SAVING FOOD

Did you know that 40% of the food in the United States goes to waste? And that the average American consumer wastes 10 times as much food as someone in Southeast Asia? Up to one out of seven truck loads of perishable food is thrown away before it even gets to the supermarket. And this is not only a loss of food: 10% of the U.S. energy budget goes to bringing food to our tables, as well as the 80% of freshwater consumed in the U.S.  But if we saved food by reducing losses by just 15%, more than 25 million Americans could be fed. There are many ways of saving food. In this blog I will explain how to do it by buying only the necessary food, storing it properly so that it doesn't rot, and "recycling" it.

You've probably happened many times to buy food and then realise that you didn't need that food or that you already had it. Most of the times, the result is that food ends up being wasted. To avoid this it is important to buy only the necessary food. There are many ways of doing this: make a shopping list with the ingredients you will need for the future meals. To know what ingredients  to buy, I suggest keeping a running list of meals and their ingredients. Check the cupboards and the refrigerator before buying to make sure you don't already have what you need. To make this easier, store things neatly and in a tidy way. This will make shopping and cooking easier and will save food.

Food is often wasted and thrown away because it rots even before you can use it. This is often due to a bad storage. As I said before, it is important to store food in an orderly way, but it is even more important to store it in the right place. Fruits, vegetables, meat, fish, milk, and other fresh products go rotten quickly and easily if not correctly stored. Some products need to be conserved in the refrigerator for a better preservation. Meat and fish can either be frozen (if they're not to be consumed soon) or kept in the refrigerator. Fruits and vegetables, depending on the type, can be stored inside or outside the refrigerator. 

Finally, "recycling" food is also important. Using leftovers for alternative meals, or giving scraps to animals are examples of using food that is about to be thrown away. Fruit that is starting to become overripe can be used to make cakes or milkshakes. Vegetables can make great sauces or stews. Bread that's gone too hard can be reduced to bread crumbs to later be used to fry food.

All these are ways to try and save food. They can be successfully implemented at home and by doing them, you will not only save food, but also water, energy, and money.

WORKS CITED:

Grunders, Dana. "Wasted: How America is Losing 40% of its Food". NRDC.org. Natural Resources Defense Council. 2012. Web. 20 APR. 2017.

"Reducing Wasted Food at Home". EPA.gov. United States Environmental Protection Agency. 2017. Web. 20 APR. 2017.

"Waste Not Want Not Blog". Readwritethink.org. IRA/NCTE. 28 JUN. 2012. Web. 20 APR. 2017.