The average household throws away close to 30 kg of food a year — often food that's still perfectly edible. The good news: reducing that number doesn't mean changing everything overnight. Here are 10 simple habits, to adopt one at a time if needed.

Before grocery shopping

  1. Do a fridge inventory before writing your shopping list. Most waste comes from duplicates: we rebuy what we already have, simply because we didn't check.
  2. Plan your meals for 3-4 days, not the whole week. A too-rigid plan breaks at the first surprise (an outing, tiredness, an invitation) — and whatever was supposed to be cooked gets forgotten.
  3. Buy based on what you're actually going to cook, not deals that push you to buy in bulk.

Once groceries are put away

  1. Put what expires first at the front. The classic "first in, first out" works in a fridge too.
  2. Don't store fruits and vegetables together without thinking: some fruits (apples, bananas) release ethylene and speed up ripening — and therefore spoiling — of nearby vegetables.
  3. Freeze what you won't eat in time, rather than letting it sit around hoping you'll remember. Bread, fresh herbs, leftover sauce: almost everything freezes.

When it's time to cook

  1. Cook leftovers as a side dish, not just a main. Leftover rice becomes a side, half an onion goes into the next sauce.
  2. Keep usable peels and tops. Carrot tops, peels from organic vegetables: they turn very well into broth or pesto.
  3. Serve smaller portions and go back for seconds rather than overfilling plates — it's often the plate, not the fridge, that generates waste.

Want an app that automatically prioritizes what's about to expire?

📱 Discover MealFridge

The last one, the most effective

10. Let an app track expiration dates for you. It's often memory, not willpower, that's missing: we know we should eat the zucchini before it goes soft, but we forget it at the moment we choose tonight's meal. MealFridge keeps track of your fridge and its estimated expiration dates, and automatically prioritizes what needs to be eaten first in its suggestions — without you having to think about it.