Americans' food spending/food waste habits

[clairecloutier]

Interesting article in the Washington Post about how much Americans spend on food and how much food waste we generate.

Why Americans Have Stopped Eating Leftovers
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news...pped-eating-leftovers/?utm_term=.250c5925e7fb

Findings:
-- Apparently, Americans on average spend about 9.7% of disposable personal income on food
-- On average, we generate 3.5 pounds of food waste per week
-- One study found that about 23 percent of waste food was prepared leftovers that don't get eaten

 

[Buzz]

Not only Americans waste more food than they would like to admit.

 

[ballettmaus]

What kills me is when I see people throw out leftovers, either right away or without even checking if they're still good and if they throw out unopened foods before checking if they're still good, simply because they're past the "sell by" date. So many foods are still good to eat. This is such a waste and so unnecessary!

 

[Spun Silver]

Since WaPo has a paywall can anyone relate what the answer to the title question is? (“Why?”)

It’s too bad. I hate wasting food. We love leftovers in our house - less cooking to do!

 

[MacMadame]

I am cheap about this. I will eat anything no matter what the date on the package says unless is smells off or has visible chunks or mold. And I use leftovers for lunch. Without leftovers, I would starve!

 

[Tinami Amori]

If one looks inside the bins, late at night, outside of large supermarkets, one can find a lot of eatable food, of all sorts. Supermarkets throw out all packages with dates that say "sell by xx date", but this food is till good for at least 2-3-4 days, because "sell date" is not "expiration date". They also throw out crates with fruits and vegetables, if only few items are past ripe, and the remainder of the crate has eatable pieces.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nadiaa...d-and-expired-supermarket-foods/#612614ac3616

I think it is good to practice occasionally finding such food, even if one does not need to, just in case...

 

[crzesk8dad]

Try paying for a competitive figure skater...you will find more ways to use leftovers than Gordon Ramsey!

 

[Vagabond]

Since WaPo has a paywall can anyone relate what the answer to the title question is? (“Why?”)

Gunders said that many consumers appear to stash Tupperware containers in their fridge and then forget to excavate them before the food goes bad. Other times, consumers grow bored of eating the same food on multiple occasions.

“There were two big reasons people threw out edible food,” Gunders said. “They thought it had spoiled, or they just didn’t like leftovers.”

And you can avoid the Washington Post's paywall by throwing out the leftover cookies that are on your hard drive. (Personally, I don't like leftover cookies.)

 

[Spun Silver]

And you can avoid the Washington Post's paywall by throwing out the leftover cookies that are on your hard drive. (Personally, I don't like leftover cookies.)

Cool tip, thanks.

Those reasons are unfortunate habits. I have the feeling that my sister might be one of those who gets bored or thinks the food has gone bad when it hasnt. She is the same one who, despite earning a good salary, has no idea how she will manage financially during retirement, since she overspends and doesnt save. I think overspending is one of her stress relief mechanisms. Doesnt really work....

 

[Kasey]

I used to have an issue of produce going bad before I could use it. Now I just make a point of only buying 3 days' worth at a time of anything that can go bad (and can't be frozen or such)

 

[Lizziebeth]

I often cook enough and plan to have leftovers the next day! Who wants to cook every day??? One thing I have learned is that I don't want to stock up on everything. Stuff gets "lost" in the freezer. I had read an article about food waste and I am really making an effort to not waste perfectly good food. The way to start is not to buy too much perishable food in the first place.

 

[icie]

I love left overs. Some recipes actually taste better the next day.

 

[quartz]

I love leftovers too - we mostly use them as lunches for work. I'll eat things like eggs and yogurt a few days past the best before date as well.
What doesn't get eaten, goes in the composter, so although its been paid for and we haven't eaten it, at least it is not going to waste. Our town has had curbside compost for 20+ years.

 

[ballettmaus]

If one looks inside the bins, late at night, outside of large supermarkets, one can find a lot of eatable food, of all sorts. Supermarkets throw out all packages with dates that say "sell by xx date", but this food is till good for at least 2-3-4 days, because "sell date" is not "expiration date". They also throw out crates with fruits and vegetables, if only few items are past ripe, and the remainder of the crate has eatable pieces.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nadiaa...d-and-expired-supermarket-foods/#612614ac3616

I think it is good to practice occasionally finding such food, even if one does not need to, just in case...

Germany puts the expiration date on the package and often times, food is still good after that, too, especially stuff like yoghurt or cheese.

