Sariah Israelsen: You're listening to USU Extension Educational Highlight. I'm Sariah Israelsen, and joining me today to talk about food waste is Carrie Durward, USU Extension nutrition specialist. Welcome, Carrie!
Carrie Durward: Hey, thank you!
Sariah Israelsen: So, I think we all want to cut down on food waste, just to save on money in the amount of groceries that we buy, and to reduce the amount of food that we throw away. So, Carrie, what is the main way people waste food in the first place?
Carrie Durward: Great question. I think the main causes of food waste are, you know, food going bad before we get to it. Sometimes we forget about it. And also, sometimes we're served more food than we're going to consume or different types of foods, and we're going to consume.
Sariah Israelsen: So, it's probably unreasonable to think that we can cut back on all of our food waste, but what is the main thing that we can do?
Carrie Durward: So, if I have to sum it down into one thing that we can do, I think thinking critically about why we're wasting food and trying to implement solutions to overcome, you know, our own particular reasons why we're wasting food is the best thing that we can do.
We have kind of broken out on our website, a bunch of different places where we can kind of intervene to help food waste stop from happening. And I feel like some of my favorite of those things, one of the first ones, it happens way before the food is wasted meal planning.
So before you even go to the grocery store, thinking about what meal Do you want to eat that week, what ingredients you're going to need for them and seeing what you already have on hand. And then only buying at the grocery store, the things that you need to make the meals that week can really help you know, not end up with foods that you don't end up using.
Another tip that I really like to do is to think about how I'm going to use leftovers. This is one that I struggle with quite a bit myself still. So I'm still working on this one.
But for example, when you're meal planning, you might think about like, you know, I'm going to make chicken breasts at the beginning of the week. And we're going to have chicken breasts, big potato vegetable for the first meal, and then maybe I'm going to cut it up and use it in a burrito or a taco or chicken salad or something like that the next day, and then maybe a third way, the final day.
The other thing that we can do with as far as leftovers go is to just kind of think this is the part I struggle with and think critically about are we actually going to eat those leftovers in a timely way. So often, I will cook a big pot of soup thinking we're going to eat this all week that after the second or third time, I am sick of it. And I do not want to eat any more of it.
And so, what really would work a lot better for me. And something that I'm trying to think about, and implement is to freeze single portion sizes so that I can use it later for a lunch or enough for one meal for my family. And that way I can pull it out in a couple of weeks when I am no longer sick of that particular soup.
Sariah Israelsen: So, it sounds like a lot of it is just planning ahead. But what are some of those environmental impacts if we do waste a lot of food?
Carrie Durward: Another great question. So, the environmental impact of wasted food is kind of twofold. So, it takes a lot of resources to make food.
So, we are using land, water, carbon, we're burning fuels to you know, get the inputs to the site, whether it's like fertilizer or water, whatever, we need to grow that food feed for animals, transportation to get the food to the store and then to our houses. And so there's already a lot of sunk costs in it.
And so if we let the food go to waste, then all of those resource inputs also go to waste. If we waste food, the second part of the environmental impact is the fact that when food rots in a landfill, it lets off quite a bit of methane gas, which is a really potent greenhouse gas.
And so when that gas makes its way out of landfills and up into the atmosphere, it has really severe consequences for climate change, greenhouse gases, warming, etc.
Sariah Israelsen: That was Carrie Durward USU Extension nutritionist specialist. Thanks so much for joining me today, Carrie!
Carrie Durward: Hey, thank you so much, Sariah.
Sariah Israelsen: And thank you all for listening and make sure that you tune in again next week.
