This surprising food in your fridge needs to be thrown away today
There’s nothing more excruciatingly painful than throwing out food you’ve not eaten. It could be a furry vegetable that’s seen better days, milk that smells a bit too aromatic, or cheese that has developed its own slime (that’s not just happening in our fridge, right?).
Not only have you wasted the ingredients in your fridge, but you’ve also wasted your money and added another food item to the landfill all in one action. Tackling our food waste by calling out our poor food storage etiquette could be exactly what our diets and bank accounts need.
‘Around 25% of the world's food goes uneaten,’ shares Paul Jervis, Group Head of School for Culinary Arts and Hospitality at Capital City College in Westminster. ‘Millions of people can't afford a quality meal, and the waste loses millions of pounds each year. This problem contributes not only to economic waste, but also to carbon, so it is a driver of climate change. Reducing waste is a cost-effective way of achieving sustainability goals set out by the UN.’
And we’re all to blame. The World Food Programme shares that 60% of food waste happens in our homes, highlighting how that leftover that you forgot about is contributing to a much larger problem of how we manage our diets.
10% of greenhouse gases are generated by food waste, costing the global economy $1 trillion every year. It’s why cutting out food waste by half by 2030 is one of the UN’s top sustainable development goals for a fitter, healthier and achievable future for the planet.
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If that still feels unachievable, imagine your dinner plate: then immediately imagine yourself scraping a quarter of that plate of food straight into the bin, and that’s what’s happening around the planet. It’s why one billion meals are wasted globally every day. Want to cut that figure down, while saving yourself money in the process? It starts with understanding what food is safe for consumption and how to store it properly.
‘Use by’ vs ‘Best before’
If you’re not sure of the difference between use-by and best-before dates, then learning the difference between the figures could greatly cut down your food waste. A use-by date is the final date you can eat a product, where consuming something after a use-by date might make you ill or unwell.
A best-before date will indicate how long you have left to eat a product while it tastes high quality, before it begins to perish or make you unwell. Best-before dates can be more flexible, so recognising if food or drinks are safe to consume comes from our awareness of what quality products look like.
‘I would recommend that 'use by' dates (UBD) are strictly followed,’ advises Paul. ‘As professionals, we would not use items beyond the UBD. For 'best before' dates, you can use your senses to check. Does it look normal, does it smell ok, has the texture changed - has it become sticky, etc? Again, professionally, you should use items before these dates come, and overordering is a problem. Cluttered cupboards and storage make it hard to check items regularly.’
In fact, some supermarkets have scrapped the best-before dates altogether in an effort to boost consumer awareness of safe produce and prevent confusion with use-by dates.
The action has tried to remove the mindset that food needs to be thrown away immediately after the date listed on a packet. While this is definitely important for perishable goods like milk and red meat, fresh fruit and vegetables are a different story.
Having the confidence to recognise what safe to consume food looks like, smells like and tastes like can boost our consumer awareness and cut out the cost of food waste that eats into our wallets every year.
How can we store food safely?
The first step to tackling food waste is to understand how to store food in the first place. ‘Bad storage reduces shelf life,’ urges Paul. ‘Washing food too soon before eating encourages mould growth. Storing fruits which release ethylene speeds up the ripening of other ingredients. Bananas are particularly bad for this. Exposure to light and humidity causes items to degrade quickly. You also need to make sure you rotate stock items.’
Some of the foods you should definitely be keeping out of the fridge include:
- Peppers – A crunchy pepper can be a sweet, healthy treat to dip into some hummus or can be the perfect stewed vegetable to add to a fajita. If you want to keep them crisp, leave them out of the fridge to stop them from getting too soft.
- Avocados – Just like bananas, avocados need plenty of time to ripen to get to their creamy flavour to perfection. Leave them in your fruit bowl to ripen, as leaving them in the fridge could stop them from softening and make them inedible.
- Apples – A cool, crisp apple can be a great after-school snack for kids. To keep them at their prime, don’t put them into the fridge until they’ve been in the cupboard for 1-2 weeks, so that they’re kept at their prime sweetness.
- Basil – Keeping basil chilled may be a good idea for pestos and dressings, but leaving the herb in the fridge will make the leaves gain too much moisture and wilt away. Keeping a pot of basil, rather than cut leaves, will preserve freshness and leave you with more herbs to grow and include in future meals.
