Category Archives: Household

Fridge Food Waste

How much does refrigerator size play into food waste? I hadn’t considered that question until reading this interesting discussion of the pros and cons of small refrigerators. In her post, “futurebird” explains how she chose a compact 8.8 cubic foot model. Part of her rationale is that when we tend to fill our refrigerators, no matter the […]

August 15, 2007 | Also posted in Technology | Comments closed

The Weekly Waste Word: Appetite for Shopping

Today marks the second installment in this series of tips for avoiding waste. “The Weekly Waste Word” will run every Monday, the day I usually do my grocery shopping. This advice may be a bit basic, but it bears repeating: Don’t shop hungry. “Don’t go hungry—you’ll buy everything, because it all looks good,” said Alicia Ross, a […]

August 13, 2007 | Also posted in The Weekly Waste Word | Comments closed

The Weekly Waste Word

Here’s a new feature on Wasted Food. Barring any breaking news, I’ll post a quick tip or fact about home food waste every Monday. This fact confirmed what I’d long feared–as much as 30 percent of the egg white stays with the egg shell. While I came across this message on a hint sheet for restaurants, […]

August 6, 2007 | Also posted in The Weekly Waste Word | Comments closed

Waste not welcome

This piece provides a little culinary exploration into the origins of traditional African American foods and a bit of watermelon history. In it, there’s a nice nugget about thrift: Nothing was ever wasted in the African American kitchen. Leftover fish became croquettes (by adding an egg, cornmeal or flour, seasonings and breaded then deep-fried). Stale bread […]

August 3, 2007 | Also posted in History and Culture | Comments closed

Making a list and checking it twice

Americans don’t eat about 25 percent of what they bring into their home. (That number comes from an interview I did with William Rathje, the former director of the University of Arizona’s Garbage Project.) How do we waste a quarter of the food we bring home? A decent chunk of that comes from buying too […]

July 30, 2007 | Also posted in Stats, Supermarket | Comments closed

Containing Compost

With Seattle’s mandatory food waste recycling a scant 20 months away, folks there have begun to contemplate how to store their food scraps in the kitchen before curbside dumping. In other words, what kind of container works best. This problem isn’t unique to Seattle’s single family homes (the ones forced to compost in 2009). Home composters […]

July 24, 2007 | Also posted in Waste Stream | Comments closed

Seattle Separation

Seattle’s City Council passed an ordinance Monday requiring all single family homes to recycle their food scraps by 2009. I’m a bit late on this due to my vacation, but what kind of food waste blogger would I be if I didn’t pass along this news? My friends at The Seattle Times have all the details covered. And here’s […]

July 23, 2007 | Also posted in Waste Stream | Comments closed

British food waste awaits

London borough leaders seem to be considering food waste collection. At an event organized by London Remade, a non-profit recycling consulting firm, London officials heard from the recycling coordinator of Preston, where 7,500 homes take part in household composting scheme, urged London to “jump in.” Here, here. We all know there’s plenty of bad English food just […]

July 13, 2007 | Also posted in International | Comments closed

Experimenting with the EsmoSphere

I recently wrote about the EsmoSphere food preservation magnet that can slow food waste. Since its kind Singaporean manufacturers sent me a sample, the least I could do is test it out and share the results. Since I received the seafood model, I decided to assess it with the sea life I cook most often: shrimp. At the seafood […]

July 9, 2007 | Also posted in Food Safety | Comments closed

Recipe for Waste

As some of you may know, I also write a food column and corresponding blog (cough–shameless plug). I was making a recipe for my upcoming column that called for removing juice from the rhubarb with a strainer. After that step, the recipe instructed you to “discard solids.” Obviously, they didn’t realize who they were dealing with. I saved the […]

June 26, 2007 | Posted in Household | Comments closed