25 tips to reduce food waste

Meal-plan so you’re making the most of ingredients you already have, and try and reduce supermarket excursions.

Buy exactly what you need. If a recipe only requires one onion, don’t buy a whole bag.

Shop less.

Have a leftovers dinner evening at least once a week.

Get a composting system going. For apartment dwellers a kaibosh system might work, or find out where a community composting system is. Better yet, take the reins and investigate a compost system for your unit or apartment block.

Food scraps that can’t be composted could go to animals – pigs and chickens will hoover it up.

Get a worm farm. Freeze food if it’s going to go off and you can’t get to it before then.

Use the whole part of a fruit or vegetable, don’t bother cutting off ugly brown bits or peeling potatoes or chopping broccoli stalks.

Grow your own if you can – start your own vegetable garden, or get active in your community garden.

Gift food you know you can’t eat.

Store bread in the fridge or freezer so it doesn’t go off. Stale bread can be turned into breadcrumbs.

Use bean brine, often seen in tinned chickpeas or legumes, can be used as an egg white substitute in cooking.

Sort your storage so you don’t forget about or can’t see items in your pantry or fridge that will go off.

Consider long-life milk if you’re not getting through the fresh stuff fast enough.

Bring home leftovers from restaurants (ideally in your own container to avoid plastic waste).

Vegetable off-cuts can be frozen and later used to make stock.

At restaurants, eat your garnish or request none. Be vocal about what you don’t want on your food, rather than being polite and leaving something uneaten.

Spend your money at the markets where produce is more likely to be local.

What gets measured, gets done; monitor what you’re throwing away and assess it. You may not realise your kids are chucking their lunches.

Check the fridge. Fruit and veges will wilt faster if not stored properly. Too cold and it can turn your lettuce to mush, too warm and your dairy can go off.

Learn to cook so you can learn to make the most of what’s in the pantry.

Educate others.

Sign up to ShareWaste NZ to find composts near you.

Eat ugly fruit and vegetables.

Source: Emily King, and Love Food Hate Waste