How much food do you throw away?

I think throwing away food is a bad thing. Sometimes stuff that expires still can be eaten but with discretion of course. In my house we hardly throw away any food cos we would finish it up before it expires. The only time I threw away food was a potatoe which has gone bad and an onion. A friend moved house and gave my husband and me loads of Amway nutrilite vitamins. Some of it already expire 4 years ago. We checked the condition the color and all that and we consume it. Still edible....

I find any leftovers I cant eat or havent had a chance to eat I give to my dogs. That way its not going to the dump or really going to waste. I save any peelings of carrots and lettuce and food good for bunnies for my little sisters rabbit. Potatoes in the spring when the ones i grew start sprouting I use them to plant my garden. If a can of food or pack of food says its past the expiry date by a few days I have no issues eating it - its just a suggestion not a rule to live buy. However damaged cans or packages & anything REALLY expired get cooked up and given to my dogs. They have hardier stomachs than i do. I hate just throwing things into the trash.

throwing away perfectly good food is considered a criminal act in our household. You just don't do it. My brother works in a dairy plant and has assured me (as if i couldn't have figured this out by myself) that the dates on milk and milk products are not a written in stone must throw it away by that date date. there is leanway. I have worked in deli's and bakeries and it would kill me to throw away good food cause of store policy.

It's possible the other family just hasn't been through enough hard times or job loss to justify frugal ways. I don't envy them. I'd be lost without my hard earned frugal skills. Some days it feels as if I have a college degree in being cheap! LOL! I reuse as many things as possible and try to think of the best way to save money. I don't like buying something unless I know that we will really use it, on a daily or weekly basis. I do admire your frugal ways. Perhaps I could learn to be more frugal!

Oh, no! I would never throw away good food! If I happen to have too much of something, like buying a bag of potatoes when I still have a bag, I'll give some to my son who lives nearby. Either that, or we have a lot of potato side dishes! I even save the seeds of vegetables that I am able to grow where I live so I can plant them when it's time. My step-father had a saying, "When in doubt, throw it out." That is a good rule of thumb, but with things like eggs, if they are way past their expiration date, I will always check them to see if they're still good by putting them in a pot of cold water. If they are not floating, they are okay to eat. I spent most of my life not having quite enough money, so I learned never to waste anything. I'm frugal to a fault! I do exactly what you do with potatoes and cheese. Milk is one thing I always smell to see if it's still good, even if I just bought it. (I bought a gallon of milk once that had already turned!) Meat I'm a little more particular about. I have a chart that lists all meats, poultry and seafood and how long they can stay in the refrigerator or freezer before they should be thrown out. I think it's a sin to throw away good food! You're right about so many starving people. I guess my mother engrained it into my psyche... when I wouldn't eat something at dinner (when I was little), she'd say "There are starving people in this world who would love to have that." Of course, my comeback sometimes would be "Then give it to THEM." (I usually got punished when I said that. LOL)

well we through here what ever quantity is left over after we had our dinner in the night. so if it is a good and stored food we wil definetly store in a refrigrator or outside if possible. i feel that we should not waste food as many people are unable to survive without these.good luck have fun keep posting enjoy mylotting.

Yes you are right. We only throw out stuff that is way after the expiration data or that is really molding. Sometimes we will use it if the cheese is moldy. We will use the potatoes too with sprouts. Food costs too much to throw out things, you are right. Pablo

Use it, of course! I nag the roomie about throwing cheese away, but she doesn't consider it worth it. I'm glad my client feels its worth it to cut off the mold.

I have a strenuous moral objection to throwing food away, which is not strictly realting the the horror stories our parents used to tell us about starving children. To me it just seems disrespectful to waste something that once was part of life and is supposed to be used to sustain life. I think, too, that people who grow at least some of their own food are less likely to throw food away. If the sweet potatoes have little sprouts I try to grow them into plants as I love to eat tender young sweet potato leaves. I don't throw potatoes away either. If they look like they are about to sprout I just cook them all up and make lovely mashed potatoes for the freezer. Very handy to pull out for eating later.

As much as possible, I avoid throwing food. Because aside to the fact that it is very hard to earn a money to buy food. There is also a lot of people here in our place that has no food. So by merely thinking of them, it gives me a thug if I will throw a food.

