We've all been there, tossing out forgotten leftovers or that bag of spinach wilting in the back of the fridge. But what if one simple habit could drastically cut down on food waste and save you money?
A post to the r/Anticonsumption subreddit recently highlighted a surprisingly effective solution: freezing extra food.
In the post, a Redditor shared a new study from The Ohio State University. It found that households that freeze extra food, from leftovers to holiday cookies, tend to waste less.
"Definitely true for my household," wrote the original poster.
According to the study, discarded frozen items make up only about 6% of wasted household food in the U.S. Meanwhile, about 30% of all food is wasted in the U.S., and research suggests that number is increasing.
If more households adopted home freezing practices, the overall amount of food waste could decrease. As Lei Xu, one of the study's authors, explained, "The findings suggest that … if we can encourage households to adopt home freezing behaviors, this small change in food storage habits can have a large environmental impact."
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Bought more than I could eat 🛒 In fact, the study found that 55% of households that buy frozen foods do so specifically to reduce waste. But as Xu pointed out, half of consumers still aren't using freezing as a waste reduction strategy. "We want to increase social awareness of how to save food, and explain how people use frozen food and home freezing techniques to save food," Xu said.
For consumers, the benefits go beyond keeping food out of the trash. Freezing leftovers can help you save money by stretching meals further and reducing grocery bills. For example, one Redditor shared, "I'll make a stew, eat a meal, dish out one more serving for the fridge, and then separate out the balance in meal-sized servings and freeze them."
"My hack that I pair with my freezer is keeping a list of what I've got in there on my phone. That way while I'm meal prepping each week, I can see what I already have at a glance," commented another.
One user explained how they've incorporated chickens and composting to further reduce their waste. "Once you get chickens and compost what they can't eat, there's none," they shared.
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Composting provides an excellent way to repurpose food scraps that can't be frozen or consumed. Transforming kitchen waste into nutrient-rich soil helps reduce landfill waste and enriches garden soil, benefiting both the environment and your garden.
Freezing extra food, combined with other sustainable practices, is a powerful way to tackle food waste. This small effort adds up, helping both the environment and your budget.
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