Food waste is a growing problem in the UAE. So World Food Day (16th October) provides the perfect opportunity to start reducing the amount of food we throw away.
You may not think you personally are having much of an impact, but take a closer look at your garbage: orange peels, broccoli stalks, the carcass of the rotisserie chicken you bought for dinner. Yes, all of those things count.
We are already seeing restaurants re-purposing spent grain produced from brewing beer, using fruit scraps as garnishes, or companies creating vegetable chips out of pulp leftover from juice production. By-products from fruits, vegetables, whole grains, or dairy foods can hold the key to the future of nutrition innovation. For example, did you know whey protein used to be a by-product that was thrown away after cheese production, but is estimated to reach a market size of $13.5 billion globally by 2021?
So what about making use of all of those food scraps that end up in the trash? Composting is an obvious and great place to start. But it turns out you can use scraps — like those citrus peels, melon rinds and cauliflower stems you’d normally toss — to whip up delightfully unique and nutritious recipes. These tips will help you waste less of the foods you cook with and lower your grocery bill, too.
Here’s the list of 9 creative ways to cut down food waste:
- Add fruit or vegetable pulp to muffins
- Make veggie chips out of broccoli or cauliflower stalks
- Shred melon rend to add to stir fry
- Blend fruit scraps into smoothies
- Bake with near-spoiled fruits
- Make compote out of bruised fruit
- Use zested citrus peels as garnishes or in smoothies
- Make soup out of rotisserie chicken remains
- Include stems of leafy greens in your recipes
For the full details, read the full article on NBC News.