From shop to fridge storage, minimising food waste can help your wallet and the planet. By Jennifer Bowden
Question: In a previous column, you mentioned that reducing food waste was an excellent way to cut food costs. There’s nothing worse than losing good fruit and vegetables because they’re overripe. On that note, which fruits are the ones that produce gases that cause other produce to ripen more quickly?
Answer: A startling 4 per cent of New Zealand’s total greenhouse gas emissions come from our food and organic waste. It has been estimated that one-third of all the food we produce is lost or wasted each year, so reducing this wastage cuts not only our emissions, but also food costs.
It also lessens the emissions that occur during food production. Throwing a rotten bag of salad leaves in the bin may not seem like a big deal, but when we throw out food, we waste all of the resources, fuel and energy used to produce it. This includes growing the crops, transportation, processing, storage, refrigeration and cooking.
Fruit and vegetables are the most frequent victims of food waste, followed by meat and fish, then leftover restaurant or takeaway foods.
Given these foods are typically refrigerated or frozen, paying more attention to managing our refrigerated food is an excellent place to start.
It begins at the shops, by buying only the best-quality fruit and vegetables to maximise their shelf life. Bargain buys may not last as long.
As soon as you get them home, it's important to store your foods appropriately. Most modern fridges have humidity-controlled compartments for fruit and vegetables that maximise their shelf life. But you must store them separately, as many fruits produce ethylene while ripening.
Certain products are sensitive to ethylene and will wilt or go bad very quickly.
In general, fruits are divided into climacteric and non-climacteric varieties. Climacteric fruits ripen after they are harvested; non-climacteric fruits do not. As unripe climacteric fruits mature, they produce a burst of ethylene, a plant hormone that signals to the fruit to start ripening, and ethylene production continues after harvest.
Most tree fruits produce a lot of ethylene, particularly apples and pears, but also apricots, avocados, nectarines, peaches, cantaloupes and papayas. Bananas, capsicums and tomatoes produce ethylene when they reach full ripeness.
In contrast, non-climacteric fruits such as grapes, strawberries, blueberries and cherries are already ripe when harvested and therefore do not present the same ethylene risk to other produce.
Vegetables sensitive to ethylene include carrots and parsnips, which become more bitter when exposed to it. Leafy greens such as lettuce, spinach, broccoli, brussels sprouts and cabbage turn yellow and wilt when exposed to ethylene. Cucumbers are also sensitive, and tend to yellow and go soft or mushy.
If your fridge has fruit and vegetable bins with adjustable humidity switches, ensure they are set to the correct mode to maximise product lifespan. And keep high-ethylene-producing fruits (such as apples and pears) in a paper bag that is folded closed and stored in a separate compartment from ethylene-sensitive produce, thus preventing the gas from inducing ripening in them.
Bananas, tomatoes and tropical fruits are best stored in a cool pantry, whereas avocados can be left on the bench to ripen, then stored in the fridge.
A great way to keep on top of your fresh produce is to instigate a weekly leftovers day to use up all the odds and ends in your fridge and pantry.
Websites such as lovefoodhatewaste.co.nz can provide inspiration: it has a recipe-search option for "commonly wasted ingredients".
But perhaps the most critical step is acknowledging that food thrown in the rubbish bin is a problem that needs fixing. Save food before it goes bad and you’ll not only maximise your nutrient intake and save money, but also help your environment.
