On average a family throws away more food than it thinks. Not out of laziness but because of small things: bought a lot, hid it in a far corner, forgot the date. The good news is that fighting this takes no heroics. It is a few habits at the shop, in the fridge and in the kitchen.

It starts at the shop

The shortest way to save on thrown-away food is not to buy what you will not eat. Before you go, open the fridge and cupboards and see what you already have. Make a menu for a few days and a shopping list from it. More about this is in the article on the weekly menu.

The second rule: take perishables for three or four days, not a week. Top up bread, herbs, milk, sliced meat and fruit. Grain, oil, tins and potatoes can be bought with a reserve: they will not spoil.

The fridge: order on the shelves

The fridge is not a warehouse but a shop window. Put food that will spoil soon at the front, at eye level, and put new things at the back. The rule "old to the front" works in shops and in your kitchen. Make an "eat me first" shelf or container: leftovers, opened jars and whatever will spoil soon go there.

Put meat and fish on the bottom shelf, where it is coldest and where nothing can drip. Dairy on the middle one. Vegetables and herbs in the lower drawers. Put cooked food above raw. And do not cram the fridge to the top: air must circulate.

Herbs and vegetables

Herbs wilt fast if stored wrongly. Do not wash them ahead. Stand dill and parsley stems down in a glass of water and cover with a bag. Wrap salad leaves in a paper towel and put them in a container. Leeks and spring onions like a glass of water too.

Here are the herbs in the catalogues now:

In the catalogues now: fresh herbs

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Keep potatoes and onions in a dark cool place, but apart from each other. Tomatoes are better not put in the cold: they lose flavour. Keep apples on their own: beside other fruit and vegetables they speed up ripening. Make soup or stew from wilting vegetables.

Bread: freeze it at once

Bread goes stale in two or three days and goes mouldy in a bag if it is damp. The best solution is to freeze it at once: slice it and put it in a bag. Take out one slice at a time and warm it in a toaster or a pan. The bread stays almost fresh.

If it has already gone stale, do not throw it away: croutons for soup, eggy bread, bread pudding, breadcrumbs. A loaf can be sprinkled with water and put in a hot oven for five minutes: it will soften.

Bread on offer by shop now:

In the catalogues now: bread

All offers

Do not take extra bread on offer if you have no freezer. Better top up in a day.

Dates on the pack

Learn to tell two kinds of dates apart. "Use by" is on meat, fish and fresh dairy: after that date the product is better not eaten. "Best before" is on grain, tins, biscuits and tea. After it the product is often still fine but may lose taste or aroma.

Do not throw everything out by the date. Go by look, smell and storage conditions. But if you doubt meat, fish or milk, better not risk it. For shopping that means: take perishables with a fresh date, especially on offer, and look at the date before putting them in the basket.

Dairy and eggs

Opened milk keeps in the fridge for a few days, so take it for three or four days. If some is left, make pancakes, porridge, béchamel. Soured milk works for pancakes and dough, but only if it soured by itself and does not smell unpleasant.

Eggs keep longer than milk: weeks in the fridge. Do not wash them before cooking. If you doubt freshness, drop one in a glass of water: fresh ones lie on the bottom, old ones float. Freeze leftover whites and yolks separately.

Eggs in the shops:

Where it is cheaper: eggs

This is not in the current catalogues right now: eggs. As soon as it shows up in a promotion, the cards will appear here.

Search the catalogues for something similar

A second life for leftovers

Leftovers are almost a ready dinner. Yesterday's soup becomes lunch. Leftover porridge becomes cheese pancakes or patties. Boiled potato becomes fried potato or potato pancakes. Rice becomes fried rice or stuffed cabbage. Chicken from the stock becomes salad or a pie filling. Dry bread crusts become croutons.

Make a rule: one day a week is "leftovers day". Open the fridge and invent a dinner from what is there. It is not a failure of planning but part of the system. And a whole chicken gives several dishes, which we described in the article on chicken.

Freezing as insurance

The freezer is the main weapon against thrown-away food. Freeze in portions: soup, braised dishes, mince, meat, berries, herbs, ready cutlets. Label the bag with name and date. Divide into portions for one dish so you do not thaw everything.

Do not refreeze what has thawed. Thaw in the fridge overnight, not on the table. If you have no freezer, even a small compartment of the fridge will do. More about vegetables in the freezer in the article on frozen or fresh vegetables.

A short checklist

  • Check the fridge and cupboards before the shop.
  • Make a menu and buy perishables for three or four days.
  • Put the new at the back, the old at the front.
  • Freeze bread sliced.
  • Keep herbs in water, do not wash them ahead.
  • Once a week hold a leftovers day.
  • Label frozen things with name and date.

If you want the general habits, open the article how to save on groceries.