Want to reduce food waste? Pros offer some tips
By Sono Motoyama / Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
As a founder of Della Terra Italian restaurant and Burghers Brewing Co., Fiore Moletz has always focused on running sustainable businesses. Burghers Brewing has earned a platinum designation from the nonprofit Sustainable Pittsburgh; Della Terra has a gold designation.
“It’s always been something that we held close to our hearts from the beginning,” Moletz said. “We did everything we could to save energy and be as environmentally responsible as possible.”
This included buying used restaurant equipment, tables, chairs and plates. He didn’t want to create waste with throwaway items, so he employed washable silverware and linen napkins. He even briefly ran a green cleaning and renovation company, Pittsburgh Healthy Homes.
Moletz also keeps an eye on food waste. He tries to minimize waste both in food preparation and in the food customers leave on the plate. He builds his menu around avoiding wastefulness.
“We just eliminated things that we were throwing in the trash,” he said, drawing from a legacy of growing up “super poor,” when “waste wasn’t an option.”
For example, Burghers Brewing no longer puts basil on hamburgers because there is no use for basil stems. The restaurant also put mini burgers on the menu to reduce excess food that customers didn’t eat.
In this season of resolutions, cutting down on groceries that go into the garbage — both to save money and help the environment — is also on the mind of consumers. We asked some professionals for tips to circumvent the trashcan.
Do a food waste audit
In her job as vice president of external affairs for the nonprofit 412 Food Rescue, Jennifer England deals mostly with redistributing excess retail food to nonprofit partners. But in fact, consumer food waste accounts for the largest part (50%) of all excess food, to the tune of $788 per U.S. consumer annually, according to U.S. nonprofit ReFed.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture estimates that 30-40% of the food supply is wasted — 133 billion pounds ($161 billion) per year.
England’s job is her passion — and also her personal struggle. She admits that eliminating food waste in her own home has been a learning process.
The first thing she emphasizes is that you should do what works for you. Your eating, buying and cooking habits will be different from your neighbor’s.
Next, she recommends that people spend a week doing an informal food waste audit: Look at what you’re putting in the trash and write it down. This process might yield some insights.
Are you throwing away a lot of cooked pasta? Maybe you should cook two small quantities during the week rather than one large one. Or, just cook less period.
“Are you dumping half a pot of coffee down the drain every day? That was a big one for me,” England said.
Initially, she thought it didn’t matter, since the coffee wasn’t going into a landfill and she composted the grains. But then she realized “the land, water, labor, emissions that it took to grow, process, transport and store that coffee from the field to my house is 93% of the environmental impact of that wasted coffee,” she said.
So when she dumped the coffee and then made a new pot the next day, that multiplied the upstream environmental impact.
“It’s really important to understand what you’re wasting and how you’re wasting it, not only because it’s a waste of your money, but it’s doubling the impact.”
Shop smart
England notes that cut produce spoils more quickly than whole produce. But you should look at your own habits to determine what works for you. In her own case, she is more likely to use cut squash than to go through the effort of breaking down a whole squash. But she will buy a whole head of lettuce rather than bagged salad.
She also advocates shopping more frequently — say, twice a week rather than once every two weeks — which tends to cut down on aspirational buying.
Buying in bulk is not cheaper if you’re throwing half of it away, England remarked.
Plan ahead
The pros also note the importance of planning ahead.
Caitlin Courtney is an executive chef with the University of Pittsburgh’s dining services. In a written statement, she said that planning ahead reduces waste by ensuring that you buy only what you need, helping you use ingredients before they expire.
“For example,” she said, “knowing when to defrost proteins can prevent spoilage while also saving time during busy evenings.”
England has whiteboards on her fridge that list the menu for the week so she doesn’t forget various ingredients.
Store food properly
There are plenty of guides online with cute illustrations on how to store food properly. England has one printed out and pinned it to her refrigerator.
Some produce is best refrigerated (apples, cauliflower, berries) while other items are best kept at room temperature (bananas, onions, potatoes). Some fruits, like apples and bananas, emit ethylene, which speeds ripening. So you want to keep those fruits away from ethylene-sensitive produce like cabbage, leafy greens and broccoli.
If you suspect something will go bad before you can use it, check to see if you can freeze it.
