On the plate instead of in the bin

Every year, tonnes of food are thrown away. Read here how you can store your groceries for longer and how long the products are still edible after the expiry date .

Around 120 kilograms of food per person end up in Swiss waste every year. There are many ways to deal with our food more sustainably. Families also have a number of ways to avoid food waste, i.e. the wastage or loss of food.

The traditional weekly shop has become less important in recent years. Thanks to longer opening hours, shopping in towns and cities can now be done easily after work. On the one hand, frequent shopping is easier on the back as you don't have to lug a lot of things around, but on the other hand there is a greater risk of buying more and forgetting something or other in the fridge that then has to be thrown away.

It is therefore worth making a flexible menu plan for the week and creating a shopping list accordingly. This requires checking the contents of the fridge and integrating products that are about to expire into the menu plan.

All family members should have a say in the menu plan. This allows all tastes to be catered for and children are introduced to planning and shopping at an early age. When shopping, you can rely on the shopping list and save time and nerves. Make sure that you don't go shopping hungry, otherwise a wide variety of products will end up in your shopping trolley that you don't actually need.

Clever storage, keep an overview

Tidiness is half the battle - this also applies to food. Organise newly purchased food behind existing goods. It's worth organising the different food groups in different drawers so that you can keep an overview.

In concrete terms, this means keeping pasta, rice, quinoa and pulses in one cupboard compartment, spices in a spice drawer and baking ingredients such as flour, baking powder and dry yeast together. This organisation ensures that you don't have to search for long and can see at a glance what you need to buy.

For sensitive products, such as linseed oil or nut oil, we recommend storing them in the fridge and consuming them within a short period of time. Other oils should also be consumed quickly and stored away from light. With oils in particular, it is not worth having ten different types at home, but rather two or three high-quality oils that can be consumed within a reasonable period of time.

Best before - to be consumed by

Depending on the type of food, the packaging may say «Best before» or «Use by». The former is mainly used for food that will keep longer than the best-before date (BBD) if stored correctly. Correct storage means: sealed packaging and proper storage, for example in a dark, cool, dry place. The «use by» date appears on the packaging of perishable foods such as fish or meat. It is recommended that these products should not be consumed after the expiry date.
If a product has passed its best-before date, use your senses to judge whether it is still edible:

Geruch: Riecht das Lebensmittel säuerlich, ranzig oder sonst unangenehm, sollten Sie das Produkt nicht mehr essen.

Aussehen: Geblähte Deckel bei Milchprodukten oder verfärbte Fettstellen an Fleischwaren weisen darauf hin, dass das Produkt nicht mehr essbar ist. Lebensmittel, die von Schimmel befallen sind, müssen entsorgt werden (Ausnahme: Weissschimmelkäse).

Geschmack: Für den Geschmackstest eignen sich Milchprodukte. Probieren Sie nur wenig davon, Sie merken schnell, ob das Produkt noch geniessbar ist oder eben nicht.

How you can save leftovers

Bread: Freeze slices of bread for about one to two months. Toast slices of bread or bake them in the oven for five minutes. You can use them to make delicious bruschette or croutons. Hard bread can also be easily ground into breadcrumbs or used to make crumbles for a gratin. Recipe ideas: Cheese slices, bread casserole, bread salad, Fotzel slices.

Fruit and vegetables: Almost all fruit and vegetables are suitable for freezing. Either raw or cooked, for example as a puree. Thanks to this property, you can also enjoy an apricot tart or a berry smoothie in winter. Recipe idea: Wähen in all combinations are perfect for utilising leftovers.

Milk and dairy products: Milk, cream, cheese, butter and quark can be frozen (not in glass bottles). Yoghurt and crème fraîche are not suitable for this. However, they can usually be kept for a few days beyond the best-before date. You can use cream cheese for a quick pasta sauce or mix it into a risotto. Hard cheese cuts a fine figure on any gratin or in any salad. Leftover milk and cream can be used in sauces (including salad dressings).

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