Red-Yellow-Green Food Inventory (Free PDF to Stop Food Waste)
The statistics about food waste are truly astonishing! Household food waste accounts for 40% of all food wasted. That is more than restaurants/food retail, farms, and even manufacturers.
A lot of this comes down to food spoiling before we can use it and also the misunderstanding of sell by and expiration dates.
How can we slow down the estimated $1600 of produce and the millions of pounds of expired products thrown away every year by the average family of 4?
We need to start being intentional with the food that we have bought and make sure that we use it in time!
Tracking our Food by Use-ability!
This week we have a handy inventory sheet that will help you keep track of foods that you already have purchased that are sitting in your fridge or pantry.
I plan to keep one at each spot in my kitchen, so I can make sure everything in my fridge and pantry gets used before it can go bad and need to be thrown out!
We will order our inventory into three priority sections.
Red- Use Right Away
This will be all foods that need to be used very soon before it goes bad. This is the highest priority, so make sure to incorporate these foods now into to your meals.
Yellow- Use Soon
These are items that may last a few more days but are coming close to the red zone. These are not as high a priority as Red items but still need to be used soon.
Green- Will Last a While
These are items that are free to be used as you see fit. They are not going to spoil or need to be thrown out for quite a while.
Intentional Food Inventory
If we start our week every week knowing which foods either need to be used or preserved, we have a much better success rate of not having to throw them out!
If you notice an item in the red area that you can’t possibly use up, this is the time to get creative. Can you freeze it? Can you give it away? Can you compost it? Is there anything you can possibly do with this product to avoid throwing it out?
By making our food use more intentional, we have the potential to save huge at the grocery store without ever sacrificing your food choices or your favorite items. That right there is a small tweak to your daily life that could pay off huge!
