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I thought this would be an interesting discussion on food waste and ways to avoid it at various levels. Nope, pages and pages of arguing what junk food is and if it's worse to eat than fresh veggies. Ok. I'm really wondering who's doing all the food wasting though. I so rarely see it. In my household we try not to waste any food. It mostly comes naturally. Buy food related to the meals you generally make, prioritize cooking things that involve ingredients that are going to expire sooner than others. Every now and then some spinach gets mushy or some milk will turn sour but the amount of food we actually ever have to throw away is super low. We had a discussion about food waste a while ago with some friends and discussed shopping/cooking/storing practices and everyone else seemed to be the same. Every now and then throw away a small portion of veggies, maybe some cheese went moldy and it wasn't the sort you can just scrape off. Food costs money, wasting it because you were too stupid to keep on eye on your stocks and toss poo poo into a stir fry before it goes off is shameful. I feel pretty shameful and upset if I have to throw anything away. And at restaurants pretty much everyone gets left overs packed up if it's the sort of food that's still tasty the next day. Now of course this is just my social circle, and it's more or less how I was raised as well. My parents are probably a little worse as my dad constantly goes out to friend's places for dinner so my mom never quite knows what food to stock. I'm curious who's doing all the household food wasting. People far richer than me or my peers who can afford to buy fancy food then throw it away? Poor people too stressed/disorganized to keep tabs on what they have and need to cook? Is it a cultural thing not an income/class thing? I know I saw a lot more food waste when visiting friends and family down in the US, but it's hardly a big enough sample group to say "americans waste more food!" or "suburban folk waste more food"
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Mar 30, 2016 19:38
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 10:07 |
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BarbarianElephant posted:I definitely waste plenty of food. Fresh food comes in big portions. I buy an iceberg lettuce every week and after 3 family salads there is still half a lettuce left. Out it goes. My local supermarket only sells celery in bundles of two, and I can only use one before it is limp. Out it goes. You don't think to change your diet/cooking to suit the portions and ingredients available? If I was regularly throwing out half a something I'd just stop eating it all together out of shame for the waste, and cheapness. I guess there's plenty of people like you though so that drives up the stats. Of course you're mostly a victim of hosed up portions at the market. I buy celery by the one, or in bunches. Can buy most "head" style veggies in halfs or even quarters. I guess if you can afford it it's probably not that bad (financially), but if I threw away half my produce I'd have to get a 2nd job. Also when they give food waste stats is that by weight, or by value? Throwing away half a head of cabbage because you can't possibly eat it all fast enough is one thing, throwing away a big thing of meat or cheese or something very expensive is another. Baronjutter fucked around with this message at 20:13 on Mar 30, 2016 |
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Mar 30, 2016 20:10
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Wouldn't people buying like twice as much food as they need raise the price ? If people bought twice as much gas as their car's tank could hold and just let the rest spill out and go down the drain because "the gas stations only sell fuel in 20 liters but my car only holds 10" wouldn't that raise the price of fuel?
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Mar 31, 2016 17:11
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WampaLord posted:An adult can't live on only rice, you realize? Depends if it's processed or not.
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Mar 31, 2016 17:39
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I had to throw away 3 tiny bananas because they were lovely "organic" ones that turned into liquid mush in a few days. I hate that the only supermarket near me is a lovely organic one with horrible mushy produce at higher prices. This is the most food I've wasted all month.
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Apr 4, 2016 23:11
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I'm starting to think there's a "processed food" autism link due to this thread. I actually find food waste an interesting topic and think reducing food waste is a good idea, as well as other ways of reducing our ecological footprint. Would be cool to see some discussion related to the topic.
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Apr 5, 2016 06:49
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Yeah food packaging can be weird, although it depends on what you're buying. Meat comes on those little foam trays in most places, produce you put your self into a very thin bag, eggs in recyclable cardboard trays, liquids generally in some sort of carton or bottle. I'm not sure how to reduce the packaging for most normal food beyond what it already is, and almost everything is recyclable or biodegradable (or even better, re-usable!). Really though in most cases I'm not sure how to reduce packaging beyond just walking out of a store holding a bunch of raw meat in your hands and your pockets filled with eggs. Children's snack/junk food can often be a bit over-packaged, with a main package then filled with a bunch of individually wrapped what evers but if you're buying these in large enough amounts that their waste is an issue you are a bad parent and your kid is getting the diabeatus. Fast food packaging is insane though. You'll get this huge paper bag filled with several smaller boxes and packages plus 50,000 napkins and condiment packages and some plastic cutlery nothing you ordered needs. Most of it all seems pretty biodegradable though. I often have left-over at restaurants and the packaging they give is generally a pretty useful and re-usable little plastic jar/tub or some sort of cardboard based box/carton. Obviously the stats don't lie, but all the worst food waste I see is always at restaurants (vs next to none at the homes of all my friends). Idiots ordering too much food or being too lazy/wasteful to take away left overs, or whole big buffet trays and raw ingredients thrown out at the end of a night. Just yesterday I was at a fairly expensive japanese place and the table behind us left after eating maybe 50% of their food. Expensive fish just sitting there, bento boxes almost untouched, soups and sides totally ignored. I see poo poo like that all the time, are people just ordering way more than they can eat and after decades still have no idea how to order food? It's infuriating to see the waste, specially when it's something expensive and delicious. I don't know if it's a social/class/peer group thing but when I see waste it's usually very much table-wide. Either everyone at the table wasted their food or no one did.
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Apr 5, 2016 20:08
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Doc Hawkins posted:I don't understand how there could be a single method to sizing portions properly across all restaurants and customers. Can you explain further? Some people are too shy to ask about portion sizes, although that's not really the fault of the restaurant. Price is often a good measure but not always, and servers often give bad or highly subjective advise on portions. I'm going to assume that $9.50 entree is smaller than the $15.00 one, but that's not always the case, sometimes it just has more expensive stuff in it or it's a rip off or you've accidentally walked into a "tapas" restaurant. Scope out other tables and see the general sizes of stuff. When in doubt, ask, and know your self too. Better to order too little than too much, you can always order more. Me and my wife are usually totally good to share an entree + a smaller side, or one big entree. Many of my friends can put away a large entree them selves plus multiple large beers plus a side and then still have room to be the table garbage disposal if anyone else can't finish. These garbage disposal people are very useful for making sure your table has no shameful food waste. We tend to never order anything we might not be able to finish if it's something that doesn't make good left overs (day old chinese or thai is generally great, sushi no way). Everyone fucks up now and again and is caught off guard by a huge portion, or misjudged their appetite, or just hated their food. That's what friends are for! But like I said, I notice that people who waste a ton of food in restaurants are usually seated together. Those 6 ladies who just left each left half their food on their plates, while the other tables all ate 90-100%. It's very rare that I ever see a table where all the plates are cleared except for one. I'm guess this is a mix of social/class/culture and the "collective stomach" of the table being full. Friends can only help friends finish if they aren't totally full them selves.
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Apr 5, 2016 20:47
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| # ¿ May 16, 2024 10:07 |
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Doc Hawkins posted:You said that the restaurants themselves should "know how to size a loving portion properly," that's the secret technique I'm interested in. Please don't confuse me with pt6a 
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Apr 6, 2016 04:17
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