3 Ways to Waste Less Food, According to Chef and Activist Tom Colicchio

Tom Colicchio knows a thing or two about food waste. “My wife likes to joke that I’m a Depression-era housewife,” Colicchio shared at Food Tank’s Food Waste Summit. The celebrity chef and activist, who is owner of Crafted Hospitality restaurant group, was referring to his obsession with not wasting food, which is a topic that’s been getting more and more attention due to some staggering stats. In the U.S., the USDA estimates that 30% to 40% of food produced is wasted. That added up to 133 billion pounds and $161 billion worth of food in 2010, when the USDA last offered stats. (And you thought Sweetgreen was expensive.) Why should you care, though? After all, you’re now old enough to know that clearing your dinner plate won’t, in fact, help feed starving children in Ethiopia, despite what your mother told you. First, you’re basically throwing your money in the garbage. The most recent stats from Nutrition Connect, an initiative of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), found the average American family spends more than $1,600 a year (that’s a vacation!) on uneaten produce alone. Most importantly, food waste is the largest category of garbage filling landfills. Once in the landfill, it generates methane, a greenhouse gas that is a major contributor to climate change. It’s also bad for the planet since it’s not just wasted food, it’s a waste of all of the resources (like water and transportation) that go into its production. RELATED: The One Simple Diet Change That’s Best For the Planet “The real cost of food isn’t understood,” Colicchio said, referencing how cheap the end cost of food can be in America, a fact that confuses our perception. “We don’t value food.” Ready to start trying? Here are a few simple tips from Colicchio that will help you cut food waste, save the planet, and put money back in your pockets. Win-win-win! 3 Tips to Cut Food Waste 1. FIFO your fridge. There’s a rule in restaurant kitchens referred to as FIFO, and it stands for “first in, first out.” Every time you stock the fridge, you take the older stuff out and move it to the front, putting the newer, fresher foods behind. This prevents you from forgetting about things that are hidden before they go bad. It’s a super simple strategy that adds a couple of extra minutes to your post-grocery routine but makes a huge difference. RELATED: Genius IKEA Kitchen Hacks that Make Healthy Cooking Easier 2. Get to know your freezer. Our collective obsession with fresh ingredients in restaurants might have steered us a little too far from our freezers, according to Colicchio. Everything fresh all of the time is “a great strategy for restaurants, but not necessarily for home,” he said, where it’s often hard to finish foods in the quantities they’re sold in. His tip: Freeze stuff! When he buys too much kale, for example, he blanches it and freezes it. When tomatoes are popping at the farmers’ market, he freezes a bunch and then turns them into sauce at a later date. 3. Eat out. This may sound a little self-serving coming from a chef, but it’s true. While we recommend cooking at home as much as possible to ensure healthy ingredients, restaurants are better at managing food waste than consumers are. (Makes sense since every food item purchased equals dollars on a spreadsheet for restaurants). So, consider this your one good excuse to dine out a little more often than you should. Tell your friends about how you’re working on reducing food waste, too. “We’ve got to get this message out to more people,” Colicchio said. “Nobody wants to waste money. Nobody wants to waste food.” (Images: Shutterstock)

The One Simple Diet Change That’s Best for the Planet

Want to eat a more eco-friendly diet? There’s one simple thing you can do that will have the biggest impact: eat less meat. “There are few other changes you can make in your life that will allow you to be both selfish and altruistic at the same time,” writes Mark Bittman in the book The Reducetarian Solution, which coins the term “reducetarian” to refer to anyone looking to cut back on their meat intake. “And yet becoming a reducetarian does just that, by helping you reduce both your changes of chronic disease and also your carbon footprint and the other damaging environmental consequences of industrial animal production.” RELATED: This Process Is the Root of Most Chronic Diseases All food production requires resources that tax the planet in some way, but meat is particularly intensive in that it uses a lot of water, fuel, and land. It also contributes to nitrogen pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, since cows release methane. Of course, you don’t have to go vegan if it’s not your style. When you do eat meat, you can choose beef from grass-fed cows that have been raised using more sustainable methods. But even grass-fed beef advocates will tell you, you don’t need to eat meat twice a day (and meat that’s good for you and the planet can’t be produced at a rate that allows for that, anyway). Here are a few simple approaches you can try to eat less meat, now. How to Eat Less Meat for an Eco-Friendly Diet 1. Go “One Part Plant” In her book, One Part Plant, wellness advocate Jessica Murnane suggests committing to one plant-based meal every day. You can choose breakfast, lunch, or dinner or switch it up each day, as long as once a day you’re skipping all meat and dairy. RELATED: The Essential Guide to Plant-Based Protein 2. Go Vegan Before 6 Mark Bittman’s own approach is to eat totally plant-based early in the day every day but allow meat and dairy after 6:00 p.m., a plan he lays out in his book VB6. That doesn’t mean you’ll have to give up protein-rich eggs—just save your favorite frittata recipe for later in the day. Who doesn’t love breakfast for dinner? RELATED: Vegan Bacon Will Change Your Life 3. Celebrate Meatless Mondays This may be the earliest example of vegan-ish eating. The Meatless Mondays campaign has been encouraging eaters to eat vegetarian one day a week (on Monday, obviously) for more than a decade. Of course, you could choose whichever day of the week works best for you and commit to swapping your steak salad for a veggie-packed grain bowl just once every seven days. That really doesn’t sound like much of a sacrifice, right?