Preventing Food Waste At Home

In Canada, almost 60% of our food that is produced every year gets wasted. Of that 60%, 40% of it comes from consumers. The food that gets wasted and ends up in landfills start to produce methane gas, which is a greenhouse gas that is 25 times more potent that CO2. This is important to note as it is a huge contributor to climate change. A great way for us to prevent this from happening is to think of alternative ways of storing our food or being creative with food that is about to go bad. Not only will this help with the environmental impacts, it will help us save money so we are able to use every bit of produce that we buy. The most common type of food that is wasted is produce, this is something that we can address by prolonging their shelf life through proper storage or making it into tasty recipes! Visit our recipe archives to find recipes on herb oil cubes, quick pickling, and pesto. You can also find our recipe for homemade vegetable stock, which helps use safe and edible food scraps and all its flavour before it is fully composted.  

Storage

Leafy Greens: When you purchase any leafy greens, such as kale, spinach, lettuce, you’ll want to wrap the bunch fully in a moist tea towel or cloth. If you have a box of spinach, you can place a damp tea towel on top of the bed of spinach. This technique will help the leaves keep in its moisture so it doesn’t wilt as easily and last longer in your fridge.

Herbs: When you buy herbs, you can immediately put them in a jar or cup that is filled with 1-2 inches of water at the bottom, just like you would with flowers! This can also be done with spring onions, celery and asparagus. Remember to change the water every 1-3 days.