Combatting Food Waste at Home

Yesterday, NPR’s Morning Edition reported on a story called Consumers Contribute to Retail Food Waste. The article focuses on how much food waste consumers produce and more importantly, why. It’s worth a listen (it’s only 5 minutes long).

The story got me thinking about the amount of food waste that I produce, what I’ve done to decrease this amount, and how I can be better. I’m pretty good at using fruits and vegetables before they “go bad” (or at least what I define this as). When they look a little questionable, I simply put them in a smoothie, bake with them, or roast them. That being said, I get very squeamish about meat staying in the refrigerator. In fact my mom and I had a conversation about some chicken I made a couple of days ago – I was concerned it was no longer edible. The next day, my mom had a similar conversation with some people at work and took a very informal poll. She asked a couple of people how long they thought cooked chicken could stay in the refrigerator. She got responses that ranged from 2 days to 2 weeks. 

I have to admit, it was pretty amusing to hear what her coworkers said and why. Almost all of them believed what they did because that’s what their mom told them. Since my own mom wasn’t too sure about the right amount of time, I decided to do some research and found the Food and Drug Administration’s Food and Safety website. They have a couple of guidelines and a chart that I’ve provided below. I’m planning to do some additional research regarding fruits and vegetables and will probably post it next week.

Here are some basic guidelines for storing meat in the refrigerator:

• Raw ground meats, all poultry, seafood, and variety meats: Refrigerate 1 to 2 days.
• Raw roasts, steaks, and chops (beef, veal, lamb, and pork): Refrigerate 3 to 5 days.
• Cooked meat, poultry, and seafood: Store in the refrigerator 3 to 4 day.

Category	Food	Refrigerator (40 °F or below)	Freezer (0 °F or below)
Salads	Egg, chicken, ham, tuna & macaroni salads	3 to 5 days	Does not freeze well
Hot dogs	Opened package	1 week	1 to 2 months
	Unopened package	2 weeks	1 to 2 months
Luncheon meat	Opened package or deli sliced	3 to 5 days	1 to 2 months
	Unopened package	2 weeks	1 to 2 months
Bacon & Sausage	Bacon	7 days	1 month
	Sausage, raw — from chicken, turkey, pork, beef	1 to 2 days	1 to 2 months
Hamburger & Other Ground Meats	Hamburger, ground beef, turkey, veal, pork, lamb, & mixtures of them	1 to 2 days	3 to 4 months
Fresh Beef, Veal, Lamb & Pork	Steaks	3 to 5 days	6 to 12 months
	Chops	3 to 5 days	4 to 6 months
	Roasts	3 to 5 days	4 to 12 months
Fresh Poultry	Chicken or turkey, whole	1 to 2 days	1 year
	Chicken or turkey, pieces	1 to 2 days	9 months
Soups & Stews	Vegetable or meat added	3 to 4 days	2 to 3 months
Leftovers	Cooked meat or poultry	3 to 4 days	2 to 6 months
	Chicken nuggets or patties	3 to 4 days	1 to 3 months
	Pizza	3 to 4 days	1 to 2 months

I use to go to the grocery store every Sunday with my list of meals for the week. While there, I would get everything I needed for the week. Sounds great, right? While it usually worked – sometimes I’d come home one day and decide that I didn’t want to cook, or we’d have leftovers that needed to be eaten before something else was made. Whatever the cause, the result was that I was throwing away meat that didn’t get used before it’s time. Now, I still write out the meals I plan to make for the week and get almost everything that I need on the weekend (as I said before, I usually don’t have a problem with wasting fruits/vegetables). I get the meat that I need for the first two or three days, then I either stop at the grocery store on the way home from work, or my husband hops on his bike and goes and gets what we need. Since doing this, I’ve thrown away a lot less meat, which was the goal, so hooray!