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Food: Enjoy It, Don’t Waste It
By Patrice Powers-Barker,
OSU Extension, Lucas County
The Truth Contributor
Most people are aware that
the portion sizes of food in the United States are usually
much larger than the recommended serving sizes. The serving
size is the recommended amount food for healthy eating given
by the Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The portion size is
what is served on the plate or how much we choose to eat.
Sometimes, too large of portions lead to eating too much
food and that can increase weight gain.
On the other hand,
although we don’t want to overeat, food waste is another
problem. It’s estimated that 40 percent of the United
States food supply is not eaten. Food loss occurs for many
reasons from all the steps it takes from the farm to the
store, like spoilage, problems during processing or
over-ordering by the grocery store.
Some of the ways that
consumers waste food is by overstocking the refrigerator and
then not using all the fresh food in time. Is it just a
choice between two different problems? Either we eat too
much food or we waste too much food? There are easy ways to
reduce food waste as well as eating healthier.
Take home leftovers from
restaurants. As mentioned earlier, many portion sizes
(amount of food served on the plate) are much larger than
the recommended serving size. This is often true at
restaurants. Instead of overeating a meal or throwing away
the food, a good option is to request a to-go box when your
meal is served. Put part of the meal in the box to take home
and stick to a reasonable portion size for more than one
meal. Another option is to share meals or to order a smaller
serving such as off of the appetizer menu.
For meals at home, plan
menus and shop the kitchen first. Review what food is
already in the kitchen whether it’s canned food in the
cupboard, fresh food in the refrigerator or frozen food in
the freezer. This planning will help with using already
purchased foods which might also have a positive influence
on the cost of groceries. In addition, shopping the kitchen
first is a good way to check all the food so that it doesn’t
get forgotten in a back corner, shelf or crisper drawer.
It’s not nutritious or
economical to buy fresh produce and then forget about it in
the refrigerator until after it has started to rot. Foods
like fresh produce and meats do have a specific shelf life
and will not last indefinitely. If food has spoiled and is
not healthy for consumption, it needs to be thrown out. This
is especially important for fresh food in the refrigerator.
It is also important to
understand the dates on food packages. Some of these dates
might be sell-by, use-by, best before and best used-by.
These different terms are used for different reasons on
different types of foods. They provide useful information
but they do not necessarily mean “throw away by this date”.
For example, sell-by is a date decided by the food
manufacturer. So, I could buy a gallon of milk before the
sell-by date but if I follow food safety recommendations
like storing it in the cold refrigerator, that milk should
be good to use for the following week. In a similar way, if
I purchase some fresh meat just before the sell-by date and
immediately put it in my freezer, it is fine to use. Most
of the dates on food packages are an indication of food
quality and not about food safety. No one wants to eat or
serve food that is not safe but it’s important to know that
dates on food packages are not indicating the day food needs
to be thrown away.
Be careful with bulk
purchases of food. If the lower cost of bulk food fits into
your meal plans, that’s great. If it just sounds like a good
deal at the store and in reality you won’t use it all, it’s
not a good buy.
Have a plan of easy to make recipes to use up foods like
soups, pasta, stir-fries or casseroles. Sometimes this type
of meal planning takes some mixing and matching but it’s a
good way to use food without it going to waste. A soup could
include vegetables and ingredients from the pantry,
refrigerator and freezer. In addition, when making a recipe
like any of those mentioned above, the meal plan might
include freezing a few individual portions of the food to
use on another day. Just remember to use what’s in the
freezer!
Check the garbage can. Are there any foods that are commonly
thrown away in your kitchen? Do you need to purchase less of
that food? Do you need to find other recipes to use the
food? For example, if the potatoes start sprouting before
they are used, plan to use them sooner by adding baked
potatoes, potato soup and hash browns to the weekly menu. If
the bag of apples in the refrigerator are starting to become
soft but are not rotten, chop them up and add to a salad or
slice and bake them with cinnamon for a side dish.
Resources used: OSU
Extension, University of Nebraska Extension, Iowa State
University Extension and Outreach
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