Americans, for the most part, are blessed with the ability to obtain food most anytime.
That fact has led many people to throw food away when they feel it’s not fresh enough or they are just plain full.
The next time you go to a restaurant take look at other people’s plates once they’re done eating. Did they leave some food on their plate, or was it all consumed? Then consider how much food you may have thrown away recently. It really does add up. According to the results of a survey conducted by the American Chemistry Council, each American is said to throw away $640 worth of food annually.
Most households employ a rule that children can’t leave the dinner table until all the food on their plate has been eaten.
The practice is an effort to instill a habit of not wasting food, especially when the phrase “there are people going hungry in (insert country name here)” is added.
So what happens to all of that discarded food? Unless you compost it, the waste goes to a landfill, where as it decomposes it releases methane, a greenhouse gas that has a warming effect of the atmosphere, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.
What this shows is there are repercussions greater than a hit to your bank account, wasting food also has an affect on the environment.
Certainly people don’t want to waste food, and in turn their hard earned cash. So here are some tips to avoid food waste and help make use of leftovers.
When dining out, order smaller portions if you feel you won’t be able to finish the meal or won’t eat the leftovers. If you do take home leftovers keep in mind that last night’s dinner makes for a great lunch the next day.
That rule also applies to home cooked meals.
When saving leftovers, remember that air in the container adds to the decomposition factor of that food, so use a container that allows for the removal of extra air.