types of foods you should reduce purchasing. If you tend to throw away bread or kales ensure you reduce the amount of what you purchase. By doing this it will help you prevent food waste at your home. Furthermore, what you throw may not be necessary for you because it is not so much important.

6. Be Innovative

I know this may sound weird to some of you but it is so much important. Getting innovative is so much important in your kitchen. If you have a leftover don’t throw it away keep safely for using it for another meal. This tends to reduce food waste. Apart from using leftovers perishable foods are also important at this moment. This is because they tend to become stale at a fast rate.

7. Have a Compost Pit

Digging a compost pit is important. This will help you reduce food waste. This will work best if you have a garden. If you tend to have regular food waste this will help you in providing the energy for your plants.

8. Take Note of Expiry Dates

If you don’t take note of expiry dates then you need to start as from today. I know many people are not keen on this. It is one of the factors that are really essential for the prevention of food waste. When you go buying food always purchase foods that expire weeks after the day of purchase. Food waste usually happens because people don’t take keen on this matter.

9. Buy a Refrigerator

To minimize food waste at home you need to have a refrigerator. This is so important in ensuring that you reduce food waste. Most fruits and vegetables tend to go bad easily but if you have a fridge, they will not be stale faster. This will not only help with fruits and vegetables but also cooked meals that have remained.

10. Turn your waste into Animal Food

Most people in the world tend to throw away most foods such as meat bones, fish bones, and grains. But do you know that you can turn this into an animals’ food? This is so much possible because animals such as dogs or chickens tend to eat food remains such as fish or meat bones, and grains respectively. Not only dogs but vegetable peels can be eaten of cows or pigs. Especially pigs are very essential when it comes to food waste.

11. Don’t Cook Always

Sometimes it is not a must for you to cook. Some of your leftovers can serve as dinner once in a while. You need to keep them in a freezer and also eat them during another time. If you continuously do this you will be able to prevent food waste. So, if you have leftovers always you can try to use this method in reducing food waste.

12. Give it Away

If you have surplus food in your kitchen and you don’t want to waste it ensure you give it away. Rather than it going stale in your kitchen, you can give it away. This will help in the prevention of food waste.

13. Don’t Cook if it’s not Necessary

If you feel like you can’t eat much at a certain time you need not cook. Just eat what had remained then cook during other meal times.

14. Proper Storage

Storing food in a proper way helps in the reduction of food waste. Try practicing proper food storage. This will help you in preventing food waste.

15. Find a Gardener

If you are not able to reduce food waste you can look for a gardener to supply him or her free food leftovers. Therefore, this can help you in preventing food waste.

16. Don’t Peel

Foods such as potatoes and carrots are always peeled and due to this food waste cannot be reduced. However, you can prevent food waste by not peeling them and cooking them as they are.

17. Don’t Throw Everything

When you have leftovers ensure you don’t throw everything away. This will help you in reducing food waste.

18. Have a Budget

If you set a budget of how much money you will spend on buying food then it might be important in food waste prevention. You will not spend much and food thrown will be prevented.

19. Have an Alternative

Sometimes you might not be ready to throw away food but circumstances may force you. When such a situation arises ensure you have an alternative rather than throwing away the food.

20. Cook What You Can Finish

You may love eating but sometimes you may end up cooking so much food that you can’t finish. So, ensure you cook a meal that you can finish.

21. Add Flavors to Your Water

Peels from citrus or apples are essential in minimizing food waste. You can mix the peels with water and drink it. They act as flavors.

22. Blend

To ensure food waste prevention you can blend leftover vegetables and fruits. This will help you from storing them just to get stale.

23. Don’t Throw Away Seeds

Pumpkin seed is equally important for human health. You can store them apart from throwing them. They help in blood circulation and the prevention of heart problems.

24. Yolk is Important

Currently, people tend to remove the egg yolk and dispose of it. This is one of the things that contribute to food waste. However, eating it cannot cost you anything and the end result will be the prevention of food waste.

25. Reserve Excess Food

You need not dispose of excess food always. You can preserve it well and eat at other times. By doing this you will prevent enormous food waste.

26. Eat with People

Once in a while, you can welcome people at your place to eat. If you do this you might end up cooking and eating more food that could have gone bad.