Food waste not only wastes money, it also adds to our carbon footprint. Knowing how to store food in our refrigerator is a very simple way to reduce food waste. Did you know the average Victorian household throws out $40 worth of food a week? That is $2080 per year, can you imagine what you would do with an extra $2080 per year, how about $20 800 over ten years!
Wasted food is the world’s third-biggest carbon emitter after China and US, just by storing our food correctly reduces food waste.
Location, location, location
Where we store our food in the refrigerator is just as important as how food is stored. The tops shelves are the coldest, so it’s the best place to store fish, and this may seem obvious but meat should be stored in the meat try, and vegetables in the crisper drawers.
Did you know it takes 500 litres of water to produce 1kg of potatoes and 50,000 litres of water for 1kg of beef.
How to store
- Remove vegetables from the packaging and recycle or repurpose what you can.
- Leafy herbs like basil are best wrapped loose in dampen paper towel, then placed in a plastic bag (the crinkly type) and stored in crisper.
- Herbs can also be placed in a glass of water, covered with a clean recycled plastic bag (the crinkly type) sealed with rubber band and stored in the fridge.
- Meat is best store in the packaging you brought it.
Why should I worry about food waste?
Food waste accounts for more greenhouse gas emissions than any country except for China and the United States, according to a United Nations report. It says every year about a third of all food for human consumption, around 1.3 billion tonnes, is wasted, along with all the energy, water and chemicals needed to produce it and dispose of it. Source: ABC News
As a Professional Organiser I see fridges full of food, never to be eaten, all this food has been farmed, processed and transported to arrive in our homes, only to be throw out.
“Food wastage reduction would not only avoid pressure on scarce natural resources but also decrease the need to raise food production by 60 per cent in order to meet the 2050 population demand”. says Food and Agriculture Organisation.
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