They had a similar show here in Australia last week. They stayed with a woman for 2 weeks and kept a diary of everything she through out. It was amazing to see the amount of 'rubbish' she had. Like you sprouting potatoes are not an issue for me. However, mouldy cheese is too strong for me. As money is tight I try to use as much as possible but I am sure that I still waste a lot!

We don't throw away any food. I have been that person that didn't have food on the table and I appreciate it so much more because of that. I either store it in the fridge or freezer for leftovers or we give it to the dogs.

food is wealth. and wealth is something that you earn and not just throw it away in the end. i usually cook for me and my girlfriend. and i really hate it when there are left-overs. even just rice. i don't want it to go to waste. what i do is put it in the refrigirator and make it fried rice the next day. food sources are getting scarce nowadays due to global warming. and it's sad when people just take it for granted. i hope that some people would just share it instead of just sending it to waste. It would be better if Chef Wolfgang Puck would say "eat, love and be happy...and share," don't you think?

I don't like to throw much of my food. I even have leftover food to eat in late hours but I don't like to throw away th food. Of course I throw away some food but not much as the few people who throw some boxes of food. If there's any party and much amount of food is leftover, I just call some associations who collect the leftover food to feed the orphan chidren. Its better than to throe away the leftover food.

We only throw away what completely molds over and can't be composted, or meat that went bad -- which isn't much at all. In fact, that's a rare occurance around here. Scraps get fed to my dog and our cats, and leftovers are turned into lunches or other dinners...or in the case of leftover potatos: breakfast as hashbrowns. We will eat stuff past its expiration date if it hasn't turned a funny color or smells odd. Mostly only once its been cooked...just in case, you know. Potatos that're sprouting, meh, just cut off the sprouts. Cut off the moldy bits of bread, cheese, etc. We're all about making stuff stretch, and technically there's nothing wrong with most of the food people throw away.

There are certain foods that I will not keep past the expiration date. Milk is the main one. Also, if my food starts growing anything new (mold, sprouts, whatever), it gets tossed. We had several fairly gross incidents in our old apartment with a roommate who would forget about things she had bought and put in the vegetable bin, or on a rack near the fridge. So when anything starts growing, it's gone. There are plenty other things that I will keep around LONG past their expiration date, though. We had a box of some sort of prepared mix not too long ago--can't remember exactly what it was. My fiance wanted to toss it, but I said that it was so full of preservatives, it was probably just fine. :)

I have to be honest and say that in the past we have thrown far too much away. However, about three months ago we attempted to go onto a £25 a week (for food items only) budget. Previously our bill had been typically £85! We actually spend about £35 and throw very little away. I manage to get at least three meals out of an average chicken plus stock, I only buy seasonal fruit and veg and we keep dairy products to what we need, rather than what think we want. We compost virtually everything and I can't remember the last time we just threw any food away apart from an old pot of cream that had somehow got to the back of the fridge and was a fortnight past its sell by date! I always reckon on food being good for at least three days beyond its best before date.

Well, normally a lot of filthy rich people do that. We never waste food. If throwing away food means putting it into our stomachs as many in our family call both me & my wife the food disposal system as we would finish everything up that they can't finish, hahaI have an aunt that has literally tons of stuff in her pantry that the kids & all just are to lazy to dig in & eat the stuff. Normally when my mum or my aun't second son comes back from oversea, either one at different times will go through their stuff & have to clear it all out by throwing them all away. Such wastage as my mum would sometimes pass a lot of those stuff to us when possible but sometimes the food are just way too much for us even to take in

Nancy, this is a subject we all need to think about. I am sure we throw away way too much food in America when others are starving. I also peel potatoes that are sprouting because sometimes we don't eat them fast enough, especially in the summer. I will cut bad spots off them and cut them up or bake them. We put all our left overs in the refrigerator no matter how small the tidbit is. We usually eat them,but if we don't, I don't feel bad about throwing that out. IF something is out of date and is still good, we eat it. If the can of food isn't blown up on the ends, we still use it. Now, if it smelled bad, or looked funny, I would throw it out. I don't like to use way outdated things in a box, though, because of the thought of bugs in them that you can't see. I also will use the chunk cheese after mold, cut it off and there is nothing wrong with the cheese under that. After all, penicillin was discovered through mold.

The "sell by" date is just that; the product is often good for long after that date. I try to be good about using up what I buy. Sometimes, I slip; something will get shoved to the back of the fridge and forgotten until it is too late. However, that rarely happens with me.