Personally, I love to workout- but every year around this time, the local gyms become a bit crowded with New Year’s resolution newcomers. These newbies stick around for a couple of weeks, but usually stop working out by February. Don’t get me wrong- the idea behind New Year’s resolutions is great- I want to be a better me, too.Ěý However, these “me-centered” diets, exercise goals, and dry January pledges seem destined for early failure. So what can we do to break the cycle?

Instead of encouraging anyone to make self-focused lifestyle changes, I think that this Covid-filled January is a great time to think about the greater good.Ěý And what can benefit others more than saving a precious resource that everyone needs- FOOD! That being said, just last week, Food Rescue MAINE debuted our Household Food Waste Tracker on our website. This month, I want to encourage YOU to try out this brand new, FREE, food waste tracker, and discover how much food your household wastes. With the Household Food Waste Tracker,Ěý you can be more mindful of your food: save money, shop less, eat better, help feed your community, and protect Maine’s environment – air, water, and soil…ALL AT THE SAME TIME! The best part- all it takes is slightly tweaking the daily habits that you already have to bring more awareness to the way you handle food. Here’s how it works:

How Does it Work?

The Household Food Waste Tracker is a timely way to get our audience(YOU) to start tracking their food waste.Ěý Using the tracker itselfĚý is simple– the first week, you will go about each day as usual, but instead of throwing your food waste away, set it aside in a container. At the end of the week, you will measure your household food waste, mark down how many pounds you wasted on your Household Food Waste Tracker table, and add a note about what or why your food is getting wasted . Click here to access Food Rescue MAINE’s Free Household Food Waste Tracker. This will help you to create a baseline for how much food you waste in a typical week and some reasons why.

The next step of using the Household Food Waste Tracker is designed to show you how much a small change in your daily habits can change the amount of food that you waste. Each week, pick and implement one item from the bank of food waste reduction tips in the tracker and then measure your food waste as usual. At the end of the week, mark down how much food you wasted, and compare with your week 1 findings. Every week of the challenge, pick a new food waste reduction tip to try, and see which practices work for you! Feel free to carry over the old food waste tips from each week, or start fresh with each new standalone challenge.Ěý

This challenge is one that you can easily customize- feel free to do it for only three weeks, or the full three months. Research says…stick it out for 4 weeks.Ěý Once you get started and see how easy it is to make progress and the instant benefits – you won’t want to stop!Ěý

Amp Up Your Effort

Now that you are learning about how much food you are wasting, It can be discouraging to just dump all that food waste back in the trash can. Do you want to know what to do with the containers of food waste that you just saved from the trash? Now that you know how much food your household is wasting, the next step is to make sure that food waste stays out of landfills. There are three basic steps to preventing food from being taken to a landfill:Ěý

1. Reduce- prevent food from going to waste before the food waste happens(i.e. Shop smarter, freeze food, meal prep, etc..)
2. Recover- if the food is still good and edible for people, share with friends/family or donate to your local pantry.
3. Recycle– If the food is no longer edible, it is still good for the earth if you compost; so make sure to do , hire a composting service that will pick-up food scraps at home, or use a community drop-off site for food recycling. Compost or recycle your food scraps instead of throwing them away.Ěý

The Household Food Waste Tracker focuses on preventing food waste with Reduction and Recovery techniques. Unfortunately, no matter how hard we try, there will always be some food scraps to throw away. Instead of tossing the food waste you measure directly in the trash, Recycle it by composting at home, using a curbside composting facility, or dropping your food off at your local transfer station. Click here to find out where you can bring food waste for recycling or donation in your area.

Share Your Journey

Now that you have taken on this fun and challenging project, help us to share your journey! to let us know what challenges reduced your food waste the most, and which challenges you would toss. Tag in a photo of your favorite challenge. In 2022, use these helpful habits to continue reducing your food waste.

And always remember- Maine food is too good to waste.

