Prolong the Contents of Your Fridge: Here’s How…
According to The Guardian, the UK is throwing away £13bn of food each year, with 4.4m tones of household ingredients reaching landfill in 2015 alone. Of course, that’s all food that would be much better off in our bellies, so here at My Appliances, we’re doing our bit to help you reduce the amount of stuff you chuck by bringing you some top tips on prolonging the contents of your fridge. Read on…
Shop Wisely
The first step to less food wastage is simply to shop more wisely. After all, if you’re buying more than you need, it stands to reason that it’s more likely to get thrown away. But by only buying what you need – and when you need it – you’ll drastically cut your household’s food waste. Make sure you pop food that can be frozen in the freezer – and do it as soon as you get home from your shop.
By doing this, you can simply defrost what you need ahead of each meal – et voila, no food wastage!
Tupperware is Your Friend
If you want to make an effort to minimise your food wastage, make acquaintances with storage containers – and make sure you make the most of them. LifeHacker.com advises that you “store the food in the best-fitting, shallow containers. Glass storage containers have the benefit of being easy to check the contents, may be microwavable, and are more eco-friendly.”
The site shares another useful tip, which is this: put the most recently-cooked food behind earlier leftovers. That way you can ensure anything that’s going out of date is eaten first.
Store Things the Right Way
Some would argue that there’s no right or wrong way to store, say, fruit – but there is! Bananas, when placed next to other fruit, can result in your apples, pears and peaches rotting more quickly.
And what about eggs; do they need to be kept in the fridge? The Food Safety site has a handy chart over here.
Plan Your Meals
By planning your meals before you shop for the ingredients, you won’t just save money; you’ll reduce food wastage, too. It can seem a little anal to some, but work out a weekly meal plan, shopping for the fresh ingredients you need every two to three days.
That way, nothing will expire and you’ll be chucking less food away at the end of the week. True, you’ll be shopping more often, but why not walk instead of driving to the supermarket? You’ll be keeping fit, saving money, and doing your bit for the environment!
Freeze Foods
We’ve touched on this point earlier, but by freezing foods you really will get the most out of your weekly shop. Make sure you keep your food in air-tight packages to prevent freezer burn, as this will degrade the quality of your food.
Don’t forget to also freeze fresh herbs; simply add them to an ice cube tray and fill it with water. Now, pop it in the freezer. All you’ll need to do when you need a few herbs is chuck the ice cube directly in your pan while you’re cooking – simple!
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Until next time…