6 Easy Ways to Reduce Food Waste with Kids

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Have you ever noticed how much food gets wasted when kids are around? Between picky eating, more leftovers than ever, and managing multiple meals per day, there are so many chances for things to go to waste. Ready to reduce your food waste? This post is for you!

In today’s post, I’ll be talking about 6 easy ways to reduce food waste with kids including:

• Getting smart about portion sizes
• Learning how long things last
• Labeling techniques that work
• Making the freezer your friend
• How to store your food
• Tricks to keep food fresh longer

1. Get smart about portion sizes

Portion size is one of the easier things to solve for to reduce food waste.

How can smarter portioning help? Of course, if you serve yourself too much food and then you don’t eat it, that food goes to waste. And if you serve your kids too much food, in an attempt to get them eat more of the good stuff, it certainly goes to waste.

So how can we fix this? We can help our kids learn to control their portions. This is a great skill for them to learn because it:

• Teaches them long-term how to serve themselves for and listen to their hunger
• Reduces overwhelm in trying new foods

A couple of ideas that work:

• Serve small portions and then let kids freely access seconds if they want more
• Serve dinner family-style in the middle of the table and let kids, 2 and over, serve themselves

Of course, they might not get their portion sizes correct right away, but over time they’ll learn how to serve themselves based on their appetite. They’ll also start to learn that they don’t have to take everything right away because more is available if they want it.

2. Learn how long things last

Real talk: it’s time to stop sniffing the things in your fridge to see if they’re still good. Not only is it not a good indicator of freshness, it doesn’t allow you to make the most of the leftovers you have while they’re still good.

A generally safe guideline is that cooked food keeps about 3-4 days in the refrigerator if cooled and stored properly.

Want to know EXACTLY how long something keeps? I love Still Tasty as a resource for looking up the shelf life of specific items.

3. Label everything in your fridge and freezer

In a professional kitchen, nothing is allowed to go in the walk in if it’s not labeled with what the item is and the date it was prepared. This is so important because with so many chefs working together, everyone needs to know what something is and how long it’s good for.

So while you may not be running a professional kitchen with a walk-in cooler and 20 other cooks, you’re likely not just cooking for yourself anymore either.

Want to stop the guessing game of what is this and is it good? Get in the habit of labeling everything that goes into your fridge or freezer.

Not only will this help you to reduce food waste, but it will also help empower the other members of your family to know what’s available to eat and when it was made.

Ready to get started? Here’s what you’ll need:

• A sharpie
• Painter’s tape or masking tape

Keep them in a drawer in your kitchen and get in the habit of labeling everything with what it is and the date it was made. (If you prefer you could also label when it’s good until, just be consistent with whatever you choose.)

4. Make the freezer your friend

Want to reduce food waste by making better use of the food you’ve bought and cooked before it goes bad? Cool. The freezer is your new best friend.

Ready to get nerdy? According to Brittanica.com, “Freezing, in food processing, method of preserving food by lowering the temperature to inhibit microorganism growth. The method has been used for centuries in cold regions, and a patent was issued in Britain as early as 1842 for freezing food by immersion in an ice and salt brine.”

Things that work great to freeze:

• Pre-made meatballs (like these veggie-packed turkey ones)
• Sauces like peanut sauce or tomato sauce
• Shredded chicken
• Cooked brown rice (I freeze it in individual portions in silicone muffin tins)

I love these silicone molds for things like baby food. Making a big batch and then freezing smaller portions is perfect so that you can have variety without having the food go bad before baby eats it.

5. Store your food in clear glass containers

There’s nothing like seeing the food that’s in the container to remind you what you have on hand.

The bonus of these containers is that you can just take off the lid, heat the food if needed (in the microwave or oven), and then serve it in the container.

I chop up big batches of bell peppers, cucumbers, and carrots at the beginning of the week and store them like this. Then when it’s dinnertime I set that same container on the table over and over again as a healthy vegetable option.

We have these glass storage containers and love them.

6. Learn tricks for keeping food fresh longer

There are some really smart people out there who have found techniques and products to make your food last longer.

Here are some of my favorites:

• Wash berries in a vinegar wash
• Use a life-extending produce bag
• Store bananas separately from other produce

Conclusion: How to Reduce Food Waste with Kids

In this article I’ve shared 6 ways that you can reduce food waste with kids. But there’s no need to do all of them right away.

I’m curious, what’s one thing you could do today to start reducing your food waste?

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