How to make your food last longer - and save money

Life is expensive these days. Really expensive. Especially when it comes to stocking up the pantry and filling the fridge, writes Claire Turnbull.

Food prices have risen by around 5% in the past 12 months, with some basics like milk, butter and cheese among the biggest contributors. Unsurprisingly, many of us are really feeling the pinch. My kids are always flabbergasted at the cost of a small trolley of food, and we often talk about how difficult it can be for some people to eat well in today’s world.

Meal planning, money-saving swaps and stocking up on healthy, low-cost foods can all help. Another simple and powerful way to save money is by cutting down on food waste.

According to Love Food Hate Waste, New Zealand households throw away an estimated $2.9 billion worth of food each year. An average of $1,326 per household. That’s over $25 a week straight into the bin. Even more shocking, 60% of the 130,000 tonnes of food that ends up in landfill is perfectly edible.

When I was growing up, I hardly ever saw food being thrown away. My grandparents lived through World War II with ration books and scarce supplies, and they passed on essential skills to my parents: being creative with simple ingredients, using every part of an animal, and turning odds and ends of bread, fruit and veg into something useful.

These days, with busy lives and a modern food environment that makes convenience the default, many of these skills have been lost. It’s time to revive them! Not just for our wallets, but for the planet. Food waste also fuels climate change. In fact, if food waste were a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases after China and the United States.

If you’re ready to save some money and do your bit for the planet, here are ten tips:

Keep your fridge between 2-5°C. Harmful bacteria struggle to grow at these temperatures, so food will stay fresher for longer. In warmer months, you may need to adjust the dial to keep it in range.

Take fruit and veg out of plastic packaging before refrigerating. Carrots last up to ten times longer in an airtight container lined with paper towel. A wedge of pumpkin with the seeds removed, wrapped in beeswax wrap or paper towel, can last four times longer.

For bagged salads and spinach, open the bag as soon as you get home and tuck a piece of paper towel down each side to absorb moisture. Even better, transfer to an airtight container with a few paper towels. This can double their lifespan.

I split fruit like mandarins, pears, and avocados when I get back from the supermarket, I put half in the fridge and half in the fruit bowl. As the fruit in the bowl ripens and gets eaten, I replace it with the fruit from the fridge, so everything doesn’t ripen all at once.

Apples last up to eight times longer chilled. If you’ve got space, keep them all in the fridge.

When it comes to tomatoes, here in the bottom of the South Island, I find they are fine out of the fridge for most of the year. But when I lived in Auckland, as soon as the weather warmed up, they had to go into the fridge to keep them fresh or they went mouldy, fast.

When it comes to onion and potatoes, while they both like a cool dark place, it is not a good idea to keep them together as they will both sprout faster.

Keeping bananas away from other fruit is also a good idea. Ethylene gas released by fruits like apples and pears causes bananas to ripen faster. As bananas ripen, they then release their own ethylene gas too, which then ripens other fruit around the bananas! Keeping your bananas away from other fruits will help them and the other fruit last longer.

If you do end up with overripe bananas that you don't fancy eating, you can make them into muffins, banana loaf or freeze peeled banana chunks and use them for delicious desserts.

Bread is one of the most wasted foods in New Zealand with around 29 million loaves a year going in the bin!

In the North Island’s more humid climate, it is best to keep bread in the fridge or freezer and take out slices as you need them. When it comes to crusts keep them in a freezer bag and then you have enough to warrant getting your blender out, blitz into breadcrumbs. This is a much better option than the bin or feeding to ducks, which actually makes them sick.

If you end up with wilted and sad looking veggies in the fridge, the good news is you can often bring them back to life. You might have already tried the trick with celery where you chop off the bottom and place it in a cup or glass of water - within about half an hour you’ll see it perk up again. The same trick works for lots of other veggies too.

Slice the bottom off a wobbly broccoli or cauliflower, place in a cup or dish of water and watch it revive itself. You can do the same with a whole lettuce – just slice off the bottom where the leaves connect, place in a dish of water and it will come back to life.

If your veggies are too far gone, compost them or use food scrap collections if available in your area to save them from land fill.

If you often end up with odds and end of leftovers in your fridge that don't get eaten, either see if you can buy and cook less, portion up extras for lunches, freeze them in labelled containers ready for another day, or throw them into a veggie-loaded tomato sauce.

Your freezer isn’t just for meat, veggies and ice cream. You can freeze milk, cheese, and even eggs (if separated into yolks and whites). Nuts and seeds also last much longer if stored in the freezer, just take out what you need as you go.

To avoid food going in the bin when it doesn’t need to, here’s what you need to know when it comes to the dates on food packaging.

- Best before: In New Zealand, best before dates are required to appear on any food with a self-life of less than two years. This date is there to give an indication of the quality of the food which will likely taste better before the ‘best before’ date. It is however generally safe to eat food after it’s best before date, just use your senses to check it looks and smell safe to eat.

- Use by: These are most commonly found on meat, seafood, chilled ready-to-eat foods, and infant formula. It is not recommended to eat food after its use by date. If you are pregnant, elderly, unwell or feeding young children, take extra care of food safety.

I hope you find these ideas helpful. Small changes really can add up and save you money and have a positive impact on the planet, so anything you can do will be a step in the right direction.

Claire Turnbull is a registered nutritionist with an honours degree in dietetics, a wellbeing educator and author.