- Bread – If you’ve tried to make a great toastie only to be greeted by a rock-hard lump of sourdough in the fridge, it’s because your bread is too cold and causing the yeast to dry out. Invest in a bread bin so you can make as many fluffy, gooey toasties as you want.
A ‘first in, first out system’ may be the method to help you tackle the tinned terror, as PCI-Qualified Health Coach Steve Bennett, explains: ‘Use clear, airtight containers with dates clearly marked. Place newer items at the back, older ones at the front. For nuts and seeds, this prevents rancidity, which destroys their nutritional value.’
When it comes to the store cupboard, a dry temperature can also be essential in making sure that food doesn’t spoil, Steve continues: ’Store nuts, seeds, and coconut flour in cool, dark places. Heat destroys beneficial oils. Consider refrigerating ground flaxseeds and opened coconut flour to maintain freshness. Use smaller containers for daily portions of nuts and seeds. This prevents overconsumption while ensuring consistent fibre intake throughout the week.’
If you are pickling and preserving food to keep in the cupboard, there are plenty of great recipes that can help you stretch the shelf life of some of your favourite fresh produce.
‘For preservation, you generally need to add an acid, sugar or salt (or a combination of them),’ explains Paul. ‘If this is not balanced or kept airtight, it will not be successful. Jars need to be properly sterilised before using.’
If there’s any food you’re throwing in the freezer to slow down the growth of any nasty bacteria, be sure to defrost it safely before cooking.
Your kitchen culprits
There are some ingredients that you’ve likely not touched since you were gifted them at Christmas. In fact, there’s a chance that reading the expired best-before dates might make you laugh, before you immediately throw the item away and repeatedly wash your hands.
1. Festive chutneys
It’s time to bin that chutney that you were given in a Christmas hamper. We know it could feel difficult, especially if you forgot about it at the back of the fridge after only using it once on a charcuterie board, but it’ll be key to looking after your health.
2. Jarred olives
A jar of olives can elevate any meal or drink with their salty flavour; Mediterranean salads, spicy puttanescas and dry martinis with that added twist. Keeping them preserved in water and brine in the fridge can help extend their shelf life, but make sure that they’re not collecting dust on that shelf.
Olives can be stored for two weeks in the fridge once opened. If eating them all in time can feel like a challenge, why not try preserving them in a tapenade to store them for your next dinner party?
3. Leftovers
Leftovers are the homey comfort food that wasn’t eaten after portion controlling, but they pose a risk of creating new growths and nasty bacteria if you don’t factor them into your weekly meal plan. And as tempting as an organised meal plan may be, the food prep method only works if you stick to it.
Handcrafting a culinary masterpiece can only be enjoyed if you actually consume it, and not let it add to the pile of forgotten leftovers. Steve explains: ‘Purchasing large quantities without proper rotation leads to waste and potential consumption of degraded nutrients.
‘Start with smaller amounts and build up based on actual usage patterns. The key principle is stocking real, recognisable foods that support stable blood sugar. This approach, combined with putting fibre first at each meal, creates the foundation for sustained health and energy as we age. Focus on foods your grandmother would recognise, avoid items with long ingredient lists, and prioritise nutrient density over convenience.’
4. Sauces & condiments
Sandwiches, salads, pizza – is there any food that isn’t elevated by a zesty dressing or a punchy sauce? Just make sure that the kick is coming from that chilli sauce, and not the food poisoning you might be putting your digestive system at risk of.
Ketchups and chilli sauces can stay in the fridge for up to six months, while mayonnaises and salad dressings should be eaten within two months of being opened.
How to organise your kitchen
If this has been your wake-up call to reorganise your fridge, make sure that you’re learning how to store your food correctly before you haul all of your mouldy leftovers into the compost bin. We’ve asked Paul his best methods for storing food in the fridge and cupboard to preserve freshness, great taste and a long shelf life:
‘For fresh produce, you can store it in loosely wrapped wet kitchen towels or in jars of water with a bag over them. Use the salad trays for leafy greens. Bread can be easily frozen in slices and toasted from frozen. Airtight containers keep dry goods better. Wine bottles can be closed with vacuum pumps to stop oxidation. Boxed wines prolong the life of wines.
‘Freeze food in portions to reduce waste on reheated foods. I'd recommend learning preservation techniques to utilise leftovers. Pickles and chutneys are successful ways to do this. Making jams and jellies is effective and uses leftover vegetables to make soups that can be chilled and frozen for a quick, easy meal.’
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