Buying and storing food more efficiently
Issue #14
No matter if spontaneous or planned during the grocery shopping, you often find something in the cart, which you have seen spontaneously, or which is currently on offer. It is then not so rare that this food is already stored at home. Sustainable is this principle not.
The weekly shopping is coming up again and new bargain offers are there. The favorite tofu is set down, and at a price that is so often not available. But when you get home, you notice that there are two more packages in the fridge. And the tomatoes were also an unnecessary purchase, as there are still several in the fridge. But wait, in the refrigerator? Is this the place to keep this food?
A quick course on how to shop wisely and then store your food in an energy-efficient manner.
When shopping, it’s important to be aware beforehand of what products you still have at home. Just because something is on sale doesn’t mean you have to buy the whole shelf empty. This principle is not sustainable, because these foods are often thrown away before they have even been prepared. Keeping a list of all the food you have at home complicates things a bit. Rather one falls back to the well-known trick to write a shopping list in advance and to take along with offers only another product instead of two to three.
But if the fridge is full again, but you don’t have any recipe ideas, the app SuperCook helps you to cook something with the ingredients you have at home.
But how do we store our food properly? Most refrigerators have different temperature zones, which helps to store the different foods in the best possible way. The least refrigerated compartment is the door. Here it is useful to be able to store butter, drinks, etc. The temperature is between 10 and 15 degrees. The vegetable compartment has a temperature of 8-10 degrees. Nevertheless, important to note: Tomatoes and tropical fruits are better to store at room temperature. The air in the refrigerator sinks and collects above the vegetable compartment, which is why the lowest compartment is the coolest and most suitable for meat and fish. Cheese is usually stored in the middle one at 4-5 degrees.
If there is a lot of space, it helps to put bottles in the refrigerator to reduce the amount of air. Also, it helps not to leave the door open too long.
To reduce the throwing away of food, it helps to put the products in front, which are less durable.
Well-structured shopping and proper storage of food can help to throw away fewer products and be more sustainable in your approach. So, take a look in your refrigerator the next time before you go to the grocery store.
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