-Hannah M., Mitchell Center Student Intern

I’m a novel-reading, chocolate connoisseur who enjoys *short but sweet* hikes, and trying new plant-based recipes.

The post Save Money, Eat Better, and Protect Maine with the FRM Household Food Waste Tracker appeared first on Food Rescue MAINE.

With the holiday season upon us, holiday foods are a key part of many family celebrations. After seeing how many of these holiday foods end up as leftovers at my house, I wanted to share some tips and recipes to ensure that your holiday favorites do not end up as food waste. Luckily, preventing food waste in your kitchen is as easy as planning ahead, being mindful of your leftovers, and sharing what you can’t eat yourself.Ěý

Tip 1: Plan To Reduce Waste

The first(and easiest) step to making sure your hard work and delicious holiday cooking does not go to waste is to properly plan for how many guests you will have. If you are anything like me, portioning correctly can be a serious problem. Planning ahead and only cooking for the guests you know you will have will reduce food waste before it even happens. Regardless of how hard we try though, there will often be a little leftover food from our holiday dinners.Ěý

Tip 2: Be Mindful of your Leftovers

The next step in the planning process is to think about what you can do with any leftover food that may occur. To help you get started, we compiled a list of common leftover holiday foods– from none other than our own followers! Our social media intern, Kalina, asked, “What foods do you most often have left over after the holidays?” Let’s see what you said and how we can help!

1. Ham

Ham is typically the protein that my family cooks for Christmas. Every year, there is so much leftover ham that we would have to eat it for days to use it all up.Ěý To avoid this leftover fatigue, we always . One other fan-favorite leftover ham dish is ham and cheese sliders- while this is typically done with deli ham, thinly sliced fresh ham would be a delicious substitute. These sliders are an excellent way to feed holiday house guests after your traditional ham feast.

2. Turkey

Turkey is another popular protein that our Maine audience cooks for the holiday, and it is so versatile! One of my personal favorite dishes is a chicken or a turkey pot pie. Pies and soups are excellent choices for using up your leftovers, because you can add many other leftovers – cooked veggies, onions, potatoes, salad greens – and they will still be good! Try Ěý

3. Mashed potatoes

Mashed potatoes are terrific as part of the holiday meal, but maybe even better as leftovers.Ěý Repurposing mashed potatoes can be so easy! Try forming handfuls of mashed potatoes into pancake shapes and frying them up in the bacon pan for a special breakfast treat!. A simple shepherd’s pie is another great way to use up leftover mashed potatoes. Shepherd’s pie is a quick, one pan recipe with a very short ingredient list, and delicious flavors. Feel free to add any leftover veggies that you have, like peas, carrots, corn – a tasty way to clean up the fridge! If you find yourself entertaining a lot of people for the holidays, you may also want to try these(they may be a great appetizer to go along with your ham and cheese sliders).Ěý

4. Canned Pumpkin Puree

While I love pumpkin, every time I have that canned pumpkin puree leftover from my pumpkin baked goods, it molds before I get to use it. However, with pumpkin being such a popular seasonal flavor, wasting it is easily avoidable. I personally love to make pumpkin pancakes, or have a tasty treat of pumpkin chocolate chip cookies. It can often be difficult to come up with recipes to use up your leftover pumpkin puree, because the amount of pumpkin you have leftover could vary from a teaspoon to three-quarters of the can. .

5. Lasagna

Lasagna is a great meal to store in the freezer. Simply slice your lasagna into personal portions and store in a plastic or tempered glass tupperware in your freezer. When you are ready, just pop it in the microwave(or in the oven for a little extra crispiness).Ěý

If you are getting sick of eating the same lasagna, there is still no reason to throw it away. Like all good things, it may be even better as a soup! While lasagna soup is typically made with the ingredients that make up lasagna- before they are cooked and mixed together, there is no reason that you cannot slice and deconstruct an already made lasagna, and make it into this yummy soup.

