Millions of people are dying every year because of unavailability of food and yet when we calculate the quantity of food that is wasted every year, it turns out that the developed countries are wasting more food than the developing countries and I had to question myself, "Does the development mean that we should waste the food? Is it what makes a developed country?".
Either directly or indirectly, the wastage of food also results in wastage of water. One drop of water could save the life of an innocent kid but no, we are rich, who cares about someone's life, right? No, some of us really care about others and that's the reason you're reading this article today, and I'd congratulate you for having that kind of spirit (i.e reduce the wastage of food).
Image Credits: OCF.Berkeley
The thing is, when we buy excessive food, we also cause the price to fly high because of the increased demand. This increasing demand pushes the price higher and then the food becomes out of range for poor people. Anyways, I'm glad that you are taking this topic seriously. In this article, we'll discuss some of the ways to reduce food wastage.
# 1 - Reduce Bulk Purchasing:
It is widely common that most of us like to make a single trip to the stores and buy whatever we may need in the coming weeks in bulk. The necessary items include vegetables and fruits too which you may be buying for probably 3 days to a week. Though it's not a problem, only when you are 100% sure about your needs.
Studies show that people who buy in bulk tend to waste more food than those who make frequent trips to the store. According to what I've personally observed, rich people engage themselves in bulk purchases and poor people make frequent trips to the store, so it is probably safe to claim that rich people waste more food than the poor.
# 2 - Learn To Store Properly:
Now that you've bought the food items either in small quantity or in bulk, the next thing you'd want to do is properly store the food to make sure that it stays safe and usable. If you've bought some canned products, then it is likely that you'll see expiration dates on the package. Arrange the products by its expiration date and store them accordingly to make sure that you don't lose any of your bought items due to expiration issue.
You may have bought tomatoes in bulk and we all know that the life of tomatoes is not that big. Therefore, you must find some kind of technique to store them properly. One of the effective ways is to turn your tomatoes into sauce. That way, you'll be able to use that sauce for months in cooking easily and sauce also increases the taste of tomatoes.
# 3 - Cook Only The Quantity You Need:
This is something that is not only common in developed countries but also in developing countries, though it can be argued that developing countries are better in terms of avoiding food wastage.
We usually cook more than what we need and as a result, the leftover goes into the fridge with the intention that we'll eat the food tomorrow but there we go, we forget what we kept in the fridge or our mood start changing and we decide to wait for several days before checking whether the leftover (that we saved a few days ago) is still eatable. The leftover then goes to the bin because of its smell and taste. What a shame! Wouldn't it be better to cook only the quantity we need? That way, we could save what we are throwing in trash box?
Anyways, those were several ways to avoid food wastage. If you have any great technique to share, please don't hesitate to do so in the comments section below.