The Best Ways to Reduce Food Waste

There are many areas in which we can strive to become more environmentally friendly, and one of these is our consumption of food. In this blog, we take a look at why food waste is such a major environmental issue and the best ways to reduce food waste.

Why is food waste such a problem?

You might think that there are bigger things to worry about than food waste, but it is actually one of the major problems when it comes to climate change. A UN report found that people waste almost 1 million tonnes of food a year.

The same report commented that food waste and loss causes about 10% of the emissions driving the climate emergency and outlined that, if food waste was a country, it would have the third-highest emissions after the US and China.

Although food waste is currently a big problem worldwide, it is also one of the areas where it is easiest for people to reduce their environmental impact. In fact, the UN has set a sustainable development goal of halving food waste by 2030. With that in mind, we look at some things that are being done to help people reduce their food waste.

What is being done to tackle this issue?

Technology could be at the heart of tackling food waste in the UK and other countries, as we have recently seen a rise in the number of people using dedicated food waste apps. It is thought that 3.4 million people around the world are using an app designed to encourage people to give away rather than throw away surplus food.

Olio is an app that encourages food sharing within your local community. You can add spare food to the app, set the location for pick up, and then people in your local area can message you to request to pick it up. It’s a great way to help out others and prevent your food from going to waste!

Another fantastic food waste app is Too Good To Go. They partner with restaurants, cafes, bakeries, supermarkets and other food retailers in order to prevent food from going to waste. The food sellers create “magic bags” of food that might otherwise be wasted at the end of the day, and customers can pick these up for approximately a third of the retail price.

Technology like this is making great steps to encourage people and businesses to share their leftovers instead of wasting them!

What are some other ways to reduce food waste?

Some other really simple ways you can reduce food waste are the following:

Meal planning

You’ve probably heard this one before, but meal planning is such a fantastic way to make sure you only buy the food you need! Of course, we can’t always predict exactly what our requirements will be, but if you have a basic plan in place, you’re likely going to stick to it! This will stop you buying lots of unnecessary food that you don’t really have a plan for.

Freezing whatever you won’t use straight away

Use-by dates can be hard to meet, especially if you live on your own or in a small household. Items such as fresh bread, for example, are likely to only last a couple of days at their best, but this doesn’t mean you should throw the rest out! Freeze whatever you think you won’t eat until a later date, and simply take it out as you need it.

Storing food in the correct environment

Food can go bad much quicker if you aren’t storing it in the right conditions. Make sure you do your research and pay attention to the environments you should be keeping each food type in.

Only buying what you need and avoiding impulse buys

None of us are perfect and there are times when we buy more food than we actually need because we are hungry or acting on impulse. Try to monitor this behaviour, as it may lead to you wasting perfectly good food in the end if you have more than you need.

Getting creative with leftovers

It’s the night before you go food shopping and you have no idea what to have for dinner. The temptation is usually to order a takeaway or just have some beans on toast, right? However, you may well have some fresh vegetables or other food leftover that you can get creative with and ensure you avoid wasting them! An example might be cooking a rice or noodle stir fry with whatever vegetables you have left in the house.

Those are just some ways you can try to reduce your food waste, as well as some of the fantastic apps you can use to help. Here at SearchScene, we really believe technology can help us fight climate change, which is why we donate 95% of the profits we make from our search engine to charity.