🌱 Reducing food waste checklist

Most food waste is a storage and planning problem, not a willpower one. Small, repeated habits do more here than any single big change ever does.

18 items

1. Check the fridge and cupboards before writing a shopping listMost waste starts with buying a second one of something already at the back of a shelf.
2. Shop with a list, and a plan for what each thing becomesAn ingredient bought without a meal in mind is the one still there in three weeks.
3. Understand 'best before' versus 'use by''Best before' is about quality and often fine to judge yourself. 'Use by' is a safety date and isn't.
4. Fridge set to the right temperature, below 5°CA fridge running warm shortens everything's life without it being obvious until something's off early.
5. Raw meat stored at the bottom of the fridge, away from anything ready to eat
6. Milk and eggs kept on a shelf, not in the doorThe door is the warmest part of the fridge — fine for condiments, not for anything that spoils fast.
7. A 'use it up' shelf for anything close to its dateOne shelf, checked first when deciding what's for dinner, before anything new gets opened.
8. Fruit and vegetables stored the way each one actually wantsPotatoes and onions in the dark, tomatoes out of the fridge, leafy greens wrapped and chilled. One rule doesn't fit all of it.
9. Bread frozen in slices rather than left to go stale or mouldy on the side
10. Leftovers labelled with the date, not left to become a mystery
11. A weekly stock-take of the fridge before the big shop
12. Portions cooked to match how many people are actually eatingCooking for six out of habit when it's usually four is a slow, steady source of waste.
13. Odds and ends turned into one meal at the end of the weekA soup, a frittata or a stir-fry absorbs whatever's left, instead of each small amount being binned separately.
14. Vegetable scraps kept for stock, or composted rather than binned
15. Freezer used for anything about to turn, not just as long-term storageBread, milk, cheese and most cooked food all freeze — 'about to go off' is often 'about to be frozen' instead.
16. Portions frozen individually, so only what's needed gets defrosted
17. A composting or food waste collection set up, for what genuinely can't be used
18. Checking what actually gets thrown away each weekThe pattern — always half a bag of salad, always the same forgotten yoghurt — is the thing worth fixing, not the single instance.