6. Bread

BREAD. Everybody loves bread, and there is a reason for that- there are so many uses for it! If the bread or rolls that you got for the holidays are starting to get stale, that means it is time to get creative and turn them into something delicious. , , andare just a few of the many things that you can make with your leftover holiday bread.Ěý

Sometimes food waste is unavoidable, and we end up with more leftovers than we can manage. When this happens, get creative and make fun new things out of your leftovers. Try some of the recipes mentioned above, and even freeze whatever you have space to store.Ěý

Tip 3: Share With Others

If you still have food left over, remember that the holiday season is an excellent time to share with others. Check with your neighbors, friends and family, local college students, senior center, and even your local food bank or food donation site to see what types of food they accept.

And always remember- Maine food is too good to waste.

-Hannah M., Mitchell Center Student Intern

I’m a novel-reading, chocolate connoisseur who enjoys *short but sweet* hikes, and trying new plant-based recipes.

The post STOP Wasting Holiday Food: Make your Leftovers Work for You appeared first on Food Rescue MAINE.

As a resident of Winslow, my town’s free food recycling bins are located at 136 Halifax St. in Winslow, and I participate in one of the Mitchell Center’s town food recycling pilots! I’m here to show you how easy it is to recycle your food by walking you through my own food recycling routine.Ěý

Step 1: Pick Your Compost Bins

First, I set aside two 5-gallon buckets (with lids) to collect my food scraps in. For my household of four, we fill and empty these buckets every 4-5 days. You can also keep more than two buckets for food scraps to minimize trips to the transfer station. Since I keep my compost bins in the garage, I use lidded buckets to keep any odors in and unwelcome visitors out.

Pro tip: You can also freeze your food scraps to minimize trips to the food recycling site – this makes Maine winter time food recycling even easier to do!.Ěý

Step 2: Collect Your Food Waste

Keep a bowl on your countertop to put food scraps in while you’re cooking. While I made myself a salad for lunch today, I put my scraps into a small kitchen bowl. Once I finished cooking and collected all of my food scraps, I emptied the small bowl into my 5-gallon bucket in the garage. This is the process that works for my household, but you could certainly keep your collection bucket on your kitchen countertop for a more direct approach.Ěý

Step 3: Bring Your Food Waste to the Transfer Station

Time to bring my buckets to the food recycling site! My liner-free 5-gallon bucket is shown in the far right photo above.Ěý My house is only a 5 minute drive to the food collection site in Winslow, which is located conveniently at the Winslow Public Library parking lot. This is a very central location, and only a short drive away for residents of Winslow.Ěý Click here to find out where you can bring food waste for recycling or donation in your area.

Once I arrived, I flipped open the top of a green collection tote and emptied all of my food scraps into the tote. While a special liner is used in these green totes, liners should not be used in your food recycling process. These liners shown in the green totes are for the convenience of Agricycle and will NOT go into the food recycling process.

These totes are collected by Agricycle on Thursdays, so when I go on Wednesday it’s exciting to see how much food waste is collected and money is being saved through everyone recycling their food scraps. Our town just started and has already gone from filling two totes to three. Tell your family and friends to join us! The more we reduce and recycle our food waste, the more we save…and protect our Maine land and water.Ěý

Step 4: Clean and Repeat

Rinse the food waste buckets. When I return home I usually use the garden hose to spray out both 5-gallon buckets before returning them to the garage. You can also rinse your bucket out in the sink or with a soapy dish rag.Ěý

Common FAQs:

Now to help you start your own food recycling journey, I’ve answered some frequently asked questions below. But if you have any other questions or need help getting started, please reach out to me or another member of the Mitchell Center team.

Q: Do the food buckets get smelly between visits to the town food collection site?

