Wasting less food doesn’t have to be a chore or a major lifestyle overhaul. With a few gentle tweaks to your habits and a little inspiration from the Good Food team, you can effortlessly reduce food waste, save money and enjoy tastier meals. From meal prepping to batch cooking, plus useful hacks like transforming vegetables on the turn into tangy pickles, there are many simple and achievable ways to waste less food – without really trying.
Head to our sustainability hub for more planet-friendlier tips and advice, including tips from the Good Food team on how to reduce food waste, tips for reducing your single-use plastic waste and clever ways to save money and reduce food waste from Cook Smart.
10 ways to reduce food waste
1. Love your leftovers
One of the easiest ways to waste less food is to make the most of leftovers. Instead of seeing yesterday’s dinner as tired or boring, treat it as the starting point for your next meal. A roast chicken, for example, can become a curry, salad or sandwich the following day. Leftover vegetables can be blitzed into soup or tossed into a stir-fry. If you have cooked too much rice, pasta or noodles, use them in a fridge-raid fried rice or a quick pasta bake.
For more inspiration, discover our favourite fridge raid recipes, dinners that make great lunch leftovers and more ways to use up leftover ingredients.
2. Batch cooking
Batch cooking is another effortless way to avoid waste. Make a big pot of soup, stew or tomato sauce, then freeze portions for later. This not only saves time on busy days but also ensures you use up those odds and ends lurking in the fridge. Dedicate some time at the weekend to meal prepping to make weeknight dinners easy. If you’re someone who doesn’t enjoy eating the same dinner on repeat, make a batch of Ailsa’s creamy beans, salsa verde, red onion gravy and roasted cauliflower at the weekend to transform into two quick and delicious family dinners during the week: creamy bean & kale pasta and roasted cauliflower cheese toad-in-the-hole with red onion gravy.
Learn about batch cooking for beginners, then try our batch cooking recipes, including vegetarian batch cooking recipes, healthy batch cooking recipes and the best batch-cooking family recipes.
3. Store food smartly
Proper storage is key to making your food last longer. Bread, for instance, is one of the most wasted foods in the UK. Instead of letting half a loaf go stale, slice and freeze in portions as soon as you buy it. Bread defrosts quickly and can go straight from freezer to toaster. The same goes for wraps, naan and pitta – freeze what you won’t use immediately.
For fruit and vegetables, keep an eye on how you store them. Most fruit (except bananas and pineapples) will last longer in the fridge, ideally in ventilated containers. Herbs stay fresher if you pop their stalks in a jar of water in the fridge, covered loosely with a bag. If you find your salad leaves wilt before you can eat them, transfer them to a well-ventilated container with a clean, damp tea towel at the bottom.
Learn about the most common food storage myths, the best food storage containers for your kitchen and how to store food safely.
4. Use the whole ingredient
Adopting a ‘use it all’ approach is a brilliant way to cut waste without any extra effort. There’s often no need to peel vegetables – the skins add fibre and flavour. Potato peels can be tossed with oil and seasoning, then air-fried or baked into crisps. Broccoli stalks and cauliflower leaves are delicious roasted or sliced into salads and stir-fries. Apple cores can be grated into bircher muesli or blended into smoothies. Even banana peels can be baked into cakes – try Ailsa’s banana peel breakfast cake for an easy, delicious way to start a waste-free day.
Don’t forget about cheese rinds: pop a parmesan rind into your next risotto or soup for a depth of flavour. Vegetable scraps like carrot tops, onion skins and celery leaves can all be simmered into a homemade stock or made into easy snacks like these veg peel fritters. Don’t throw away your cauliflower leaves – find out ways to turn them into delicious meals.
Discover our zero-waste recipes for every day, nutritious treats from fruit and veg peel and more ways to use up fruit & vegetable scraps.
5. Get creative with surplus
If you spot fruit or veg that’s past its best, don’t bin it – get creative instead. Overripe bananas are perfect for banana bread or pancakes. Soft apples and pears can be stewed, baked or added to crumbles. Slightly tired vegetables are ideal for soups, hashes or frittatas. Mushrooms that have lost their looks still taste great when blitzed into a bolognese or blended into a sauce.
Leftover tortilla wraps? Cut them into triangles, drizzle with oil and bake into homemade crisps. Stale bread can be turned into breadcrumbs, croutons or bread and butter pudding. Look out for ‘yellow sticker’ items in the supermarket to cut costs and reduce food waste at the same time.
Read about the gadgets that can help you to reduce food waste.
6. Make the freezer your friend
Your freezer is a powerful ally in the fight against food waste. Freeze berries, grapes and sliced bananas to use in smoothies or as snacks. Leftover cooked potatoes, rice, or pasta can be frozen in portions for easy meals later. If you buy a large pack of meat or fish, freeze individual portions so you only defrost what you need. If you have a glut of herbs, chop and freeze them in ice cube trays with a little oil. Cheese can be grated and frozen for topping bakes and pizzas.
You’d be surprised by the meals you can make simply using the frozen food and ingredients you already have – try these freezer dinner ideas.
7. Portion control
It’s easy to cook too much, especially with rice and pasta. A simple solution is to weigh out portions before cooking. This small step helps avoid the ‘eyes bigger than stomach’ problem and means fewer leftovers you might not get round to eating. This is particularly important with cooked rice, which can harbour dangerous bacteria when not cooled and reheated properly.
Discover 5 nights of waste-free family meals.
8. Plan, but not too rigidly
Meal planning helps avoid buying excess, but you don’t need to be strict. Jot down a rough plan for the week and check what you already have before shopping. Buy loose fruit and veg so you can get just what you need, and be ready to swap ingredients if something is on offer or looks better value.
We’ve done the hard work so you don’t have to. Discover our 7-day meal plans for all occasions, including our all-in-one autumnal meal plan, healthy student meal plan and 30-minute meal plan.
9. Stock your storecupboard
A well-organised storecupboard allows you to bulk out leftovers and use up fresh ingredients before they go off. Keep pasta, rice, tinned beans and tomatoes on hand to turn odds and ends into a meal. Rotate your stock so older items get used first. Discover our favourite budget storecupboard meals.
Pickling and fermenting is also a great way to use up leftover vegetables and transform them into a tangy, gut-friendly condiment to serve with your meals. Discover our homemade kimchi, then learn more about how to ferment vegetables or try our favourite pickle recipes. If you still need convincing, discover the health benefits of fermenting.
10. Compost what you can’t save
Finally, for the scraps you really can’t use, consider composting at home. Even in a flat, a small bokashi or worm bin can turn food waste into plant food, reducing what goes to landfill.
Find out how to compost food at home to get started.
Hungry for more?
The Good Food sustainability glossary
Sustainability myth buster: Food miles, meat and plastic packaging
Good food doesn’t have to cost the earth
Climate heroes
Max La Manna’s exclusive low-waste recipe collection
