Listen up! Food waste is a major issue around the world. Every year, 1.3 billion tons of food is lost or wasted globally. That’s about one-third of all food produced for human consumption. The good news is, there’s a lot that we can do to decrease the amount of food that is wasted. Here are some easy and practical tips:

Coffee
Do you know how much coffee you waste over the course of your lifetime? I’m sure you’ve already poured a lot of it right down the drain. In Sweden, each one of us wastes approximately one cup of coffee every day. We suggest you add that cup to some delicious chocolate bites instead, or grab an ice tray and pour that old coffee into it and freeze it. You can have the coffee ice cubes as a treat on their own, or use them for delicious ice-coffee.

Tops, cores and skin
When consuming our favorite fruits and vegetables, we often forget to eat the parts that contain a majority of the nutrients, like carrot and beet tops, and broccoli stems. Put it all in a blender and make a tasty smoothie with avocado, ginger, lemon and apple, or maybe a pesto with garlic, olive oil, nuts, salt and pepper. Same with peels and cores. When making a smoothie, we always add the whole fruit to the blender. Well, maybe not banana peels or watermelon rind.

Fruit
We keep bananas from turning brown by cutting them into chunks and freezing them, right after we buy them in the store. But if you forget to do so, you can still add a brown banana to a smoothie or ice cream. If you have a couple of tired apples at home, we suggest you core and slice them, sprinkle on some cinnamon and pop them in the oven. Bake the apples at 200 degrees Fahrenheit (or just below 100 degrees Celsius) and you will have dried apple rings for a cozy Friday or Saturday night.

Wine
Ok, get ready for this year’s best tip: pour leftover wine into an ice tray and freeze it. Use them for stews and soups.

Herbs
You buy them for a certain dish, you forget about them, and eventually they die on the kitchen counter. Not good! Instead, toss the leftovers in a bag in the freezer. Some say freezing will affect nutrition, but we say it won’t. If you worry about frozen foods losing nutrients, then remember that fresh fruits and vegetables lose them too. It’s better to freeze them to extend their life, instead of letting them go off in the fridge.

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