Use your nose
Food date labeling is the “Wild West,” England said. Currently, several bills are proposing the simplification of food labeling because consumer confusion leads to enormous waste. There are nearly 60 labeling terms, so it’s no wonder consumers are confused about when they need to throw food away.
The bottom line is most food date labeling indicates quality rather than safety. According to the USDA, a “use by” is the last date recommended for the use of the product while at peak quality and not a safety date except for when used on infant formula. “Best before” also indicates quality as opposed to safety.
Milk is one of England’s pet peeves.
“We waste so much dairy in this country because people think it’s going to go bad,” she said. “Milk lasts a long time.”
Her test? “If it smells fine and it’s not chunky, it’s good to go.”
Stocks, stocks and more stocks
All the pros recommend making soup stock from your scraps.
“Every single thing that I don’t use as far as vegetable or meat scraps goes into a freezer,” Moletz said.
He uses these items to make stock. He then freezes the stock in ice cube trays so the kitchen staff has access to chicken, beef or vegetable stock in small quantities.
Courtney recommends saving things like onion skins, celery ends, carrot tops and bones to make stock.
“Having homemade stock on hand can elevate your recipes while reducing your reliance on store-bought options,” she said in a statement.
Learn waste-free cooking
England touts the “exciting adventure” of learning waste-free cooking. She recommends the cookbook “Plant You: Scrappy Cooking.” There’s also British chef Fergus Henderson’s classic cookbooks on eating the whole animal, like “The Complete Nose to Tail.”
England also sings the praises of pickling and using all kinds of vegetables to make kimchi. She particularly likes pickled watermelon rind.
Also, see the Whatever You Want Soup recipe below, which uses leftover ingredients.
Start composting and get a dog
Any scraps that are really unusable might be compostable. England makes compost bin but never uses it to fertilize her garden — it is an “all-you-can-eat buffet” for local raccoons, keeping waste from the incinerator or landfill.
“My grandmother had two bins for her food waste. One was compost, one was for dogs,” England said. “Pretty much everything went into one of those bins.”
Chickens are also useful scrap eaters, if you have the space for them.
Don’t give up
“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good,” England advised.
No matter what you do, you will probably waste some food, but whatever you can do to reduce that amount is a victory.
“I talk a good game, but I am still going to waste food,” she said. “Life happens.”
Whatever You Want Soup
This basic recipe can serve as a template for any kind of chunky soup. Mix and match ingredients to suit your cravings, using an aromatic base of onions and garlic, seasonings, flavorful stock (or water), and whatever ingredients you choose.
For add-ins, you can use a combination of vegetables diced into ¾-inch pieces (use one or more of carrots, fennel, celery, leeks, winter squash, potatoes or parsnips); cooked beans, lentils or chickpeas; up to 4 cups of sliced kale or green cabbage; or up to 3 cups of cooked, shredded chicken or pork (if not using raw chicken).
You can replace some of the liquid with bean broth, heavy cream, chopped tomatoes in their juices or full-fat coconut milk.
Covered in the refrigerator, this soup will last for up to five days, but it also freezes exceptionally well for up to two months. Just return it to a boil before using.
4 tablespoons butter, olive oil or neutral-tasting oil
2 medium onions, diced
3 cloves garlic, sliced
Kosher salt
6-8 cups meat, vegetables or other add-ins
About 1½ pounds raw, boneless chicken (optional)
About 8 cups water or chicken stock, preferably homemade
Set a large Dutch oven or stockpot over medium-high heat and add 4 tablespoons butter or oil. When the butter melts or the oil shimmers, add onions and garlic, and a generous pinch of salt.
Reduce heat to medium and cook, stirring occasionally, until the onions are tender, about 15 minutes.
Place meat, vegetables and other add-ins in the pot, along with the raw chicken (if using), and add enough liquid to cover. Season with salt. Increase heat to high and bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer.
Cook until the flavors have come together and the vegetables and greens are tender, about 20 minutes more. If you added raw chicken, remove it from the soup when cooked, allow to cool, shred and return to the soup. Taste and adjust for salt.
Add more hot liquid if needed to thin the soup to desired consistency. Taste and adjust for salt.
Serve hot, and garnish as desired.
Serves 6 to 8