A: Keeping a lid on your food waste bucket will mitigate any smell there might be. You can also choose to freeze your food scraps between visits to the town food collection site. Putting sawdust in the bottom of your buckets is an organic way to keep things fresh and easy to clean. This sawdust is also great for compost material! Do not use any paper or plastic bags to line your bin, because they cannot be put into the green food recycling bins. No plastic or chemical substances should end up in compost! Finally, be sure to rinse your bucket thoroughly with water after emptying it at the town food collection site.

Q: What can I put in the green food recycling bins?

A: Anything that’s food! A sign is posted at the town food recycling site to indicate what can go in the bins. As a general rule, if it’s food, it can go in the bin, and if it’s not, then it cannot go in the bin. For example, you can put your Halloween pumpkins, fruit and vegetable scraps, flowers, and all of your meats/bones in the bins. You cannot put plastic bags, to-go food containers, bottles, napkins, or straws in the bins- even if they are biodegradable!

Q: Why can’t compostable ware go into the food recycling bin?

A: Many pieces of compostable ware cannot be composted due to harmful microplastics. These microplastics affect soil health and cause harmful effects when we grow our food in that contaminated soil.

Q: What if my community does not have a free drop-off site?

A: Try at-home composting!Ěý ĚýSuggest to your town to set up a drop-off site and contact the Mitchell Center for help in doing so. It’s a great way to help the environment AND help your town save money!

Q: Is this a messy process?

A: It doesn’t have to be! Keeping a lid on your bucket helps immensely with this and making sure to wash your bucket between visits. If you don’t want to wash your bucket between visits, you can also line your bucket with a trash bag. Remember, trash bags cannot be put into the green food recycling totes at the town food recycling site. Only food belongs in the green totes!

If you have unexpired and uneaten food that can be donated, Now that you know how easy it is, I hope to see you all at the Mitchell Center Town Food Recycling Sites soon!Ěý

And always remember- Maine food is too good to waste.

—- Hannah Crayton, Senior at Thomas College majoring in Environmental Science and Policy and Student Intern for Food Waste Projects.

craytonh@thomas.eduĚýĚý

The post Food Recycling Made Easy! appeared first on Food Rescue MAINE.

Since meal prepping is easily my favorite form of food waste prevention, I wanted to bring you inside my own kitchen to demonstrate how it’s done! But what is meal prepping and why is it so effective? Meal prepping is simply cooking your favorite weekly meals but with a plan – for shopping, cooking, and eating. You plan your shopping list with the purpose of cooking specific meals. You cook those meals with a plan for how many people to feed, how much to eat, and for how many days. Following your plan will prevent you from having a pile of food to throw out at the end of the week. After analyzing my own process, I came up with seven simple steps to make meal prepping a breeze.Ěý

Step 1: Be Realistic About Your Lifestyle

The key to meal prepping is to figure out how much food you need. It is important to have a realistic view of your lifestyle. Start off by asking yourself the following questions:

• • How many people are in my household?
  • When do I go to the grocery store?Ěý
  • How much should I eat at each meal?
  • When do I eat out?
  • How busy is my typical week?Ěý

Your answers to all of these questions will affect your meal prepping plan. Personally, I live on my own, and as a college student, it is not realistic for me to go to the store more than once a week. That being said, every Sunday, I go to the grocery store and buy food for two big, 3-4 serving meals using recommended dietary serving sizes. Then I do all of the prep work and cooking that afternoon. I have found that six large servings(sometimes I split one serving up into two for lunch) will get me through a full week, and when I make more than that for just myself, my tendency to eat out gets in the way and I end up having to freeze a meal or two.Ěý

If you are having any problems conceptualizing how much food you will need for your household, . This software will allow you to enter the number of people and days that you are cooking for and develop a plan based on this information.Ěý

Step 2: Get Prepared

Make sure that you have everything you need to get started. In addition to food, this just means plenty of containers. I use six single-serving glass storage containers (no BPA’s for me!). Using the same-sizedĚýcontainers simply makes them easy to stack and fit in the fridge nicely. I would also recommend choosing a brand that is microwave and dishwasher safe, as this will make reheating your food and cleaning up throughout the week easier.Ěý

