Approximately 40% of food in the US goes to waste, whether it's throwing out leftovers, tossing out food that expired, or just not knowing what to do with the remaining ingredients in your fridge.
If wasted food was a country, it would be the third largest producer of carbon dioxide in the world, after the United States and China. And in terms of money, Americans throw away approximately $165 billion worth of food each year.
However, preventing food waste is simple, and you can start saving both food and money today, with these easy tricks.
So-called "ugly" fruit is just as nutritious and delicious as fresh fruit. If you don't think you'll have a reason to eat your ugly or overripe fruit, freeze it for smoothies.
It's the end of the week, and you have a bunch of random veggies that are starting to wrinkle. Before you toss them and make another trip to the grocery store, make a vegetable medley soup.
Or, freeze it to make soup at some later point.
Turns out you only needed a tablespoon of cilantro instead of the whole bundle, and now the rest is starting to wilt. Next time, freeze your herbs in ice cube trays with a little bit of olive oil for single-use portions you can throw into meals later.
This is a classic solution to overripe bananas. Plus, the browner the banana, the sweeter and easier to digest it is.