Anti-waste diet: tips for eating well without throwing away food

There anti-waste diet it is not a real diet, it is more of a set of excellent rules that, put into practice on a weekly basis, allow you not to throw away still good food, not to accumulate excess with the risk of making it expire and to recover real delights that are often underestimated. In practice, living zero-waste , from the supermarket to the table!

Why have an anti-waste lifestyle and diet

The importance of not wasting food is increasingly widespread and recognized: According to WWF data, every year in the world over 1.3 billion tons of food are thrown away . An impressive number and a real sacrilege, if you consider that it is about 1/3 of all the food produced in the world in a year.

Just think about it: 1/3 of what you put in your shopping cart… ends up in the trash.

Other impressive data concern the people who suffer from hunger in the world, approximately 1 billion, while there are almost 2 billion obese people.

Behaving ethically when it comes to not wasting food means:

• do good for the planet,
• avoid wasting resources and raw materials,
• contain pollution from livestock farming and industrial processing of products,
• contain the impact of crops on forests,
• try to rebalance, at least to a minimal extent, the gap between those who have too much and those who have too little.

Not only that, it can also be a great way for yourself to be more attentive and aware, to understand what you really need and what is superfluous and, why not, even to save a lot on food spending , which accounts for approximately 20% of the monthly expenses of every Italian family.

10 Zero-Waste Tips, From the Supermarket to the Table

How can we try to do our part, in our own small way, to avoid this terrible waste and consume more responsibly?

Plan your weekly menu

This is the first step to optimize your purchases: plan a weekly menu in principle it is useful and can also be a lot of fun! Get a kitchen blackboard and have fun with your partner or children, defining lunches and dinners for the whole week. This way, you won't have the stress of "inventing" something at the last minute, you will know exactly what to put on the shopping list and you will be able to create fabulous themed evenings. Friday could be the fixed pizza night and Tuesday the rice with vegetables night, for a delicious moment to look forward to with joy!

Go shopping methodically (and not on an empty stomach!)

There shopping list It is essential to avoid wasting food… but also time! Do you know those huge supermarkets where it is difficult to find what you are looking for? With a good list, even a digital one, everything is easier, perhaps made logically, that is, putting the products to buy more or less in the order in which you will find them aisle after aisle. If you are familiar with the supermarket, this exercise will be simple and really useful. Another tip not to be underestimated: it is better to do the shopping after a main meal, so as to be full. The risk of entering a super-stocked hypermarket too hungry is that of putting in the cart, out of pure gluttony, a series of unhealthy, expensive and superfluous extras!

Help small businesses in the area and buy online

Reevaluate the idea of ​​making one big, one-time purchase, all in one place. Often, buy a few things in a specialized shop leads to savings and significantly improves the quality of the food you bring to the table. The greengrocer on the corner, the baker in the square, the grocery store at the end of the avenue in your town: these small local businesses often focus on the quality of what they sell, on local products and on a “family” service, warm and consultative. In the same way, there are specialized e-commerce which allow you to conveniently deliver special, high-quality products to your home, such as ours superfood .

Pay attention to seasonality

Don't insist on wanting strawberries in December and oranges in August. What you are putting in your cart is a forcing of nature, they are products that are not in season, often stored in industrial freezers and, therefore, necessarily of lower quality than fresh ones. Not only that, you will also pay much more for them! Focusing on seasonality , on the contrary, means putting fruit and vegetables on your plates that are always fresh, organoleptically good and certainly cheaper. What's better than waiting for October for pumpkin or July for watermelon? Every period has its own delight!

Pay attention to expiration dates

Always check the expiration dates , especially on dairy products or those in the fridge: not doing so means risking bringing home a huge multipack of spreadable cheese only to discover that it expires… the next day! And being forced to waste a large part of it…

Pay attention to the quantities

Discounts and offers are tempting for everyone but are you really sure you need those 7kg of dry biscuits?! Promotions are great but always consider whether you really like what you are buying, whether it is useful to you and whether you think you will be able to consume everything before the expiry date.

Correct food storage

A badly closed package or a product stored in the wrong place can cause it to spoil prematurely. An example? Some types of fruit and vegetables go in the refrigerator, while others should be kept in the pantry. And the maxi jar of Greek yogurt must be closed well with its lid, if you want it to last a few days.

Preparing recycled dishes

Have you ever wondered? How much food do we waste because we throw away parts of it that are, in reality, perfectly edible? Broccoli, cauliflower or celery stalks, for example, may not be to everyone's taste if eaten pure, but don't throw them away: store them in an airtight container and use them one evening a week to prepare a healthy vegetable puree, creamy and rich in micronutrients! Or potato peels: wash them well and fry them or bake them, with a generous sprinkling of paprika, to obtain truly delicious recycled chips.

Not only that, some food scraps can also be useful in other contexts, such as coffee grounds, perfect as natural fertilizer for plants in the garden and in pots on terraces.

W doggy-bags and lunchboxes, even at home

As a general rule, try to weigh the right amount of food you plan to consume at the meal, especially if you don’t like to eat reheated food ahead of time. But what if you’ve prepared too much pasta and too many sautéed vegetables? Mix them together and make some fabulous “ schiscette ” for lunch the next day, whether at home or in the office! Or use your imagination: do you have a lot of saffron risotto left over? Make some delicious croquettes similar to Sicilian arancini!

Pay attention to the packaging

Just as deadlines should be checked, attention should also be paid to damaged, punctured or crushed packages . When you find one, take it only if you think you will consume it anyway without problems, otherwise do not leave it on the shelf, report it to the store staff: they will know how to best reposition it, in the "big basket" of offers for example.

For further information, here are some sources of data cited in the article:

• https://www.wwf.it/news/food_news/?54948/Perdite-e-sprechi-di-cibo-affamano-il-Pianeta
• https://www.istat.it/it/files//2020/06/Spese-per-consumi-delle-famiglie.pdf