How to Reduce Food Waste at Home

The average person throws away a significant amount of food every year, including items that are still packaged. This is literally money going into the trash. Beyond your wallet, it's a massive waste of resources (water, energy, land). The good news: 5 simple changes can reduce your waste by 50 to 70%.

Steps

1

Audit your current waste

For one week, note down everything you throw away: the wilted salad, the expired yogurt, the forgotten leftovers. You'll be surprised by the patterns. Most people always waste the same things: fresh produce bought in excess, bread, and unfinished meals.

2

Plan meals around what you have

Before planning your weekly menu, open your fridge and cupboards. That half-onion, that bit of celery, and that can of tomatoes become the base of a meal. Plan 1-2 "fridge-clearing" meals per week specifically to use up leftovers and products reaching their end of life.

3

Master FIFO storage

FIFO = First In, First Out. When putting away groceries, place older products at the front and new ones at the back. It sounds basic, but it eliminates 90% of those "I forgot that was there" moments. Apply the same logic to the freezer: label and date everything.

4

Learn to use leftovers creatively

Cooked vegetable scraps become a frittata, a soup, or a gratin. Stale bread makes French toast, breadcrumbs, or croutons. Overripe fruit turns into a smoothie, compote, or banana bread. There is no such thing as "food waste" — only ingredients waiting for an idea.

5

Freeze before it expires

As soon as a food item nears its expiration date, freeze it. Bread freezes perfectly slice by slice. Meat and fish should be frozen on the day of purchase if you don't plan to use them within 2 days. Chopped fresh herbs can be frozen in ice cube trays with a little oil.

Food waste by the numbers

Millions of tons of food are wasted annually across the supply chain. Households are responsible for a third of this waste. Fruits and vegetables are the most discarded category, followed by leftovers and bakery products. In terms of value, this represents hundreds of dollars per person per year in the trash. While laws are changing for supermarkets, at home, your organization makes the difference.

Creative anti-waste recipes

Carrot top soup: the greens have as many nutrients as the carrots themselves. Vegetable peel chips: potatoes, beets, parsnips — olive oil, salt, oven at 180°C for 15 minutes. Leek green pesto: the green part we often throw away makes an intense and flavorful pesto. Homemade broth: all the vegetable scraps accumulated in a freezer bag become a rich broth in 45 minutes of simmering. These recipes aren't a sacrifice — they are often better than the "standard" version.

Composting, the last line of defense

Sorting bio-waste is becoming mandatory in many regions. If your community offers composting bins or separate collections, use them. For an apartment, a worm composter or a bokashi bin takes up less than a square meter and won't smell if managed correctly. Peels, coffee grounds, eggshells, and vegetable scraps turn into potting soil in 3-6 months. It's the ultimate solution for the little food waste that remains after the previous 4 steps.

FoodCraft Tip

Spark Vision finds recipes with what you have

Take a photo of your remaining ingredients with Spark Vision. In 3 to 5 seconds, the AI identifies what you have and suggests up to 15 recipes you can make immediately. It's the best anti-waste tool: instead of wondering what to do with those 3 zucchini and that bit of feta, let the AI find the perfect combo.

Batch cooking structurally reduces waste

By planning your meals and batch cooking, you buy exactly what you need. No surplus rotting at the back of the fridge. Ingredients are used across several recipes and leftovers are portionned and frozen starting Sunday. Waste naturally drops from 30% to less than 5%.

Frequently asked questions

Use-by vs. Best-before: what's the difference?
The "Use-by" date applies to fresh, perishable products: go past it and there's a health risk. The "Best-before" date applies to dry goods, canned food, and frozen items: after this date, the product might lose some taste or texture but remains safe to eat.
Can you freeze food that has already been thawed?
No for raw products. But if you thawed meat and then cooked it, you can freeze the cooked dish without any problem. The rule: never refreeze a thawed raw product, but a product cooked after thawing, yes.
How do I know if food is still good?
Use three senses. Appearance: visible mold, abnormal color, cloudy liquid → trash. Smell: sour, rancid, or "weird" smell → trash. Texture: slimy or viscous when it shouldn't be → trash. When in doubt, throw it out. Food poisoning costs more than the wasted food.
Does food waste have a real environmental impact?
Huge. If global food waste were a country, it would be the 3rd largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the US. Producing food that gets thrown away wastes billions of cubic meters of water per year and occupies 1.4 billion hectares of agricultural land for nothing.

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