Читать книгу Zero Waste Cooking For Dummies - Rosanne Rust - Страница 58

Do you sometimes ponder how in the world your kitchen garbage gets so full so quickly? When you’re on a zero waste journey, you’ll want to rethink what you send into that kitchen can. Proper food storage is a key aspect of a zero waste kitchen. Find out more about how to store fresh produce, what you can freeze, and how to keep a pantry organized for zero waste in Chapters 4 and 5.

How you store food can impact how quickly it ripens or maintains its overall quality. Because produce is perishable and one of the top wasted categories, it’s important to store it properly to get the most from it. Fruits and veggies give off gases as they ripen, and some interact with each other. Simple changes, like keeping things that need to be used quickly on the counter or in the front of a refrigerator shelf, can help.

Because eating a balanced diet is important to health, I don’t want to discourage you from keeping fresh produce or dairy products on hand. You just need a plan! And of course, mixing in some canned and frozen fruits and veggies works too.

Think of your refrigerator and freezer as important tools in zero waste cooking. Some appliances today are pretty savvy, so I encourage you to read the appliance manual or instructions (an unknown idea to my husband, but really, there are good tips in there!). Some foods that can be left on the counter or shelf will last longer in the refrigerator. Other foods that are refrigerated can be frozen for up to 6 months or, technically, indefinitely (but I don’t recommend it since quality begins to subside after 3 months, and significantly after a year). So even when your best-laid meal plan gets a kink in it, know that you can always rely on your freezer to stash food until you have the time to prepare it.

Food shouldn’t sit out for more than two hours without proper refrigeration or cooling.