Thanksgiving dinner tips so you can avoid wasting food
Nearly half the food that's sent to landfills in Metro Vancouver is edible
Chef Don Guthro of the North Shore Culinary School has been in the food industry for 35 years, and he's seen a lot of good food go to the dump.
Now, it's become a mission for him to reduce the amount of food we waste.
According to the Love Food Hate Waste campaign, Metro Vancouverites send about 190,000 tonnes of food to the landfill every year and nearly half of it is edible. It's estimated that food waste tacks on an additional $700 to household grocery bills every year.
As we head into Thanksgiving, Guthro is reminding everyone to take care so we can indulge in all the trimmings while trimming down our food waste. Here are his tips:
1. Have a list when you go to the grocery store.
"We have a tendency to go shopping and we don't have a plan ... so people go to the grocery store and they end up buying whatever they see."
2. Plan your menu and portions ahead of time.
"Look at how many people you plan on having at your home. Each turkey, if you get a 25 to 30-pound turkey, it feeds around 40 people."
3. Guests should all bring Tupperware for leftovers.
"So you're not left with four or five pounds of turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, that you really don't know what to do with after the second day... to avoid that, just have your friends or your family take it home."
4. Store food properly in the fridge
"Take the milk out of the door and stick it into the back of the fridge ... the warmest section of the fridge is actually the door. If you put it in the back, the temperature is roughly around three to four degrees."
5. Take expiry dates as a guideline, particularly for dairy products
"In some cases, you can keep the milk for almost five to 10 days beyond the due date. All you have to do is smell it or taste it."
For more tips and hacks, Guthro suggests visiting the website Love food, Hate Waste.
To hear the full interview listen to the audio labelled Hot to avoid food waste this Thanksgiving on the CBC's The Early Edition.
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