When you are choosing containers, use brands that are freezer safe to allow you to freeze some meals, if needed. Ěý

Step 3: “Shop” Your Fridge and Pantry First

The next step to great meal prepping (and a most crucial step in preventing food waste) is to “shop” the food that you already have in your refrigerator and pantry and incorporate that food into your meals. If you use the food already available to you, you can avoid wasting food and save money buying unnecessary duplicates. After “shopping” my own kitchen, I knew that I had potatoes, onions, and spinach that I needed to get rid of before they spoiled– but I still needed some more inspiration to figure out what I wanted to cook.

If you are having trouble coming up with meals based on the ingredients that you have,

Step 4: Select Your Recipes – Get Inspired

This is my favorite part of meal prepping (in addition to eating, of course) —Ěý figuring out what recipes to make! This week I have a visitor that is not quite as excited about my plant-based meals, so I needed some new ideas.

I got up early on Saturday morning to hit my local farmers’ market and see if I could get my hands on some fresh, seasonal produce to inspire my recipes for this week. I ended up coming away with a few things: a beautiful bunch of kale, garden-grown carrots, freshly baked seeded rye, apple cider from a local orchard, and some crepes– for some much needed brain fuel. With all of these lovely fall ingredients, I had the perfect items to incorporate into one of my favorite soups – a that has been my favorite for years now. Soups are perfect for meal prepping because they are an amazing way to use up the leftover items in your kitchen. You can almost never go wrong by adding, substituting, or taking out a few ingredients of your favorite soup. For my second meal, I decided on a simple vodka sauce rigatoni recipe- for no other reason than it was requested- and I needed to get rid of some spinach.

Step 5: Smart Grocery Shopping

After you have taken an inventory of your fridge and pantry and picked your meals, it is time to make your grocery list and go shopping. As you can see, I had little items to buy this week, because I already had many of the ingredients. Meal prepping makes you take stock of your resources and use them to their full potential. When you go into the grocery store, try to stick to only the items that you put on your list. Coupons and bulk deals can be very tempting, but I find that I usually end up spending extra money on these discounted foods, and then they go to waste anyway. This is why being realistic about your lifestyle is so important.

Step 6: Cook and Package

I choose to do all of my shopping and cooking on Sunday, because it is the beginning of a new week, and it works best for my busy school schedule. Make sureĚýyou pick a day that you have a few hours to spare. Then, simply cook the food that you planned. After you have finished cooking your meals, let your food cool. Then serve equal portions into your containers and pop them into the fridge or freezer to store. Once you areĚýcomfortable with basic meal prepping, don’t be afraid to try new recipes and to creatively use up the food in your kitchen.

Step 7: Eat and Enjoy!

The easiest and final step of the process is eating your meals! You have planned out your entire week of meals with a plan. You saved money by using what you had. The best part of meal prepping is that now you are free from cooking for the rest of the week. You just have to take out Ěýa meal and pop it in the microwave or heat it on the stove. There will be no more worrying about cooking after work, or spending money on food when there is “nothing in the house”. You have planned with purpose, and now you have some time to relax.

And always remember- Maine food is too good to waste.

-Hannah M., Mitchell Center Student Intern

I’m a novel-reading, chocolate connoisseur who enjoys *short but sweet* hikes, and trying new plant-based recipes.

Citations:

The post Try Meal Prepping To Stop Wasting Food – Save Money And Time, Too! appeared first on Food Rescue MAINE.

“When in doubt, throw it out.” For me, this phrase was a commonplace theme in my childhood home. As a kid, it was one of my designated chores to go through the fridge or pantry closet. Every couple of months, I would throw away items that were past their “expiration food date.” This practice is one that has followed me into my own kitchen as well. If the milk carton is a couple of days past its expiration date, it’s safer to just throw it out. The culture of food wasteĚý so ingrained in me that I never stopped to question it.Ěý

But what if I told you that “expiration dates” were never intended to be the end all, be all entity to determine when to toss that milk?

