By Colleen Rothe

If you’re like me, you absolutely hate throwing away food because it’s gone bad before using it.

In fact, a federal study estimates that nearly 96.4 billion pounds of spoiled food is thrown out each year. That’s 122 pounds per family tossed.

When I lived in Europe, I went to the market daily and shopped for the next day’s perishable foods each evening. My refrigerator when I lived there was the size of a large dorm room variety. In five years, I didn’t have anything go bad on me.

Here in America, our attitude towards groceries is much different. Our lifestyle is much different. An average European work day is seven hours. People live near where they work. One hour commutes are unheard of there. Americans are not home on average of nine and a half hours a day and have refrigerators that take up a third of a wall in their kitchens. That would be viewed as wasteful in Europe. It’s the norm here in the States. In short, save changing our work and eating culture all together (which one little blog will never do), we need to be more savvy if we’re going to waste not, want not when it comes to our fresh fruits, vegetables, meats, and cheeses – or anything we put in the fridge.

Lettuce: There’s nothing worse than a slimy bag of lettuce. Considering that leafy greens are so good for us, we need to be good to them as well. The plant’s water content is what makes them wilt and go slimy within a couple of days of purchase. When you get home from the market, get your lettuce out of the plastic bag immediately. Don’t just toss it in the crisper drawer. This is especially important if you purchase the pre-washed cut bags of salad. If you have a special crisper or plastic container that has ripples on the bottom to not let water seeping from the lettuce get on it and oxidize it faster, use that in addition to the next tip. Take the greens out of the bag and without rinsing (remember it’s the water content that makes it quickly wilt and go bad), wrap them in a clean dishtowel and put them in the crisper drawer on a setting that minimizes air flow. If you do the dishtowel tip in conjunction with a rippled reusable plastic container, even better to save you wasteful grocery dollars. Instead of a day or two, your lettuce should stay fresh up to a week.

Dairy Products: Store them upside down. Items like cottage cheese, yogurt, and sour cream are once again like the lettuce. They have high water content. So once you open the product, it’s likely to spoil quickly. If you turn your cottage cheese container upside down, you are redistributing the liquid and shielding the surface from any air exposure – allowing the goods to last long enough to actually get eaten. If you’ve worked in any restaurant kitchen, they store their perishable dairy products this way as well.

Don’t Prep It: Aside from tropical fare like mango and pineapple, fresh fruit last much longer if left unwashed (remember the evil water content oxidization process), uncut, and unpeeled. However, you will want to weigh whether having the strawberries ready to munch outweighs having them last longer. But if you seal them in, again, one of those rippled-bottom storage containers straight from the market and keep them from as much air as possible, they’ll last longer. If you don’t have those fancy plastic containers, seal the fruit in a plastic bag or wrap and keep them in a temperature-controlled crisper drawer in your refrigerator – unless it’s squash, tomatoes or oranges. Those taste better and last longer if not refrigerated, but rather, kept at room temperature. So find a cool corner of your kitchen (that back corner of the counter top that has no purpose but sucking up space is a perfect spot) and put those items in a fruit bowl. It’s decorative and will help you keep them fresh longer. You can put bananas in the fridge too (I know I’ve blogged about that before), to keep them from going mushy. The outside will brown, but the inside will be mush-free. Also, if your picky toddler decided this afternoon that apples are no longer their favorite, you can squeeze a few drops of lemon juice on the cut slices and prevent them from browning. That way tomorrow when that same three-year-old is whining for apples, you’re ready to provide without any wasting. The lemon juice trick works for cut avocados or guacamole too. In this case, you can also use lime juice.

Preventing the Burn: Ice cream and meats have a tendency to crystallize in the freezer. Those crystals are not pretty things to awe at; no, those pretty shiny things have just burned your food. For ice cream, once the container is open, place a small cover of plastic wrap on top of the ice cream and put the lid back on. If you have the square carton that doesn’t seal tight after using, put the whole container in a freezer bag (along with the plastic wrap covering on top of the ice cream and return to the freezer. Be careful if your freezer in your refrigerator has an automatic defrost – many of the new models do a daily defrost. It’s a brief period of time and helps the appliance’s efficiency, but can cause havoc on your frozen foods. Be sure that ice cream and any other thing that’s been opened and refrozen (bags of vegetables or fruit) is put as close to the top as possible, so it doesn’t melt as much. For meat, investing in a vacuum seal gadget is well worth it. Then you can buy in bulk, which also saves you money, and vacuum seal individual portions. That way, no matter who’s coming to dinner, you have enough to make and won’t waste any. If you think it may be awhile before you use the meat, vacuum seal it and then place in a freezer bag. It can store up to 12 months like this. Frozen fish should be used within four months.

Mold-Proof Your Cheese: An opened packet of sliced cheese in a container that is not airtight is asking for your own fridge to become a penicillin-making machine. It’s best to put it in a plastic container with a very tight fitting lid and line the bottom with a vinegar-soaked paper towel. You can also put a sugar cube or two in the container. That way if mold begins to grow, it will attach to the sugar, not the cheese. You can also just cut any moldy spots off the cheese and eat the rest. It won’t kill you or make you sick.

Doing these simple tips should help you save space in your trash can, and build up a little bulk in your wallet. If you have a favorite food tip, let me know!