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- How Simple Storage Solutions Helped Me Get The Most Out of My Groceries
How Simple Storage Solutions Helped Me Get The Most Out of My Groceries
Suncorp Bank
We’ve teamed up with Suncorp Bank to help you get the most out of your groceries.
If you’re anything like me, you’ve opened your fridge to find veggies you just bought already soggy and gross. You stop and think to yourself how this could possibly happen. Chances are, it all comes down to one thing — storage.
Suncorp Bank has partnered with OzHarvest to bring us the Food Savings Challenge to encourage all Aussies to do their part in tackling food waste. In the Challenge, they show how even the simplest storage hacks can be a really easy — and effective — way to help reduce your food waste.
- Manage your crisper
Your fridge’s crisper might just feel like a dumping ground for miscellaneous produce, but therein lies the problem. Keeping a sense of organisation in your crisper will help you really deliver on the food savings front. Crispers are meant to maximise the life of your produce, but when everything’s all mixed up, it can become a hassle.
Give yourself the visual cues you need — separate your veg from your fruit so you can see everything clearly. If you see that your fruit and veg are on the verge of going bad, you’re naturally more likely to eat it. And on your plate is so much better than in the bin.
- Original packaging isn’t always best.
This is a hack I’ve recently adopted and it’s been working wonders. I used to be in the habit of popping certain vegetables straight into the fridge in the packaging they came in. Turns out, that’s not great for longevity, which means it’s not great for food waste.
Now, with leafy greens, spring onions and the like, I remove them from their original packaging and put them in their own, clear container. I’ll layer the bottom with a paper towel, to help absorb moisture, before putting the lid on. The clear containers means the food is much harder to be ignored. And, in case I do ignore it, the moisture-absorbing paper towel means it stays fresher for longer. A win-win.
- Labels are your friends.
Imagine if every bottle of milk you ever bought didn’t have a clearly printed use-by-date on it. You’d have to peer into the bottle (or worse — smell it) to determine whether it was still good. That idea’s laughable, isn’t it? But why don’t we take the same approach with our produce?
Regardless of how you choose to store your fruit, veg, meat, leftovers or virtually any perishable food, labelling it with what it is, when you stored it and (if you’re extra waste-conscious) when you bought it can help you really stay on top of what needs to be used, and when.
- When in doubt, Use It Up!
Luckily for you, Suncorp Bank’s partner OzHarvest have a genius, and simple, product that can help you across all of the above: The OzHarvest Use It Up Tape™.
It’s a handy tool to compliment your food storage solutions. It can go on containers or individual items, and it’s safe in your fridge, freezer or pantry. It’s big enough to write on, because once you see what needs to be used, you’re more likely to use it up. It’s not rocket science!
Sometimes, getting on top of your food waste is all about visibility. A simple re-assessment of your fridge, freezer and pantry, and checking things are stored in a way to get the most out of your food, can go a long, long way. But, if you’re inspired to do more to help fight food waste, head to Suncorp Bank’s website and check out the Food Savings Challenge for more inspiration.