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According to this article, 30-50% of the world's food is wasted. The article makes the argument that food production is, "not sustainable if [the food is] not eaten," no matter whether the food is grown organically or not.

Here is the "challenge" part of the thread: clean out your fridge.

Sounds simple enough, right? Make a note of the things you throw out. Do you throw out mostly produce or something else? Why did you throw the item out? Was it spoiled or out-of-date or completely unrecognizable? xp After your fridge is clean, come up with some ways you can waste less food in the future. Post your reactions, findings, and ideas below.

Food waste is my biggest shame. We waste so much food. Most of our waste comes from making too much. My boyfriend prepares the food and he always makes the hugest salads, ever. They're a meal in themselves and I can only eat about a quarter. The rest goes in the bin because he had made extra already for lunch the next day.

Many products get forgotten in the back of our fridge. When we move out, I'd really, really like to get a counter depth fridge (they're not as deep as regular fridges). Today we did a small fridge clean and tossed out a couple of jars of jam. Everything is the same height so it gets hidden so easily. I think once we had three tubs of butter because we thought we were out.

I also go through phases. I had a huge date kick a while back and bought a thing of dates. We pulled the half empty tub from the back of the cupboard (the horrid long skinny corner ones). The dates were stale and got tossed.

I really try not to buy stuff that will be forgotten. But it's always the same song and dance a few months later when we go through and clean stuff out. sweatdrop

At one of the places I worked at, they were kicking around the idea of putting baskets in the fridge. Each person would have their own basket. For individuals or couples, I think having a basket of sandwich stuff, breakfast, etc would be good. This way you don't have to hunt down all your sandwich goodies, you just pull out the one basket.

We had huge problems finishing veggies, so unfortunately that means I can't really buy them any more. My boyfriend whines that he wants to eat healthier, but won't eat the vegetables I buy even though he swears he will at the store. rolleyes

He have had some issues with cheeses recently, but they were going off wayy faster than they are supposed to so that definitely isn't our fault. I know cheese, and this stuff was just not keeping the way it should.

The thing I personally waste the most of is the last sip or two of any beverage. I forget that I have a drink and then if it is pop it goes flat and unpleasant.

My boyfriend works at a chinese food place, like fast food, and they often have leftovers at the end of the night, and his boss also feels bad that it goes to waste so the employees can take it home at the end of the night. The other employees are all girls, so they rarely take it home, but my garbage disposal of a boyfriend brings home as much as he has container space for. Sometimes he finishes it, sometimes he doesn't, but at least it is better than eating none of it since it was already destined for trash.
I've tried eating it, but it gets quite chewy from the hour-long walk home and subsequent re-heating. I don't know how he stomachs it xd


We just moved in a month and a half ago, so our fridge+cupboards are still tidy-ish and not full of gross expired food. I'm usually fairly good about those things too because the idea of expired food next to still-good food just makes me crazy.