According to the FDA, “Consumer uncertainty about the meaning of the dates that appear on the labels of packaged foods is believed to contribute to about 20 percent of food waste in the home.” (U.S. Food and Drug Administration:).

There is a common misconception that when your food reaches its “expiration date,” it is no longer safe to eat. In the United States, with the exception of infant formula, there are no federal laws that regulate date labels. In fact, date labelling is often left to the discretion of states, most of which have some requirements regarding what foods need date labels. However, in some cases,Ěý date labelling requirements can also be set by the manufacturer (6). For this reason, there are multiple phrases used to describe the date at which food loses its original quality, and each of these phrases have slightly different meanings.

These four phrases are, “Best if Used By/Before”, “Sell-By”, “Use-By”, and “Freeze-By” dates. Based on data in an October 2019 USDA article entitled, “”(1), there are certain food date label facts that you need to know:

• “Best if Used By/Before” Date: If you see this phrasing on your food, the date does not refer to the last day that the product is edible. This date means the product will be at its best possible quality before this printed date. After that date, the product may lose some of its previous quality. This is not a safety label.Ěý

• “Sell-By” Date: Like the “Best if Used By” date, a “Sell-By” date is not a safety label. The product’s “Sell-By” date means businesses should not market the product beyond the date. This is for a company’s inventory management.Ěý

• “Use-By” Date: The “Use-By” date on products indicates the product will not maintain its expected quality after this date. This is not a safety label
  • Exception: The FDA requires that baby formula have a “Use-By” date. As such, you should not use baby formula after the “Use-By” date has passed. The nutrients in the baby formula may decline after this date (7).

• “Freeze-By” Date: If you see a “Freeze-By” date on your product, this is the recommended date that you should freeze the product to maintain its peak quality and freshness. This is not a safety label.Ěý

With the exception of date labels on baby formula,Ěý there are no federally regulated product dates that indicate a day your safety would be at risk if you were to consume the food (7).

Food dating is a huge issue in the United States. This problem is not exclusive to our country. In the UK, brands and consumers alike are making a pledge to stop food waste due to food labelling through their “Look, Smell, Taste, Don’t Waste” campaign. So what should you do to help fight this issue in Maine? Instead of relying on the label of the products, return to trusting your own senses. Keep an eye out for abnormal colors, smells, or textures when determining the freshness of your food. Using your senses to see if your food is safe is a great skill. Plus, it will help you to use your food most effectively.

From now on, I challenge you to say, “Look, Smell, Taste, Don’t Waste” instead of “When in doubt, throw it out”.

Try to put it in your daily practice to only throw out your food if it doesn’t seem right when you first use your senses.Ěý

For help in re-training our senses, The University of Connecticut has produced an amazing article titled, for beginners who have not quite mastered using their senses to determine the safety of their food- this source provides examples of commonly wasted foods, and a quick guide to how long these items should be kept before throwing them out.Ěý

Check out the following resources:

If you would like to learn more , or would like to support new proposed legislation to end consumer confusion through standardized U.S. food date labels, see the introduced by Congresswoman Pingree in July 2021.

And always remember- Maine food is too good to waste.

-Hannah M., Mitchell Center Student Intern

I’m a novel-reading, chocolate connoisseur who enjoys *short but sweet* hikes, and trying new plant-based recipes.

Citations:

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The post Food Dates: The Real Truth appeared first on Food Rescue MAINE.

, the average American family of four throws out $1,600 a year in produce. By wasting all of this produce, we also waste the money that we spent on the produce, the resources that went into producing and transporting that food, and finally a waste of space in already overflowing landfills around the world.Ěý

Whenever I go grocery shopping, there are certain foods that I buy and already know are going to go to waste in my kitchen. For example, I absolutely love avocados– but I am never able to get around to eating the whole thing before it browns. That being said, when I buy an avocado, I expect that at least half of it will be wasted. To avoid wasting these perishable items, it is recommended that the most perishable items in your kitchen should be eaten first. However, this is not always a feasible option. Fortunately, there are several storage tricks that you can use in your home to make your food last longer. In this article I will show you just 6 easy tips to make your food go the extra mile- or day.

