ReFED’s Food Waste Five: Tips for Reducing Waste at Home

We shared a few food waste reduction tips in our last article, but today we’re expanding on ReFED’s Food Waste Five, a helpful framework for reducing your waste at home: plan ahead, store properly, use your freezer, learn the labels, and eat down.

ReFED is a US-based nonprofit working to solve food waste. They estimate nearly 50% of surplus food occurs at the consumer level both in and out of the home, and that the average American spent $760 on uneaten food in 2024! The Food Waste Five will help you reduce waste, while also saving money:

Plan ahead  
  • Make a grocery list, and stick to it! 
  • Plan meals that use overlapping ingredients: Have a rotisserie chicken one night, and use the leftovers for chicken tacos or quesadillas the next day.  
  • Avoid impulse purchases, especially for perishable items.  
  • If you know you’ll eat out at least once that week, keep that in mind while grocery shopping.
  • Keep a kitchen inventory list on your phone to reference while shopping to avoid repeat purchases.  
Store food properly 
  • Foods can last longer when stored properly, and there are a lot of online resources available to maximize the life of your foods.  
  • Example: Storing herbs or leafy greens in a jar with water keeps them fresher for longer! There are also foods that shouldn’t be stored together, like potatoes and onions. Onions produce ethylene gas, which causes potatoes to ripen and spoil faster. 
Use your freezer 
  • There are many opportunities to prevent waste and extend the shelf life of various foods, both for ingredients and prepared meals. We’ll dive into this in our next article! 
Learn the labels 
  • Learn the difference between “best by,” “sell by,” “use by” and “expiration” labels, as these often refer to food quality and not food safety. 
  • Foods are often safe past the best by date; use your best judgement and do your research. 
Eat down
  • Eat your leftovers! 
  • Designate a spot in your fridge for items that need to be used first. 
  • Veggie stir-fries are a great way to use leftover produce at the end of the week.

 We’ll continue to expand on some of these tips in future articles, so stay tuned and visit ReFED.org to learn more about food waste in the meantime!