Are you wasting $2500 a year on food? Learn how to reduce food waste in your home and get the most out of your dollar and reduce your environmental impact!
This post is a collaboration with Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner.on behalf of the Beef Checkoff. I received compensation, but all opinions are my own.
Did you know that 40% of food that gets brought home in America goes to waste?? That statistic is staggering to me. As a result of that waste, the average American wastes $2,500 on food every year. I can think of a lot of better things to do with that much money other than throw it in the trash can! The good news is, I happen to be an expert on reducing food waste.
Today I am very excited to be partnering with Beef. It’s What’s for Dinner. to share actionable tips with you on how you can reduce food waste in your home today. I will also include some links for recipes that will help you reduce the food waste in your home.
With the current environment in the world today, many of you are concerned about wasting food and being able to use what you have on hand. I know this post will be helpful! Reducing food waste goes hand in hand with saving money on food and making the food you have at home work for you.
How to Reduce Food Waste
Here are some easy tips you can start applying today to reduce food waste in your own home. As a food blogger, I often have a lot of leftover food.
I hate throwing food out, so I’ve come up with some very creative ways to store it long-term and use leftovers in a delicious way!
- Know what food you have in your fridge, pantry, and freezer. Taking an inventory is the first step to not wasting the food you already have.
- Plan meals in advance. Make meal plans one week at a time. This allows for wiggle room in case your plans change, and it allows you to plan on using leftovers the next week.
- Don’t only save meals that are already cooked. If you are making a meal that you know will feed more than your family, divide it into two portions and freeze one. Now you have dinner tonight and dinner for another night with no waste.
- Create new meals from leftovers instead of reheating them as the same meal.
- Smart food storage saves food and flavor. Cooked beef can be stored in the refrigerator at 40 degrees F for a total of 3-4 days to keep meat safe and fresh
- Freeze leftover meat in small portions. Cooked beef is a great freezer item. It’s easy to incorporate into other recipes and makes meal prep even faster.
- When you purchase meat, immediately divide it up into the portion sizes you need and freeze everything you won’t use right away. This eliminates the chance of it going bad in the fridge.
- When buying produce, only buy what you can eat within 5-7 days. Prep it for eating (wash, trim, etc.) as soon as you get home. You’ll be more likely to eat it this way.
- Always take inventory of your fridge every three days. Note what needs used and plan to use it. If you cannot use it right away, you can usually freeze it! This is a very comprehensive list of what you can save in your freezer.
How Cattle Reduce Food Waste
Although beef is one of the least wasted commodities produced in America, about 20% of edible beef product goes to waste, YOU could help improve beef sustainability by 10% simply by cutting that waste in half. That is a huge way to help your own environmental footprint as well as beef’s!
Cattle are also great at reducing food waste because of what they eat. Rations (think of those like recipes for animal feed) are designed for cattle based on their stage of life and their purpose. Many beef cattle rations include food that would otherwise be wasted!
They eat products like beet tops and bruised or misshapen vegetables and other human food by-products that would otherwise end up in a landfill.
Now it’s your turn to practice reducing food waste! Below, I have linked up some great recipes that can be easily adapted to use leftover beef.
If the recipe calls for a different cut of beef or beef that needs cooked ahead of time, simply skip the beef cooking steps. You will add in the beef leftovers when the cooked beef is called for in the recipe.
Leftover Roast Beef Recipes
Leftover Steak Recipes
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