Like most of our fellow New Yorkers, I have been practicing social distancing and #StayAtHome, helping to do my part to help stop the spread of COVID-19. For me, this means I’ve switched to a delivery grocery service or to utilizing my friends who plan to make trips. It also means I do a lot of cooking at home.

Ensuring the food we have is put to good use and lasts as long as possible will also help to cut down on the number of shopping trips, grocery deliveries, and more importantly negatively impacting our bank accounts by helping to reduce food waste. (Not to mention, cutting food waste helps the environment, which to many Cortlandians, means a great deal.)

Now, if you’re like many others who have hit the grocery stores to stock up on meat or other food items, we have a few tips for you to help limit your unintentional food waste. These suggestions highlight the most important feature of our place of residence – the refrigerator!

1. Check your refrigerator and freezer.

Okay, don’t just open the door as if you’re looking for something to eat. I mean really give it a good look over. It’s important to clean your refrigerator and freezer so that it can optimally run. Not only will this help it keep at the proper temperatures, but it can also help cut down on appliance repairs and electric bills. I know, cleaning is not always everyone’s idea of fun, but if it can save some money, I’m all in. Here’s how: Pull your refrigerator out (it’s okay if you're disgusted at first sight of what you see, most people don’t know to do this). Likely, you might see a backing with screws usually located near the bottom. Unplug, and unscrew that and check for dust and debris – if its dirty check out this helpful video on how to clean your cold storage unit. After you have made sure it’s all clean, check the thermostat of both the refrigerator and freezer. For refrigerators, the temperature should be at or below 40 degrees and freezers should be 0 degrees.

2. Store items properly in the refrigerator.

Click on image to view a larger PDF version.

Now, let’s turn to the inside. Cleaning, organizing, and making sure to store food items properly can help save food and money, plus this makes it so much easier to locate items amidst the clutter of leftovers and condiments.

Believe it or not, your entire refrigerator is not consistently the same temperature, nor does it have the same humidity levels. You might have heard that milk should be stored in the top and back of the refrigerator, but did you know the door is not the best place for eggs? If you want to know more about how to properly arrange and store items in your refrigerator to help your food stay fresher longer, check out the guide from Consumer Reports.

Additional Tips

3. Know the difference between “use by”, and “best by” dates.

In a previous post, we provided a handy tips graphic that discussed this, but as a reminder “best by” dates refer to peak freshness. These dates are used to determine quality rather than safety of food items and are often for boxed or “nonperishable” items. “Use by” dates typically are used for perishable items like dairy and meat products and are for safety measures. Take an inventory of your items that can spoil quicker (those with “use by” dates approaching or past) and be sure to use up or properly freeze these foods first. As a side note, our senses are great tools to use as well for checking if food has spoiled.

4. Use the float or sink test for eggs.

Were you like the many others who stocked up on eggs and now seeing that the “use by” date is past today’s date? If so, don’t immediately trash them. Instead, you can test your eggs using a simple trick by filling a glass of water and dropping the egg. If the egg floats you will want to skip on consuming it, it if sinks it’s still safe to eat. I’ve used this handy trick a few times because I tend to go in spurts where I eat eggs like crazy and then suddenly, like the weather changes lately, I quickly tire of them leaving a dozen eggs for weeks on end in the refrigerator.

5. Get creative with your foods.

This one is great if you have little ones in your life--but even the big ones can get in on the fun! Cooking is a great way to engage the whole household and to experiment with your food and taste buds. Actually, one of my favorite past times-- pre-quarantine -- was cooking with friends and family members. We would crank up the music, decide on a dish(es) to prepare and next thing you know, we are dancing around the kitchen to the sounds of the smoke alarm – I mean the music!(Okay, sometimes I can get caught up in the dancing portion and a thing or two might get a little more done than planned, but because I had fun making it, it all tastes good to me.) Here’s a few quick ideas: If you have all the items to make chicken noodle soup, but no noodles, why not try your hand at making chicken-potpie? Or better yet, you have everything but the chips or taco shells for a taco dinner, why not make a taco casserole? And if you’re into baking more than cooking, this by far is probably the tastiest way to get creative. In times when panic buying is happening, we can expect to see occasional shortages, and this could dampen our desires to bake some sweets. Here’s a simple little image to illustrates the alternatives to milk when baking.

Image: Becci Burkhart/SheKnowsOriginally published June 2016. Updated June 2017.

Let us know if you found any of this helpful, or better yet, if you have questions or suggestions for future posts and things food waste-related that you would like to know more about tag us on Facebook @SevenValleysHealthCoalition or email me theresa@sevenvalleyshealth.org

Happy cleaning, organizing, cooking, and baking!

Making the Most of Your Groceries