Monthly Archives: October 2007

Hooray for Rachael

I’m not much for cooking shows. I can’t stomach all those wasted ingredients as they switch from the mixing bowl to the version finishing in the oven. Plus, they make me hungry. But I wanted to give credit where it’s due to an obscure host named Rachael Ray. You may have seen her on your box of Wheat Thins […]

October 18, 2007 | Posted in History and Culture, Household, Personal | Comments closed

Pot Pie Pandemic?

After concerns that some of its Banquet poultry pot pie products may be linked to an outbreak of salmonella, ConAgra recalled all Banquet and store brand pot pies last week. The reason more than 165 people in 31 states got sick is because they didn’t get the freezer pies hot enough. Because these pot pies are not ‘ready […]

October 17, 2007 | Posted in Food Safety, Processing Plants, Supermarket | Comments closed

Schools’ Waste

It’s not often that we get front page food waste news. Because wasted food is so commonplace in America, it’s not usually newsworthy.  Yet, an article generally makes the cut when the squandering costs more than a half million dollars and includes a nice helping of fraud. That’s what happened Sunday, when The Commercial Appeal broke a humdinger of an investigative story about […]

October 16, 2007 | Posted in Food Safety, Institutional, School | Comments closed

The Weekly Waste Word: Meal Planning

A few weeks ago, we discussed the importance of making a grocery list. Going one step further, planning the week’s meals speeds up grocery shopping and reduces household food waste. Meal planning forces you to have a purpose for each purchased item (with one or two fun exceptions). Deciding on meals can be a chore, but no more so […]

October 15, 2007 | Posted in Household, The Weekly Waste Word | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

New articles about dumpster diving seem to pop up daily. But you never get the full story from the “freegan” point of view. Here’s a well-written recap of a night spent dumpster diving from Liz Seymour, a Greensboro writer who lives in a communal house. — — I found this video on The River food […]

October 12, 2007 | Posted in Food Recovery, Friday Buffet | Comments closed

The Green Arches?

Say what you want about McDonald’s (and folks around the world have plenty to say), at least they’re experimenting with environmental responsibility. In the UK, anyway. The world’s largest fast food chain is currently undertaking two experiments. First, McDonald’s is finally doing what many companies have done–turning to biodiesel as an environmentally friendly fuel source. Sorry “grease car” enthusiasts, […]

October 11, 2007 | Posted in International, Restaurant, Technology, Waste Stream | Comments closed

A Lump of History

Wow, cookbooks sure have changed! This 1916 beauty is actually a freebie distributed by Fred Scott Coal. Can you imagine anything like it today? And it’s not like Scott had any vested interest in people not wasting. More to the point, World War I was raging and while the U.S. hadn’t yet entered, Americans were […]

October 10, 2007 | Posted in History and Culture, Household | Comments closed

Pick a Pepper

Would you pay a quarter for this pepper? That’s what I paid yesterday for this pepper that I found on my supermarket’s reduced price rack. It came packaged with a similarly blemished pepper (see below) for 50 cents. Not surprisingly, I’m a big believer in this idea. As we’ve discussed before, many supermarkets shoot for perfect-looking produce. Anything that […]

October 9, 2007 | Posted in Food Safety, Personal, Supermarket | Comments closed

Mottainai!

Most Mondays, I offer advice on how to avoid waste. Today, listening to this NPR piece on the Japanese idea of Mottainai will be more helpful than any of my specific recommendations. Mottainai means, roughly, ‘don’t waste.’ The concept is part of Japan’s cultural DNA, but it had recently been losing out to consumerism (sound familiar, my […]

October 8, 2007 | Posted in History and Culture, International | Comments closed

Friday Buffet

Just down the road from Wasted Food HQ, they’re doing some nice work recycling food waste at UNC Chapel Hill. Now if they could only waste less… Increased food recycling isn’t necessarily a good thing. Getting students to not take more food than they eat is difficult but important work. — — Hey parents, here’s a no […]

October 5, 2007 | Posted in Friday Buffet, Household, Institutional | Comments closed