Tips and Tricks

Stop peeling your produce

In most cases, peeling vegetables and fruits is a waste of food, time, money, fibre and nutrients. You don't actually need to peel most of your products and instead, you can just wash them before eating to remove dirt.

Keep Bananas seperate from other fruit

If you keep your bananas near other fruits, they ripen faster due to the ethylene gas released by fruit such as apples and pears. Once bananas are ripe, they produce ethylene gas, which ripens other fruits as well. If it is already too late, put them in the freezer and use them in one of our recipes (overripe banana ice cream).

Signs your food has gone bad

Expiration dates can’t always be relied upon to indicate spoilage. This is because the dates don’t take into account the various storage methods and/or room temperatures.

Mould

Mould is a fairly obvious sign of spoilage and can tell you right away that your food is spoiled. If you are noticing a few spots of mould covering your loaf of bread you can just cut off the edges and safely eat the rest. However, any mould on your meat, dairy products, fruits or vegetables means that the food is spoiled and is no longer safe to eat.

Discolouration

This is not a sign of spoilage for all foods, as sometimes foods change colour as it is ripening and doesn’t affect the quality of the food. Some unaffected foods include avocados, which lighten as they are exposed to air. However, take notice of green vegetables changing colour, as they are probably past their prime.

Changed texture

If your fruits and vegetables are becoming squishy or starting to concave, their time is up and they are ready to be thrown into the compost bin. The same goes for fruit that has a wrinkly appearance, is mushy, or grainy in texture. A change in texture is also commonly seen in dairy products that have gone bad. If your milk is chunky, it is definitely a bad sign and the same for cheese that has gone soggy. An important thing to remember is that soft cheese will tend to spoil faster than hard cheeses.

Floating eggs

A quick and easy way to test the freshness of your eggs is to simply drop them in fresh, cold water. If the egg is safe to eat, it will sink and if it has spoiled, it will rise to the top. This happens as a result of eggshells being slightly porous and so as an egg ages, it will start to produce air inside the shell.

Canned food

It is always a good idea to take extra caution when trying to decide whether canned food has spoiled as it presents food poisoning risk which can be fatal. Spoiled canned food is usually indicated by some sort of abnormality in the jar such as a bulging lid or a broken seal. Another sign of spoiled canned food is tiny bubbles moving upward in the jar. If the food gives off a bad odour, is looking mushy, just toss it.

Don’t be a perfectionist

Although it may not feel like a crime, rummaging through a bin of apples until you find the most perfect looking one contributes to food waste. Even though fruits will taste the same no matter how they look, ‘ugly’ fruits and vegetables are always left behind and end up in our landfills. Do your part by simply choosing the slightly imperfect produce at the grocery store.

Keep your fridge orgainised

If you have heard of the saying “out of sight, out of mind you will probably understand why this is such a large issue in terms of food waste. You can easily reduce your food waste by keeping your fridge organised in a way that you can clearly see foods and know when you bought them. A smart way of stocking your fridge is by using the FIFO method, which stands for “first-in, first-out”. For example, when you buy a new loaf of bread, place the newer one behind the old one. This way you can ensure that the older food gets used and isn’t wasted.

Your guide to Composting

Composting is fairly simple but it is important to get it right.

These items can go in your compost bin

Fruits and vegetables

Garden waste and flowers

Pasta and rice

Bread and grains

Eggshells, nutshells, egg cartons

Teabags and filters

Coffee grounds

Certified compostable packaging

Paper towels and napkins

Compostable bags

Wooden chopsticks and toothpicks

Old herbs and spices

Hair and fur

These items cannot go in your compost bin

Plastic wrap

Plastic condiment packaging

Plastic food container

Latex or rubber gloves

Bottles or jars

Aluminium of metal cans

Polystyrene or foam

Plastic or plastic clines cups

Meat and fish scraps

Dairy, fats and oils

Store Onions away from potatoes

Although potatoes and onion both like cool, dark conditions, storing them together will cause them to sprout a lot faster. This is because both onions and potatoes release moisture, which can lead to them spoiling faster.