HOW TO AVOID FOOD WASTE?

One third of the food produced in the world is lost or wasted. If food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases, after China and the United States. Meanwhile, nearly 700 million people in the world suffer from hunger.

As a result of these social and environmental impacts, initiatives such as the one by Phenixwhose goal is to reduce food waste through technological solutions: real-time monitoring of products close to expiration in supermarkets, discounts for expiration, app to sell the surplus of the day at a reduced price, food donations ... As a consumer, the anti-waste app allows you to buy the surplus of supermarkets, greengrocers, butchers, fishmongers and other local businesses with a discount of up to 70%. Today, we join Phenix to show you different ways you can avoid waste, here we go!

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Do not judge by appearance

45% of all wasted food is fruit and vegetables, and one of the main reasons is because they do not meet the aesthetic canons. That is, their color, shape or appearance is associated with a poor quality product, when in most cases it has nothing to do with it. The nutritional value is the same!

When you go shopping, choose the "ugly" fruits and vegetables. They are usually healthier, since in most cases they have not been genetically modified. And if you know you are going to eat the fruit and vegetables that same day, choose the ripest ones.

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Choose seasonal products

Seasonal products, such as seasonal fruits and vegetables, are at their optimum time of consumption. They have better color, flavor and aroma. Therefore, they help minimize household food waste, as they are much more palatable and we tend to consume them more easily before they go bad.

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Plan a weekly menu and cook in advance

If we want to save money and avoid food waste, we should always plan a weekly menu. This way we make sure we consume everything we buy and avoid buying unnecessary and/or unhealthy products.

Once the weekly menu and the corresponding shopping list have been made, we go to the supermarket, without hunger! Important if we do not want to fall into the temptation of buying too much. Once the shopping is done, we get down to work with batch cooking. A practice that consists of preparing all the dishes in advance, which also helps to avoid waste.

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Check expiration dates correctly

9 million of the 88 million tons of food wasted annually in Europe is due to incorrectly read best-before dates. Around 40% of consumers do not fully understand the difference between best-before and use-by dates.

The " use by" date is a date that indicates that the food can be safely consumed until a specific date. After that date, it may pose a health risk. On the other hand, the best-before date indicates that the product will be in perfect condition until the date indicated on the label. After that date, the quality of the product will not be the same, its aroma and texture may change, but there is no health risk.

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Another very simple way to avoid wasting food is to take advantage of everything we have in the fridge, our leftovers and all the edible part of a food. Croquettes, cannelloni, paella... These are recipes that we have incorporated in our gastronomy that are born from the need to take advantage of leftovers.

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Keep the refrigerator clean

Properly organizing and keeping the refrigerator clean is essential to avoid food waste. On the one hand, we must make sure that our refrigerator is clean and sanitized so as not to spoil food because of the dirt in the fridge.

How do I place the food to prolong its shelf life?

• We will place foods with short expiration dates in front and long expiration dates at the back. Facilitating the order in which we have to consume the food.
• In the cold part of the refrigerator (which will change depending on the refrigerator model) we will place raw and meat products: meat, fish, dairy products, cheese...
• Prepared food is also stored in the coldest part of the refrigerator.
• Fruits and vegetables should be placed in the vegetable drawers of the refrigerator after washing them (this will extend their life).
• Etc

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Phenix is a free application in which users can save the surplus food of the stores in their neighborhood with discounts of up to 70%. Supermarkets, greengrocers, greengrocers, butchers, fishmongers, restaurants, bakeries... They offer their daily surplus in the form of surprise baskets. Thus acting against food waste and offering users the possibility of saving a significant amount of money. Are you up for it?

As you can see, taking action against food waste is quite simple. A small gesture, such as not throwing away an apple, can prevent the generation of waste and CO2 emissions that are harmful to the planet, just as our sustainable household cleaning products do.

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