My wife and I moved this past weekend. And again Monday night, when we finally finished cleaning out the old place.
The last item of business was cleaning out the fridge at our old house. In a 10 p.m. frenzy of food waste, we ended up throwing away an embarrassing amount. Here are the highlights lowlights:
1. Condiments really pile up. We had a whole fridge door full of sauces and toppings, including some examples of “one-use waste.” Mint sauce (to go with lamb) comes to mind.
We had a container of yellow mustard with a sell-by date of October 2004. And then there was the Filipino banana sauce that I couldn’t quite bring myself to throw out after the pantry purge. That jar finally saw its demise.
2. I tend to acquire food that I often don’t want or need. We still had that virtually full 2004 mustard because we inherited a big squeeze bottle of French’s after an in-the-park cook out.
I can’t recall how we got a jar of Guinness mustard, but I know that I didn’t buy it. And that it wasn’t that good.
3. Most of us Delay Waste. “Waste delaying” can take the form of saving leftovers you know you won’t eat or leaving bad food in the fridge.
Many friends tell me that they avoid tossing food for a few days, just like the mother in the Today Show piece. Who doesn’t?
This classic guilt avoidance tactic was the reason I hadn’t thrown away that freezerburnt iceberg of orange sherbet. I felt bad that I’d let it get that way and avoided the dirty work of dumping it down the drain.
— —
We all waste food. That’s because at times, food waste is unavoidable. If you’re at a gathering and the host is throwing away mint sauce, you have two choices: let them toss it or bring the jar home to keep for two years before pitching it. I suppose you could also prepare lamb and serve it with that…but I don’t even like lamb.
The important thing is to try to minimize waste without becoming a fanatic (easier said than done).
Comments
10 responses to “Refrigerator Report”
I’m relieved to see you write that some food waste is “inevitable.”
I had issued a “Waste-No-Food Challenge” on my blog in May and have been working very hard to be the pinnacle of non-food wastage. I am doing so much better, but am still tossing a small amount of food.
My husband seems to feel he’s an army cook, and buys enough groceries to keep the challenge, well . . . challenging.
Just because the scallions are priced “3 for whatever” doesn’t mean he needs to buy 3. Yet he does.
The idea of “waste delay” is interesting. I have a container of homemade hummus that I added too much garlic to. I had planned on thinning it out with extra garbanzo beans, but then I would have way too much. So instead, it sits there, mocking me.
“Hey Katy, look at me, I’m food wastage! Bwa, ha, ha!”
You get the idea.
Join my challenge. We’re eating great and saving money to boot!
-Katy Wolk-Stanley
The Non-Consumer Advocate
http://thenonconsumeradvocate.com
P.S. My 12-year-old told me last night that he’s doing a “Waste-No-Meat Challenge.”
This happens to me all the time when I’m making salad dressings. It’s bad now–do I cut my losses or keep adding? Then what if, after you’ve added more oil or garbanzo beans, the dressing or hummus isn’t quite right? You’ve just wasted even more…
As you said, waste is inevitable, and its all about making more informed and self aware choices “most” of the time. or even part of the time…I know too many people who blindly eat, and waste without a thought (or care) for that matter.
Condiments are the worst. We’re especially guilty of saving all those little packets we’re given as we go through life.
Interesting that you mention the freezer-burn. My husband contends that freezer-burned food is not good for you and should always be thrown out. [Also that the sin of eating terrible ice cream is worse than that of throwing it away.] I contend that it’s merely a bit dehydrated and a good sauce will bring most freezer-burned food back to edibility.
(You can guess where each of us falls on the expiration heeder / expiration disregarder scale!)
tg,
Funny how it seems like every marriage has one expiration heeder and one disregarder. I think it might be a rule of nature.
I doubt that freezerburned food is bad for you, probably more that it tastes gross. If you can harness those little packets of condiments to make items edible…you’re more resourceful than me.
Jon,
The most interesting thing about this article to me is the picture you display of what looks like larger condiment packages.
Are these available for consumer purchase? A quick internet search and review of Heinz website did not reveal anything.
-Danielle
Wow, that wins backhanded compliment of the month. 😉
As with most of my illustrations, I got that photo from Creative Commons. It’s an aggregation of works that people have generously shared for use.
If you hover over images on my site, it’ll give the photo credit. To answer your question, the photographer, Oriol Llado, is Spanish, er, Catalan. And given the inclusion of brown and mint sauce, I’m thinking Britain. But most likely somewhere in Europe.
You can contact Oriol through his page on Flickr to ask him where he got these condiments.
I won an award? ROCK! Maybe backhanded compliments shouldn’t get awards, seems like encouragement!
At any rate I’m interested in your blog and this article too, just found the only comment I had to add was the question about where you got that image!
So thanks 🙂
I usually cook for one or two (single and dating) so keeping my refrigerator from becoming an intermediate step in expensive composting from grocery to waste is difficult.
I’ve cut way back on buying condiments and now make my own mayonnaise and mustard in small, usable batchs. Ketchup seems to keep forever so I don’t worry too much about that.
As for the mint jelly, all I can think of is starting a consumer co-op and sharing or splitting what you purchase. I’ve done that with friends with lettuce and other large produce and for Costco quantities.
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