On our own, our efforts may feel like nothing – but when we all make small changes – the results can be huge!
Complete the scorecard to assess your food waste prevention habits.
Use Food Well SCORECARD
Your Journey toward a Waste Free Kitchen
| Action | Points |
| One night a week, have a “Leftover Night.” Check Save the Food Prep Mate for inspiration! | 5 |
| Designate an “Eat this Now• area in the fridge for food that needs to be eaten soon. | 5 |
| Use your senses to decide. If food is still good to eat, rather than just the date on the label. Dates on food labels typically indicate peak quality, not safety. | 5 |
| Make the right amount of food for your family and for events – Use Save the Food’s Guest-imator to help calculate amounts at SaveTheFood.com guestimator | 10 |
| Learn how to store food correctly. SavetheFood.com storage is a great resource. | 10 |
| Reorganize your fridge to store items for maximum freshness. Visit NRDC.org for helpful tips. | 10 |
| Use a food saving or sharing app such Fridge Night, Flashfood or Too Good to Go | 10 |
| Look up ways to eat parts of fruits and veggies that you have traditionally thrown out. Did you know that carrot greens and cooked potato peels are edible? | 15 |
| Teach your family or friend a food waste reduction skill. For example, you could show them how to creatively repurpose leftovers, or how to store different types of food to extend the food’s shelf life. | 15 |
| Makea meal that helps you use the food that might have been tossed. | 15 |
| Your Total |
Score:
5-25 Points+ Great Start
25-50 = Keep Going!
50-75 = Keep it Up!
75-100 = You’re a Food Waste Hero
Food Waste Adds Up. Know the Cost.
What is food waste?
Food waste refers to edible food that is intended for human consumption, but instead gets discarded or expires.
This can occur in many different situations during preparation, sales, or food service, at grocery stores, restaurants or in individual households. It includes plate waste, spoiled food, discarded peels and rinds, and more.
Why is food waste so important?
When food is wasted, the land, water, time, energy, love, and other resources that are used in producing, processing, transporting, preparing, storing, and disposing the food are wasted as well. Not only that but if food goes to the landfill and rots, it produces methane—a greenhouse gas even more potent than carbon dioxide.
In the US, we waste a lot of food.
Current estimates show that 30-40 percent of the food supply in the U.S. is wasted each year. This is a serious problem for climate change, because methane is a greenhouse gas that heats the atmosphere up to 80 times faster than carbon dioxide.
I have a busy life.
Why should I try to make food waste prevention a priority?
Did you know?…
The average family of four spends $1,200 per year on food that does not get eaten. (That is $100 per month!)
Imagine having $1,200 extra each year simply by spending less on groceries because with a little effort, over time you’ve become better at using all your food before it goes bad!
I think that is a skill worth investing a little time into!
Even a little bit of an effort to simply become more aware of when you waste food, builds up over time that can develop into useful skills:
• Saving money because of a better idea of what foods you actually use in time
• Helping manage your household more efficiently
• Easier time meal prepping because you are more aware of the food you have.
Don’t feel bad if you continue to waste food or find it difficult to put much effort in, just keep trying without being harsh on yourself, it’s hard to change what you’re already used to doing! Just know you can change, even if you start out small.
Even a one degree shift in your thinking can cause a massive change in your life over time.
What can I do?
How can I get better at using all the food I buy in time?
Preventing food from going to waste is one of the easiest and most powerful actions you can take to save money and lower your climate change footprint.
The basics of reducing your food waste include trying to improve these skills:
- Becoming more aware of when you waste food
- Knowing what you need and buying only what you need
- Eating what you buy
- Avoiding throwing away food
Simple! Growing in these areas requires a small amount of attempted effort and a little time.
Don’t know where to start? We have some idea tips for you! Check out our tips and tricks page!
Free printable cookbooks!