 

[PDilemma]

I often cook enough and plan to have leftovers the next day! Who wants to cook every day???

Leftovers is part of my meal planning. I plan our dinners for the week each weekend before I do the grocery shopping. I typically plan for at least one meal to last two or three nights. Most pasta dishes are two nights of dinner for us. And in the cold months, we eat a ton of soup. This week was white chili Sunday and Monday and Chicken Veggie Soup tonight and tomorrow. Friday, we'll go out and there will likely be enough of the chicken soup for Saturday's dinner if we have something like grilled cheese with it--and I only cooked two days. There was about one bowl of the chili left last night and Mr. PDilemma took it for his lunch at work today.

 

[debo]

I love left overs. Some recipes actually taste better the next day.

Pot roast. Just made one this weekend.

 

[Aussie Willy]

I hardly have any food waste. Only buy what I need. And usually cook enough to last 3 meals which becomes lunch at work for a couple of days. At the moment I make pork mince stirfry with lots of vegetables, terayaki sauce and honey.

Any vegetable scraps from my food preparation go into my compost bin which is full of worms at the moment. I have hardly any waste that goes into landfill because of recycling and compost.

 

[Tinami Amori]

Germany puts the expiration date on the package and often times, food is still good after that, too, especially stuff like yoghurt or cheese.

For sure..... Edeka and Andronaco were good. But many Edeka stores are inside city buildings, and the back of the stores where bins are hard to reach. Andronaco was good when it opened, but now they have gates around parking lots, unless its locations far from city centres (like one in Hamrburg, Alton-Nord).

So far the best scavenger place is in Rome, EATALY near Ostiensa Roma train station.

 

[Vash01]

I plan on cooking enough to last me at least 2-3 days and I freeze the rest, to eat later. I put some variety into eat, so I don't eat the same dish for both lunch and dinner.

In restaurants I usually make two to three meals out of my order because the portions are usually Huge! I do grocery shopping frequently, and buy small quantities to avoid food going bad.

I really hate throwing food away but I don't eat food that is past the expiration date. I do use milk one day past the expiration date, but that's about it. I would never take that chance with cheese or yogurt. Once I got food poisoning and the doctor said it came from cheesecake that must have been old (I had bought that slice in a store and ate the same day, so they must have sold a not so fresh piece).

 

[MacMadame]

Pot roast. Just made one this weekend.

Lasagna!

 

[moebius]

I just don't understand why won't be able to feed the world in fifty years, when lot of food goes to waste. I say all restaurants don't prepare food ahead of time and just prepare as they are ordered to prevent waste, especially fast food restaurants. When I was in Sri Lanka, I waited for 1.5 hrs for my food (there wasn't even that many customers, maybe about 10 people total) b/c it was prepared when I ordered, so I know it wasn't prepared ahead of time. It would be ideal to get rid of fast food restaurants, as they are unhealthy and waste more food than traditional restaurants. At Burger King, food gets thrown out if they've been sitting in the warmer for more than 30 minutes. One cannot predict the amount of customers that will drop by, so if excess burgers are prepared in anticipation of a crowd, and there is no crowd, most of it goes in the garbage ( They don't get donated to the homeless for fear of lawsuits( People just take for granted that food is easy to obtain and waste it as if it was nothing. They don't realize that the poor animals sacrificed their lives to provide humans food and the farmers who work so hard so that humans can have food on the table. They don't get the respect that they deserve. There is a guy at work originally from Vietnam (been living in the US for most of his life) who throws his lunch away if it's a day old. It irks me to see him throw perfectly good food away. I joke with him that he can give his leftover to me (he didn't touch it at all). The reason why I mention his nationality is b/c there are a lot of people in Vietnam who are not as fortunate, yet he has that 'American' mentality to waste food just because he can afford to. Probably if he was still living in Vietnam, he would not be wasting food as much, as the mentality there is different.

 

[Japanfan]

I just don't understand why won't be able to feed the world in fifty years, when lot of food goes to waste.

Food goes to waste because of most people's consumerist lifestyles, which tend to be busy. Busy people don't devote time to planning a menu in detail and determining exactly what ingredients they need, and how much of them.

And not everyone knows in advance what they are going to feel like eating on a certain day. After a particularly trying day at work, a person might not be in the mood for left-over fish from the night before and instead want some sort of comfort food.

And food goes to waste because people can afford for it to do so. For people earning decent incomes, the money lost to food thrown is not a big deal - although people might change their minds about that if they actually figured out how much money they were wasting.

