How much good food do you throw out?

[no1_vern]

With everyone complaining about the cost of oil, it seems that the cost of food(and everything else) has escaped most of the attention.

The high(er) cost of food isnt the real problem with food. Its the way we toss it out. It seems that we toss about 1/3 of the food produced for consumption out.

Grocery bills are rising through the roof. Food banks are running short of donations. And food shortages are causing sporadic riots in poor countries through the world.

You’d never know it if you saw what was ending up in your landfill. As it turns out, Americans waste an astounding amount of food — an estimated 27 percent of the food available for consumption, according to a government study — and it happens at the supermarket, in restaurants and cafeterias and in your very own kitchen. It works out to about a pound of food every day for every American.

Grocery stores discard products because of spoilage or minor cosmetic blemishes. Restaurants throw away what they don’t use. And consumers toss out everything from bananas that have turned brown to last week’s Chinese leftovers. In 1997, in one of the few studies of food waste, the Department of Agriculture estimated that two years before, 96.4 billion pounds of the 356 billion pounds of edible food in the United States was never eaten. Fresh produce, milk, grain products and sweeteners made up two-thirds of the waste. An update is under way.

How much food do you think is tossed from your household? Please include any that was good when you bought it, but became inedible because you didnt eat it before it spoiled.

[Gomer]

Easily less than 5 pounds between my girlfriend and I. After greatly reducing our waste through some new recycling outlets we started making a concentrated effort to reduce our food waste. We are more conscious of our leftovers and only buy an amount of food we know we will eat.

Must of the food we "throw out" is fresh produce that has gone south and winds up in the compost pile.

Our total garbage production (food included) amounts to one, light, 13 gallon trash bag every 10 days or so.

So I guess if you count the composted waste, we might be over 5 pounds. But that includes the "process" portions of produce (skins, stems, inedible portions and the like). Produce is heavy due to the high water content. But we still strive to not waste the fresh produce as it amounts to throwing money away.

[Sarah L]

None, no food is ever wasted in my house. Going hungry sometimes as a kid is firmly burned into my mind.

[The Real Bingo]

I personally eat nearly everything I'm given, and what I don't eat goes in the fridge. My brother has some kind of ADD bullshit that prevents him from eating everything on his plate. Every meal there's something left on his plate. If I was his father, he wouldn't be allowed up from the table until everything is done.....but I digress.

[Atomic Rooster]

How much good food do you throw out?

We don't throw out any good food. Most everything we have is consumed. I have two growing boys so practically nothing goes to waste.

[SoloCamo]

They call me the garbage disposal at my house. I simply can't stand to waste food, even if I just ate the same left-overs for breakfast lunch and dinner, it doesn't bother me.

Now if I wasn't here, food would probably be wasted simply because my family will continue to cook new food, while the left-overs remain.

[Keymaker]

None, no food is ever wasted in my house. Going hungry sometimes as a kid is firmly burned into my mind.

QFT! My family was on food stamps.


===============


I try to never waste food. If I make something I make damn sure I'll eat it or at least the next day. Maybe for lunch..

Plenty of left overs in the fridge. In fact, lunch was last nights dinner.

I worked for a Chinese restaurant. You would not believe the waist! Everyday my job was to throw out a garbage can full of food that weighed close to 50+ pounds.

The average life expectancy, so to speak of a burger at a fast-food joint is 15 min.

[RobRich]

Very little. As my father often quotes from basic training: take all you want, but eat what you take.

BTW, if you wasted food at Fort Polk back in the day, you would earn the enjoyment of eating your meals on top of the trash cans.

[Detritus]

More then I would like to.

[sharder8]

What we don't eat . . . goes to our dog.

And she's happy as heck whenever she gets any leftovers, which is rare.

Harder

[surreal]

What we don't eat . . . goes to our dog.

And she's happy as heck whenever she gets any leftovers, which is rare.

