Category Archives: Leftovers

Chatting on Food Waste Day

And you thought September 29 was just National (U.S.) Coffee Day! The UN declared this day to in fact be International Day of Awareness for Food Loss and Waste. Who am I to argue? Instead, I joined the UN FAO’s Twitter chat. While I’d appreciate a shorter acronym next time to alleviate the Twitter character […]

September 29, 2020 | Also posted in Environment, Food Recovery, General, International, Storage | Comments closed

Dear Wasted Food Dude–Date Label Hell(p)

Here’s the latest installment of my food waste advice column, Dear Wasted Food Dude. The column will run on BioCycle‘s website and in BioCycle Food Recycling News, their fledgling e-bulletin that all “wasted foodies” should sign up for pronto! I will also crosspost the columns here on Wasted Food. One thing any advice column needs inquiries. That means you need […]

May 26, 2016 | Also posted in Food Safety, Household, Legislation, Wasted Food Dude | Comments closed

Loving the Leftover Sandwich

Thanksgiving dinner is great, but the days following are truly special. Because those few days after Thursday are a real rarity–a time when eating leftovers is not just merely tolerated, but celebrated. And while turkey soup may epitomize the economy of repurposing leftovers, the turkey sandwich rules the leftover roost. In my family, we’ve come […]

November 30, 2015 | Also posted in General, Household | Comments closed

Researching the Remains: A Leftovers Q&A with Food Historian Helen Veit

Last month, Michigan State University history professor, Helen Veit, wrote a killer piece for The Atlantic on leftovers. While its title—“An Economic History of Leftovers”—won’t send pulses racing, its contents will. In fact, the piece should be required reading for anyone with a refrigerator. Yes, that means you. As a Tupperware-toting leftover lover, I just had to […]

November 22, 2015 | Also posted in History and Culture | Comments closed

You Gonna Eat That Crust?

Our long, national, nightmare-ish data gap on food waste is finally over. For pizza, at least. A recent survey by Pizza Inn found that 73 percent of Americans eat their pizza crust. Put another way, 27 percent waste their crusts. Or do they?? In another finding, roughly a quarter of Americans (24%) say that they’ve asked for someone […]

October 6, 2015 | Also posted in Restaurant | Comments closed

France Fights Food Waste

The French take their food seriously. And now we know that they don’t look too kindly on it being wasted. In mid-April, a government-appointed committee released a proposal to tackle food waste in France (PDF in French). The Fight Against Food Waste (Lutte Contre Le Gaspillage Alimentaire – #GaspillageAlimentaire) suggests 36 ways to do just […]

May 1, 2015 | Also posted in International | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Here’s a roundup of recent wasted food news, from the sublime to the ridiculous. With the former, a UK org called Hubbub is pushing the humble (and potentially artistic) pancake as a way to reduce wasted food. Why pancakes? Because they’re so flippin‘ versatile! On the latter, the notion of ‘raccoon meat’ certainly feels disgusting at […]

February 13, 2015 | Also posted in Campaigns, International, Supermarket, Waste Ban | Comments closed

Living Better, Wasting Less

The Guardian normally keeps a keen eye on food waste. Starting this week, though, the UK newspaper has gone one step further by creating the Live Better Challenge. The seven month editorial project will tackle a new sustainability topic each month. Encouragingly, food waste is up first, and that’s a boon for both home cooks […]

March 4, 2014 | Also posted in Household, International | Comments closed

GOBBLE Your Way to a Waste-free Turkey Day

Sad news, folks: every Thanksgiving, Americans squander 400 Statues of Liberty worth of turkey, by weight. That’s a lot of forsaken fowl—more than 200 million pounds—and a sign of how wasteful we’ve become. It’s time we stop this Turkey Day tomfoolery. First, throwing away 35 percent of our turkey is oh-so-ungrateful. It undermines the spirit […]

November 28, 2013 | Also posted in Events, History and Culture, Household | Comments closed

Monday Smorgasbord

With Vancouver set to ban food waste from landfills in 2015, local group FarmFolk CityFolk sponsored a 10-week Foodprint Challenge. The pilot program run in conjunction with local retailer Choices Markets sheds light on household food waste. — — Britain’s National Pig Association started a ‘pig push‘ to overturn the EU swill-feeding ban. Naturally, this initiative […]

November 4, 2013 | Also posted in Composting, Energy, Household, Repurposing | Comments closed