It would be ideal to get rid of fast food restaurants, as they are unhealthy and waste more food than traditional restaurants.

Oh ITA, but it's not going to happen. The public is addicted to fast food.

 

[jadingirl]

I really hate throwing food away but I don't eat food that is past the expiration date. I do use milk one day past the expiration date, but that's about it. I would never take that chance with cheese or yogurt. Once I got food poisoning and the doctor said it came from cheesecake that must have been old (I had bought that slice in a store and ate the same day, so they must have sold a not so fresh piece).

CBC Marketplace in Canada did a show on best before dates and grocery stores. Apparently when the store has a whole cake that doesn't sell before it's best before date they first cut it in half and package each half which allows them to create a new best before date. If the half cake doesn't sell they can then slice it up and package each slice individually and give it yet another best before date. So (in Canada) at least if it isn't a whole cake it could be quite a bit older than you think.

 

[rfisher]

I used to have an issue of produce going bad before I could use it. Now I just make a point of only buying 3 days' worth at a time of anything that can go bad (and can't be frozen or such)

This is why I use Blue Apron. Even though the order is designed for two people/meal, I usually get at least 3. That gives me 7-9 meals for lunch and dinner with no waste. I could buy the food for about the same price, but I'd have more than I could eat and it would be wasted. I do wish I was able to have a couple of chickens because they'd happily eat anything. But, Poodles and chickens would not do well together.

 

[debo]

I do wish I was able to have a couple of chickens because they'd happily eat anything. But, Poodles and chickens would not do well together.

Hmmm.....consider

https://youtu.be/Xhwj7apwu-c

 

[rfisher]

Hmmm.....consider

https://youtu.be/Xhwj7apwu-c

Mine are standards and one of them quickly reverts to her hunting roots. She's currently ridding my backyard of moles. A chicken would focus all her attention and considerable smarts into how to get through that fence to that large bird. The other one would stand on the deck at a safe distance and bark at it.

 

[Skittl1321]

I am cheap about this. I will eat anything no matter what the date on the package says unless is smells off or has visible chunks or mold. And I use leftovers for lunch. Without leftovers, I would starve!

We only cook once or twice a week. Everything I eat is leftovers. (We don't go out to eat except on vacations.)

 

[gkelly]

Food goes to waste because of most people's consumerist lifestyles, which tend to be busy. Busy people don't devote time to planning a menu in detail and determining exactly what ingredients they need, and how much of them.

That's true. But not all people who are busy (and therefore don't devote much time to meal planning and preparation) are living consumerist lifestyles. Some are working two jobs just to survive (or a full-time job plus managing a family). Some put in long hours on volunteer work or low-paying nonprofit jobs. Some devote long hours to art or other passions in addition to a full-time day job. And so forth. They may not have time to be consumerist or to plan meals carefully.

For me, because I'm busy and I live alone, the waste comes when I buy fresh food and then don't get around to preparing it before it goes bad. Or yesterday I threw away 6 or so slices at the end of a loaf of bread because of mold. (I had cut off some moldy spots from the previous 4 slices, but I figured enough was enough, it would only have gotten worse.)

If I do prepare fresh food, often there will be leftovers and I do eat them a day or two later.

 

[jeffisjeff]

I have a 14 year old son, so leftovers are a thing of the past.

 

[TheGirlCanSkate]

When my spouse was growing up in Thailand, he said that ordering a lot of food and then not taking it home was a display of wealth. Then when his friends visited us in the 90s, they ordered under what my husband was expecting. He tried to order more but they told him sternly that we should only order what we could consume at the table. My husband asked why they had changed and they said that there was an aggressive campaign by the government that showed how wasteful it was and it became socially unacceptable to throw food out.

I have noticed on Food Network more ads about how to use older produce and how it is still good to consume and I get ads for ugly produce - half the cost of perfect stuff.

I have been mostly successful with no longer wasting food as it has become my goal. Part of success for me is meal planning and batch cooking. By cooking or preparing food to be cooked it makes it easier to eat so the chance of it being eaten is much higher. I am finally no longer having herbs go bad because when I cook, if there is no fresh herb on the item, I'll just put some on it. The goal is some fresh herb on every salad or cooked dish. I still shop once a week, but I use strawberries/blueberries first and pomegranates, oranges and apples last.

I work 40-50 hours a week and I am always doing something with my teen most nights and weekends and I also try to volunteer often so I don't have a lot of time. I find keeping a notebook with menus and prices and lists works well and helps me not spend too much time on meal planning.