Have you ever had groceries that you’ve had to throw out? Maybe a squishy tomato, some meat that smells weird, or maybe something that says use within 5 days of opening and you can’t remember when you opened it? Turns out, it’s practically everyone. Us too. When fridges are stocked to the brim with all sorts of ingredients, be it your own or roommates, it’s hard to keep track of what’s going bad. In fact, the average household wastes 31.9% of the food it acquires. This is about $1,866 worth of food each year for a household, amounting to over $240 billion annually in America alone. Moreover, when an expiry date is up, that doesn't necessarily mean something has gone bad. Yet, it's estimated that 91% of consumers discard food based on the "sell by" date, mistaking it for a safety indicator. Figuring out if food is safe to eat or how to even store it correctly can be a time-consuming series of google searches nobody wants to bother with. And it's important to mention there are 10 different sources who all say different things. That's just too much work. Unused and expired groceries are one of the largest contributors to food waste today. In a day and age where inflation is rampant and groceries are expensive as ever, it's crucial that people use the groceries they buy to their full potential, wasting less and saving more.