Harder

Ya but I can't get her to eat the half dead lettuce without ranch dressing on it!
That's my biggest problem, being hungry at the grocery store and thinking I'll eat 6 lbs of lettuce in a week...
I was just mussing about this two seconds before I saw this post, indirectly anyway.
Talkin' to Chuck in his thread.

BINGO.

I wonder how many here have moved past raised eyebrows into shock and horror looking at prices in the grocery stores every week?

Do you shop enough to know how much things cost? (or cost 6 months ago or last year)

[pickel]

What we don't eat . . . goes to our dog.

And she's happy as heck whenever she gets any leftovers, which is rare.

Harder

Since I'm on my new Kidney diet and can have only a limited selection, I don't waste anything. My wife will clean the frig out once in a while but that's it. The dog gets only healthy ( for his needs) stuff and , of course, the bone . My mother feed our dog any and everything when I was a young boy and died of obesity and other chronic things, so just good food for Cody.

[surreal]

Hey wait! I never throw out good food, it always looks like a science project gone terribly bad before I think to toss it..

[pickel]

Hey wait! I never throw out good food, it always looks like a science project gone terribly bad before I think to toss it..

You must throw out ALOT of food then ??

[VHockey86]

I typically don't finish the sometimes huge portions that I get at restaurants. But I typically never end up throwing out food that I bought at the grocery store (but then again I don't buy all that much).

[MTAtech]

But the supermarket throws out one pound per day per person for the entire country:

You’d never know it if you saw what was ending up in your landfill. As it turns out, Americans waste an astounding amount of food — an estimated 27 percent of the food available for consumption, according to a government study — and it happens at the supermarket, in restaurants and cafeterias and in your very own kitchen. It works out to about a pound of food every day for every American. link

[no1_vern]

What we don't eat . . . goes to our dog.

And she's happy as heck whenever she gets any leftovers, which is rare.

Harder

HM, Im thinking that if you buy it for human consumption but a human doesnt eat it, then its a loss whether the dog eats it or worms eat it.

About the "good food" being thrown out, You bought it while it was good. If you let it rot/go bad before you toss it is still good food that could/should have been eaten before it went bad.


MTA: um its: it happens at the supermarket, in restaurants and cafeterias and in your very own kitchen IOW its all of the places that work out to 1lb/person/day, not just supermarkets. I do agree though that the supermarkets and restaurants/cafeterias probably toss the majority.

[Steve R Jones]

I often cook with having leftovers in mind....(don't have to cook the next day)

But, having watched a Dateline/ 20-20 type show, I no longer keep left overs in the fridge longer then 3 to 4 days. Moto -> "When in doubt - throw it out."

[surreal]

You must throw out ALOT of food then ??

Um old lettuce is what I'm talking about I never throw out cooked meal food.It's a lot easier to freeze chicken breasts and beef, in portions and take out and cook what you need.

I typically don't finish the sometimes huge portions that I get at restaurants. But I typically never end up throwing out food that I bought at the grocery store (but then again I don't buy all that much).

TAKE IT HOME!!

HM, Im thinking that if you buy it for human consumption but a human doesnt eat it, then its a loss whether the dog eats it or worms eat it.

Saying it's a waste if the dog eats is is nonsense- What? Do you feed yours on dry dog food exclusively? I bet you buy the cheap crap too. Because anything the dog eats is a waste right?

I often cook with having leftovers in mind....(don't have to cook the next day)

But, having watched a Dateline/ 20-20 type show, I no longer keep left overs in the fridge longer then 3 to 4 days. Moto -> "When in doubt - throw it out."

I love leftovers, they don't bother me at all, mine are always good because I cooked the meal

[SoloCamo]

But the supermarket throws out one pound per day per person for the entire country:

And I can easily vouch for that....Every single night we dump tons of perfectly fine but "out of date" foods. Before I worked here they used to donate the good food, but due to potential lawsuits (let's just say one piece was indeed rotten and it slipped through) they canned it.

Hell, I should just start taking it off their hands...because pretty much all of it is perfectly fine.