Tip 1: Storing Avocados in Lime Water

As I previously mentioned, avocados go bad very quickly. This fruit contains an enzyme called polyphenol oxidase that causes them to turn brown when exposed to oxygen. It is for this reason that it seems like the second you cut an avocado open it is already browning. In order to combat this issue, when you have used all of the avocado that you need for your meal, place the leftover parts(still in the peel if possible) in a Tupperware or bowl, fill the bowl with room temperature water until it covers the fruit, and add a few drops of lime(or lemon) juice to the water before sealing the container. Submerging the avocado in water limits its exposure to oxygen, and lime juice contains antioxidants that help to combat the oxidation process. Using this technique should keep your avocado fresh for several days.Ěý

Tip 2: Stop Storing Fruit Together

The fruit bowl on your kitchen counter is a staple in most households. However, keeping your fruit together in one place is actually the reason that it’s going bad so quickly. Fruit produces ethylene gas as it ripens, a hormone that speeds up the ripening and spoiling process. Therefore, when fruit is stored together, this ethylene gas will cause fruit to over-ripen, and if one fruit starts to rot, it will influence all of the other fruits in the bowl to speed up their ripening process. Avoid storing all of your fruit in one place, and check your fruit regularly– if you see one item beginning to spoil, remove it from the group and eat the good parts of the fruit before composting anything that is too ripe to eat.Ěý

Click here to read

Tip 3: Store Apples and Potatoes Together

According to 2016 data from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, root vegetables like potatoes, beets, radishes, and carrots make up almost 50% of wasted food (Click here to read Earth.org’s). While a lot of this waste happens before food even reaches the consumer, a great portion of this produce can be saved simply by storing it correctly. Most root vegetables thrive when they are stored in a cool, dark, and dry place – like a wire or natural fiber basket for example.Ěý

You may have heard before that you should never store potatoes and onions together, because it will speed up the sprouting process. However, you probably didn’t know that storing potatoes and apples together will actually increase the shelf life of your potatoes. The ethylene gas that apples produce actually helps to prevent potatoes from sprouting. Store your apples and potatoes together in a cool, dark, dry place– a paper bag works perfectly– to prevent them from spoiling quickly.

Tip 4: Use Parchment Paper to Wrap your Cheese

Cheese can be tricky to store, as different hard and soft cheeses have varying properties. Although there are some variances, it is a good general rule to wrap your cheese in parchment paper and keep it in a drawer of your refrigerator. The drawer of your fridge will help keep your cheese at its ideal temperature (about 40-50 degrees Fahrenheit) while maintaining some humidity. To go even further, try storing your cheese in parchment paper– it is porous, so it protects the cheese while still allowing it to breathe. These methods should increase the shelf life of your cheese, but even when it finally begins to mold, remember that you can still cut off the moldy parts and eat the fresh cheese that remains.

Tip 5: Store Onions in Tights

We have already established that storing your onions and potatoes together is a recipe for disaster, but the best way to store onions is certainly the strangest thing on this list. You can keep your onions fresh for months if you store them separately from each other in a cool dry place– the best way to do this is to hang them in pantyhose. The process is very simple- choose a dark, cool place to hang your pantyhose(like a pantry or a closet) and then take clean pantyhose and drop an onion into the leg, tie a knot above the onion, and repeat with another onion until there is no more room in the legs of the pantyhose to hold more onions. When you need to use one, simply cut off the bottom onion and leave the rest in place.

Tip 6: Remember…The Freezer Is Your Friend!

