Here’s a really interesting article on how Whole Foods is attempting to shed its “Whole Paycheck” image. Read through waste-hued glasses, I found two instances of waste in the making.
Whole Foods, through its in-store thrift tours, is steering shoppers towards bulk buying:
Value packages of fresh cod and salmon were a dollar a pound less than smaller amounts purchased at the fish counter.
Sure, you can freeze what you don’t use, but many items get lost in our freezers. Months later, when you unearth said items, they have freezer burn.
In addition, the store’s increased sales are encouraging some shoppers to make impulse buys that lead to the same ‘freeze it all’ dilemma.
But Susan Davis, 56, said she had noticed more sale signs. “I came for something else one day and was shocked to find the meat on sale, so I bought it and put it in the freezer,†she said.
Freezing food, if done with discipline, can be a real waste-avoider. But often, it’s just a waste-delayer, postponing the guilt of throwing away food to another day. Do you ever find yourself doing this?
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8 responses to “Whole Changes”
Absolutely – digging in there trying to figure out what all of it is, and rarely using any of it. Not only wasting food but electricity!
I’ve found that freezing is a waste delayer when it comes to leftovers. Chances are if I didn’t eat the leftovers right away, I don’t like it enough to eat the leftovers out of the freezer. In terms of freezing fresh foods, especially meat, I but extra with a plan for using it – I’ll buy 2 pounds of chicken, one to use now and one next week, then mark chicken off the list for the next week. So for me buying in bulk and freezing raw ingredients doesn’t lead to waste, but cooking in bulk and freezing prepared food sometimes does. Of course, I’m a foodie living alone and on a budget, so I do everything in my power to avoid the waste and am a master of organizing, packing and storing food.
I’m usually pretty good about eating frozen goods. The only thing that ended up forgotten and buried in freezer burn was three turkey burger patties (so far).
I think the trick is keeping recipes in mind, so everything in the freezer has a purpose. Right now in I have chicken thighs (for chicken noodle soup), shrimp (for use in pasta), bag of stir fry (for quick lunches), turkey hot dogs (for quick dinners), and mango chunks (for smoothies).
I intentionally make things in large quantities to freeze and go back to later. For instance, I made a few quarts worth of hummus last night, freezing most of it, but I won’t have to make (or buy packaged) hummus in a long time! Last fall my roommate and I bought a large, free-ranged turkey from a local coop. We cooked it, froze most of it and lived off of it for the rest of the winter. Last weekend I made two loaves of bread – eating one, froze the other. If one’s intention is to make a lot, freeze it, and come back to it, I think most people will actually do it.
Also, it oftentimes reduces the immediate waste when one finds him/herself with a lot of perishable food that will go bad before it all gets eaten. That’s the day you make a big pot of soup and freeze what you cannot eat.
But as Jonathan pointed out, if freezing is a result of compulsive sales shopping, it is very likely the item will be forgotten into the depth of one’s freezer.
And then there’s the issue of energy to keep a stocked freezer frozen. But that’s a whole other issue….
I’m actually very good at “keeping inventory”. My husband thinks i’m a bit too “tough
because he likes to buy fancy breads (which i don’t eat) and end up going stale, even in the freezer.
Many people (like me) are intimidated by large hunks of meat in the freezer. Takes too long to thaw, etc. When I buy chicken breasts, pork chops, small steaks, etc. I freeze them individually on a cookie sheet and then put them into zip top freezer bags. About the only cooked meat I freeze is browned and seasoned ground beef in 1 lb. packages (four cups is about 1 lb.) and cooked chicken (two cups cut up cooked meat with two cups broth). If you live alone, freeze smaller portions.
If I were really disciplined (which I’m not) I’d take everything out of the freezer once a week and write down what I have on hand before making my shopping list.
Yes I do waste food from the freezer. I recently came across the term food clutter on the Wednesday Chef blog, which laid the groundwork for my finding Wasted Food. I want to learn how to fight my impulse to buy lots when the price is too good to resist. To get the multiples out of the pantry, and to get creative with the odd bits and pieces of foodstuff. Think your site will help.
I have been working on being very careful about freezing leftovers because I know that I will not eat more than 90% of frozen leftovers. But because I know this, I make sure that I cook only 1-2 servings. Or, if it is a large hunk of beef, I plan my menu accordingly (e.g., pot roast one night, enchiladas later in the week). However, I have recently begun buying some things in bulk, to portion, freeze, and use throughout the year. For example, I found a local rancher that raises grass-fed beef that would sell me as little as 1/4 of a cow–and for much cheaper than buying grass-fed at Whole Foods. Even splitting that with my parents, it will feed me for a year–even allowing for sausage-making explorations.
Because freezer space is so limiting, I have been exploring a lot more dehydrating options. For instance, I have not been successful freezing leftover tomato sauce in ice-cube trays and then adding the cubes to soups later (the many baggies of freezer-burnt frozen tomato sauce attests to that). So for my last batch of leftover tomato sauce, I pureed it with some apple sauce (pectin as thickener) and dehydrated it into leather (like fruit roll-ups). It will keep for at least a year in the cupboard. I plan to make some soup next week with a portion of the leather (it will dissolve in the liquid)–along with dehydrated pieces of vegetables (celery, red bell peppers, etc.) that I dehydrated when I realized I would not be able to finish the fresh produce before it rotted. Dehydrating worked quite well when I picked a bunch of peaches and apples this year at a U-pick farm. Apple chips…Yum!