As friends and family gather for the holidays, one expert says there’s something we should all keep in mind: food waste.
Chris Wharton is a professor of nutrition in the College of Health Solutions at ASU.
“Food waste is, you know, technically speaking, it's any food that we could have eaten, but ends up getting thrown away instead," Wharton said.
And in the U.S., we waste between 30% and 40% of food.
“In Arizona, it's the same rates. A large proportion of the food that is available to us ends up getting thrown away for all sorts of reasons," Wharton said.
Wharton says during the holidays, there are a few things you can do to avoid food waste.
“Your freezer is your friend. And so if you have leftovers, you can freeze those things and they will last for such a long time. Even if they've already been heated, you can reheat them with no problem. Most foods you can reheat multiple times," he said.
He also suggests doggy bags.
“Another thing that actually my family does, we come not only with the food, but with containers. So we know that we're going to apportion all of the leftovers to different family members in different homes, after the fact," Wharton said.
And the only true expiration is for infant formula.
"All the other dates on food products that we see used by best buy and so forth, that's usually the producer talking to the retailer or the consumer saying like, 'This is the date by which we think this product will have its most, highest quality or most freshness.' But it just says nothing about the, the safety and the usability of that food after that date," he said.
He says the average family of four throws out roughly $3,000 worth a food every year.
Resources for reducing food waste
- ASU Waste Watchers site with shopping tips: globalfutures.asu.edu/waste-watchers/shopping-habits/
- EPA site on reducing food waste in the home: epa.gov/recycle/preventing-wasted-food-home
- EPA site on composting at home: epa.gov/recycle/composting-home#ingred
- Mill Bin and R.City program: https://www.mill.com/lp/rcity
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