Conscious Eating On The Go

Conscious Eating On-the-Go: How to Reduce Food Waste While Enjoying a Day Out

As we bid farewell to the pandemic, getting out of our houses and embracing this normalcy has never felt better. The past few years of lockdown have left most of us high and dry. To restore your energy, a long weekend with your friends and family could be just the right idea.

Perhaps you want to use this time to sit at a nearby park and soak in nature or you want to experience the wilderness with your friends. Whatever your reason, as a conscious consumer, you can try to minimise food waste while enjoying a day out with your friends and family.

According to a recent statistic, New Zealand households throw close to 157,389 tonnes of food on a yearly basis, adding to the overall food waste across the world. As our social responsibility, we can take concrete steps to reduce food waste, especially during this holiday season.

Let us explore different ways through which you can reduce food waste without compromising on a fun-filled holiday.

How to Reduce Food Waste While Enjoying a Day Out?

Plan Your Meals Better

Planning your meals might sound like a cumbersome task to you. In fact, many associate the task of meal planning with repeating the same humdrum meals. But it is far from the truth!

How often do you end up asking yourself, what should I cook today? This question is feared by many and you end up wasting more time thinking about it than actually cooking or eating.

Planning your meals in advance is a great way to add variety to your weekly meals and minimise food costs. And the cherry on the cake is the amount of time you can save while at it!

You end up taking fewer trips to the grocery store, avoid hoarding and impulsive buying and observe a reduction in overall food waste. When heading out for a holiday, make sure you plan your meals in advance with your friends. In this way, you can incorporate meal planning into everyday life whilst also reducing food waste. If you find yourself struggling to come up with better meal plans, reach out to professional fitness experts. They offer healthy and effective tips to manage your food intake without compromising on its flavours.

Shopping Smart

How often do you end up buying more food than you need? We’re all a little guilty of letting loose every now and then when on a grocery shopping trip.

Although buying in bulk might sound extremely convenient and could probably save you a few trips to the supermarket, a study conducted at The University Of Arizona suggested otherwise. It mentioned that this method encourages food waste among shoppers.

Ensure you consume all the food from your previous trip before heading for another one. This is where planning your meals in advance helps immensely as you have better clarity along the way.

If you still can’t stop shopping for more than you need, making a list of items and sticking to them can ensure you won’t get carried away while buying; thereby reducing food waste.

Understanding Right Portion Sizes

Plating your food right by considering the right portion sizes can help in reducing food waste. Don’t worry, you can always go back and refill your plate with items you savoured the most!

A great strategy to use is to fill half your plate with salads or vegetables, the other half with protein-rich food items and the rest with nutritious grains. This helps in maintaining the overall nutritious balance of your meal. Using smaller to medium-sized dishes and mindful eating can also help in avoiding overeating.

When on a holiday, you can consider eating at restaurants or with caterers who promote conscious eating. Opting to halve your meal and letting them know your serving sizes beforehand ensures you end up consuming the right amount and minimising wastage.

Storing Food Correctly

With the excitement of the holidays approaching, you often forget to store and take care of the food in your fridge or kitchen. In fact, a study by the Natural Resource Defense Council mentioned that nearly two-thirds of household waste is by food spoilage.

Lack of knowledge and awareness in terms of storing your fruits and vegetables leads to premature ripening and eventually spoilage. You end up throwing away the rotten produce, which ultimately contributes to waste.

Before you wind up your work and head out for a holiday, it’s best to learn a few storing techniques. For instance, separate food items such as bananas, avocados, onions and tomatoes that shouldn’t be refrigerated together.

They would stay fresh even at room temperature, which is why you can store them outside in separate boxes. Why, you ask? These food items tend to produce ethylene gas that often accelerates the ripening process.

Keep these fruits and vegetables away from potatoes, apples and other leafy green veggies as they can be highly sensitive to ethylene gas.

The Art Of Preservation

Food preservation techniques aren’t a newly picked-up fad. In fact, they have been used by several people for years now. The oldest preservation technique is pickling, where foot items are preserved with the help of vinegar.

Effective preservation techniques such as canning, drying, fermentation and curing can help increase the longevity of food, thus reducing waste. Do you know what’s better? Not only will this save you money but also help in minimising carbon footprints.

Additionally, these preservative techniques are easy to learn and fun to execute. For instance, blanch your vegetables in hot water for nearly 30 seconds. Once done, you can easily freeze them and they taste fresher the next time you use them! Canning is yet another great idea to consider. For example, by canning a batch of ripe apples, you can easily turn them into apple sauce. It’s a sumptuous dessert for your little ones!

Clutter-Free Fridge For The Win

Before you head out for a long holiday, you must bear in mind that you keep your fridge clutter-free. Always remember that a well-stocked fridge is far better than an overly cluttered one.

Keep your fridge organised by ensuring all fresh produce is well-wrapped and stocked. Organising also ensures you get quick access to different foods and use them effectively. It’s a great idea to keep a note of all the food items that could spoil soon. With this method, you can ensure you reduce food spoilage.

A brilliant method to reduce food wastage is to try the FIFO method, the first in first out method. For instance, placing the carton of milk or juice that is soon to expire in the front so you can consume them first.

What about Your Leftovers?

Holidays call for trying out exciting and thrilling activity centres across the town! When heading to yet another outdoor adventure, a great meal option would be to carry your leftover food with you!

Saving excess food from large meals and carrying these leftovers on your trip is a brilliant idea to reduce food waste. While at it, ensure you store it in a glass container rather than a plastic one.

Another great initiative is to blend leftover fruits and vegetables into a smoothie. Not only are smoothies a great substitute to beat the summer heat but also highly nutritious. Add a pinch of chia seeds and greek yogurt to your smoothie and you’re good to go!

Repurposing leftover meal options and adding more flavour to them can ensure that you end up eating them while enjoying the taste too!

Compost To Your Rescue

While you can preserve most food items, certain fresh produce cannot be consumed as it has crossed its expiration date. That’s where composting your food comes to your rescue!

Compositing is a natural way of decomposing your food items as a source of soil or fertiliser for your plants. It is the best fertiliser for your garden flowers, plants and trees. All you have to do is collect all the products in a compost bag and churn them on a weekly basis. Once done, you can use this mix as a fertiliser for plants.

To ensure you actively follow this process, you can also sign up for local composting programs in your vicinity. Such programs encourage fellow individuals by educating them about composting activities and the right way to use vegetable skins, peels and egg shells as part of the compost.

To Sum It Up

Heading out for holidays can be a great experience for you and your loved ones. However, in this process, you can often ignore the food stored in your fridge, especially fresh produce.

Ignoring this can contribute significantly to food spoilage leading to an increase in food wastage. While it may not seem serious, it does add up to the total global waste when spread across several individuals.

To combat food wastage, ensure to plan your meals ahead of time and plan lesser trips to the grocery store. Additionally, shopping smart can save you time and help you avoid impulsive purchases.

Before you head out for your holiday, ensure you carry some leftover food instead of throwing it out. Making a salad bowl of vegetables or a smoothie is a great idea if you are heading out for a one-day trip.

Lastly, using composting methods at home and encouraging your neighbours to do the same will contribute significantly to reducing food wastage as a community.