Each year, Australians waste around 7.6 million tonnes of food across the food supply chain – at every stage of producing and consuming food (1).

This works out to be around 312kg per person – and is enough to fill the Melbourne Cricket Ground 10 times over (2)!

Around a third (32%) of Australia’s food waste happens in homes, costing the average Australian household up to $50 a week or $2,500 a year (2).

Reducing food waste is complex. From farmers to retailers, food service settings and our own households – we all have a part to play.

Stop Food Waste Day, held on 24 April each year, is the largest single day of action in the fight against global food waste.

Five tips to prevent food waste at home:

• Store food properly
• Make use of every edible part of an ingredient
• Plan meals in advance – make a list before you shop, considering what’s already in your fridge or pantry
• Give a second life to ingredients that most commonly go to waste
• Share surplus food with family, friends, colleagues, and your local community.

Did you know? The top five most wasted foods in Australian households are vegetables, bread, fruit, bagged salads, and leftovers (3).

Use nuts to give a second life to often-wasted foods:

Vegetables:

Gather any green veggies (like broccoli, kale, spinach) and herbs (such as basil or coriander) and blend in a food processor together with oil, nuts, a squeeze of lemon juice, and any cheese you need to use up, to make a tasty pesto. Use as a quick pasta sauce, pizza topper, or healthy salad dressing. You can even freeze your homemade pesto into cubes and store for up to six months.

Bread:

Bread pudding makes a delicious, no-fuss dessert! Place bread in a baking dish, topped with a ‘custard’ of eggs, sugar, vanilla, milk, and slices of leftover fruit (such as banana, pears, or figs), and top with chopped nuts.

Fruit:

Make a nourishing smoothie to use up any softer fruits (and supercharge your diet!). Simply blend fruit, milk, yogurt, and nuts or nut butter together. You’ll be well on your way to getting the target 30g handful of nuts a day, as well as a few serves of fruit. Tip: Many fruits freeze well – making the perfect addition to smoothie blends down the track.

Bagged salads:

Stir-fry languishing bagged leaves, like kale, spinach or rocket, with garlic in oil to crisp them up – before adding noodles and Hoisin or soy sauce, plus any other ingredients (think: chicken, canned baby corn, capsicum) for a stir-fry ‘noddle box’. Top with a good handful of chopped nuts for valuable plant protein.

Leftovers:

Repurpose leftovers (such as pasta- or rice-based meals, or leftover cooked vegetables) into a wholesome oven bake. Simple place leftovers into a baking dish, top with a nut ‘crumble’ (finely chopped nuts) and bake until piping hot. The crunchy nuts elevate the flavour and texture of this quick and easy meal.

Did you know? Australia uses around 2,600 gigalitres of water (that’s five times the volume of water in the Sydney Harbour) to grow food that is then wasted (2).

How to store nuts to prevent food waste:

1. Keep nuts in their original packaging or (once opened) transfer to an air-tight container
2. Place them in the fridge (for up to 4 months), or the freezer (for up to 6 months)
3. Bring back to room temperature before eating, for maximum crunch and flavour!

Tip: Before placing nuts in cool storage, mark a ‘best before’ date on your container, for four or six months down the track, depending on whether you’re storing them in the fridge or freezer.

Did you know? Stop Food Waste Australia – involving organisations across the food supply chain and all levels of government – has committed to halving Australia’s food waste by 2030 (1).