This last tip is a catch-all for all of your food storage needs. Whenever you notice that you have too much food to eat before it spoils, just remember that almost any food can be frozen and saved to use later. That’s why meat always says “use or freeze by”…the freezer really is your friend.

This is a great practice to use for leftovers – instead of throwing away your leftovers at the end of the week, pop them in the freezer. As you make this strategy a habit, you will learn which leftover meals taste the best when they have been frozen, and which ones do not make the cut. Practice putting items like bread, cheese, and berries in the freezer and see how they hold up when you’re ready to eat them. Since using this practice in my own kitchen, I have actually found that some of my favorite fruits and deserts are even better when they’re frozen- it can be a great cold treat for these hot summer days!

Start saving today
This week, I would like to challenge you to try one of these tips in your own kitchen. If you have more food storage questions, check out the extra resources below or send an email to us at: umgmc@maine.edu so that we can address them in the future.

For more help or ideas:

And always remember – “Maine food – too good to waste.”

-Hannah M., Mitchell Center Student Intern

I’m a novel-reading, chocolate connoisseur who enjoys *short but sweet* hikes, and trying new plant-based recipes.

ĚýCitations:

The post Save Money & Waste Less with These 6 Food Storage Tips appeared first on Food Rescue MAINE.

For those of us that do not have the luxury of harvesting our own food, the first step in getting food to the table is often going to the grocery store. For this reason, it only makes sense that the grocery store is the first place that we can start to reduce food waste. When you are more intentional about the food that you are buying, you will save money and waste less food at home. The following article will offer a few tips to get you started in the process of helping you shop smarter!

Tip 1: Have an idea of the meals that you plan on cooking with these groceries

Instead of rushing to the grocery store after work or as a last-minute errand, think ahead about the meals that you want to have that week, and pick the ingredients that you buy based on this list. Make sure that you shop your own fridge and pantry first, so that you know exactly what you do and do not need- this will help you to avoid getting duplicates that will go to waste. Planning your grocery list around certain planned meals will help you to avoid spending money on food that will go to waste.Ěý

Tip 2: Make a list and stick to it

“By simply making a list with weekly meals in mind, you can save money and time and eat healthier food. If you buy no more than what you expect to use, you will be more likely to keep it fresh and use it all.” –Ěý

After you have planned out your meals for the week, make a list of the ingredients that you will need, while keeping in mind the items that you already have at home. When you make this list, it is helpful to include the quantity of the items as well so that you only buy what is necessary. Be mindful of how many people that you are cooking for as well. For example, “onions x2 for soup and tacos” is better than “onion.” here to use a dinner party calculator and help you plan how much food you really need. It is easy to get carried away at the grocery store, especially if there are tempting deals going on- but remember, even if you buy 5 onions for a lower price, if those onions go to waste, you are still losing money.Ěý

Tip 3: Use a printable table/shopping app to keep track of what you need

If you find that you always struggle with remembering everything that you need when making your grocery list, consider downloading a shopping app or using a printable pdf so that you can keep track of the items that you need as you run out of them. Using a mobile app like will help you to customize your shopping list by suggesting frequently used items and allowing you to even share your list with other people for a stress-free shopping experience. If a paper list is more your style, put one of these printable pdf lists on your fridge to help you keep track of what you need:

Tip 4: Shop with an awareness of your lifestyle

I know that whenever I shop, I have a tendency to be very optimistic about my eating habits for the week. Instead of buying food that will force you to eat outside of your habits, be realistic about your lifestyle and shop accordingly. If you know that you usually eat out twice a week, do not shop for meals that you will have to cook at home every day. If you do not like bananas but usually buy them with the idea that you will eat them for the health benefits, avoid buying them because they will likely go to waste before getting eaten. There are plenty of ways to improve your dietary habits, but buying food at the grocery store that you will not eat is not the answer.

– Hannah M., Mitchell Center Student Intern –

Citations:

The post How to Shop Smarter, Save Money, & Eat Better appeared first on Food Rescue MAINE.