How to stop wasting food in a fridge clean

There’s nothing worse than the dreaded fridge clean out.

And if you’re like a vast majority of people, you won’t be happy with the amount of food you find yourself throwing out.

But there are a few ways to easily reduce the amount of food waste you have, as are revealed by author Ruth O’Rourke-Jones in her new book My Zero-Waste Kitchen.

By looking at how you can use up scraps and leftovers that you would otherwise throw in the bin you can avoid wasting money on groceries at the supermarket.

Here are some of Ruth’s top tips.

Use your freezer
If you have ingredients left after cooking, consider freezing them. You can freeze cooking wine or leftover stock in ice cube trays to use next time. If you have root vegetables that are starting to go off, freeze them to use in soups down the track. You can also freeze cake, uncooked brown rice, hard cheese and nuts to make them last longer.

Compost, compost, compost
Everyone knows about composting vegetable peelings, fruit and teabags. But did you know you can also add things like cupcake liners, tissues, napkins, wine, beer, chewing gum and cardboard. There’s not much that should end up in the waste. Even crushed eggshells are great to provide your compost with minerals.

Know how to organise your fridge
Where you store your items can impact how long they last. For example don’t put milk in the door, as that’s the warmest part of the fridge. Instead keep it and other diary items on the top shelf, as it’s the coolest. Condiments should go in the door, meat belongs on the middle shelf and your salad and veggies should go in the salad draw – that’s why it’s there.

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‘Inedible’ food can still be used
Even though something might not be fresh or taste as good as when you bought it, you can still use plenty. For example, use wilted greens in smoothies, or store stale cake overnight in a container with a slice of bread or an apple and voila, good as new. Even dreaded mould isn’t the end of the world. Things like hard cheeses, dry-cured meats and hard fruits can be eaten – just cut off the mould at least 2.5cm below where it’s growing. The keyword here is hard though, so still throw away or compost softer food.

Scraps and leftovers are good
Don’t throw away the head of lettuce, instead use it to grow a whole new plant. Banana peels can be put in a baking tray and help keep meat moist while it’s cooking in the oven. And leftover carrot leaves and parsley stalks are great for pasta sauce or pesto.

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