#FoodWasteFriday: High Tech Tips

There are lots of ways to reduce your food waste at home that can be as low tech as checking the fridge for food that needs to be eaten to high tech apps to keep your kitchen organized. You can use digital applications and websites to help reduce household food waste! These tools include portion planners, grocery lists, inventory tracking and recipe storage platforms. Give them a try and watch your food waste shrink every week!

Meal Prep Mate is a great tool from the National Resource Defense Council’s (NRDC) Save the Food initiative for planning tools, recipes, and storage tips that could reduce our food waste. Entering information into the site’s calculator on what proteins, produce, and grains you plan to cook, plus how many people you’re feeding and how many meals each person needs lets you create a smarter shopping list and gives you suggestions for supplemental recipes using some of the same ingredients. It also offers new ideas for spicing up leftovers! You can also sign up to receive updates and alerts from NRDC about food waste and other environmental issues.

Cozi allows you to schedule recipes onto days of the week to avoid the last-minute dinner decision. Save recipes to the app and easily make a grocery list from your chosen recipes. This can be used as a web-based platform or on any iOS or Android device as a free or subscription account.

Fridgely alerts you when their food is nearing its expiration date. The app is equipped with a barcode scanner to allows you to easily enter their items and set expiration dates. The app can also send push notifications to remind you to use items that are expiring soon and can find recipes based on the ingredients users have on hand. This is free iOS and Android app.

Food Planner helps you track meal planning, grocery lists and kitchen inventory. It also has a robust recipe collection to help inspire your cooking! This is a free Android app.