Category Archives: Restaurant

The Home Front

I recently came across stats for food waste in Orange County, North Carolina, where I live. My immediate reaction–Wow! It seems we waste a fair amount of food in N.C.’s O.C. In 2005, food waste was one-fifth of the county’s waste stream, its largest component. Considering overall waste for the county was 56,303 tons, 11,091 tons […]

March 14, 2007 | Also posted in Household, Stats | Comments closed

Breaking Even

Lately, we’ve been talking about restaurant’s increasing portion sizes, with the 2,020-calorie Chili’s fajita steak quesadilla with guacamole as the enormous entree poster child. But the bottom line is this: when we eat out, we waste more food. Considering the 1,600 to 2,800 recommended daily calorie intake, most restaurants give us way too much. Aside from the heavy […]

February 22, 2007 | Also posted in Stats | Comments closed

Talk is Cheap, Food Cheaper

Let’s face it, food is cheap. It may not feel that way when you shop at Whole Foods, but it is when you compare today’s food prices to historical ones. How little we pay for food helps explain the lack of reluctance to waste it, i.e. that more than 40 percent of all food produced in the US is […]

February 20, 2007 | Also posted in Household, Stats | Comments closed

Second Helpings

Let’s talk another bite out of portions. As we’ve discussed, larger portions mean people eat more, but also leave more behind. In today’s America, obesity and waste somehow go hand-in-hand.  In her all-encompassing book What to Eat, Marion Nestle tackles portions. Like a wise old aunt, she remembers the days when diners could finish their plate before it got cold. In […]

February 16, 2007 | Posted in Restaurant | Comments closed

Proportional Waste

Wasted Food reader Gloria recently wondered how the trend of gigantic portions will be reversed (here’s a fun quiz she’s forwarded to illustrate the problem). Value has become one of the areas in which they compete. From heavy Thickburgers to $12.99 three course meals, quantity is in vogue. Hopefully, this will change. But how? Given obesity levels, it would make […]

February 14, 2007 | Also posted in School | Comments closed

Mindless Wasting II

I just finished reading Cornell food psychologist Brian Wansink’s Mindless Eating. While the interesting book examines how Americans unwittingly eat more than we think we do, it provides plenty of fodder for wasted food discussion. For instance, Wansink examines portion size at restaurants. American obesity can be partly blamed on gigantic servings that are now […]

February 13, 2007 | Also posted in Household | Comments closed

Mindless Wasting

I’ve been reading Mindless Eating, Brian Wansink’s fascinating book examining how and why many of our food decisions are subconscious ones. Wansink, director of the Cornell Food and Brand Lab, studies the psychology of eating. I’d recommend perusing his past experiments at FoodPsychology.org. While his work focuses on getting people to eat less–a strategy I admire but […]

February 7, 2007 | Also posted in Household | Comments closed

The task (force) begins

This past week marked the beginning of a new venture: the first meeting of the tentatively-named North Carolina Food Waste Task Force. The group stemmed from a food waste seminar organized by some folks at the N.C. Dept of Pollution Prevention and Environmental Assistance and the Carolina Composting Council. We met last Tuesday at the Inter-Faith […]

January 22, 2007 | Also posted in General, Household, Supermarket | Comments closed

A Different Food Pyramid

Before this blog delves too far into specifics, we should talk about general guidelines on what to do with existing food waste. The EPA has set a nice standard with its Food Waste Recovery Hierarchy. As seen in the snazzy pyramid graphic below, here’s how they propose handling excess food (in order of preference): Source Reduction – Reduce […]

January 9, 2007 | Also posted in General | Comments closed