Don’t Throw Away Good Food!

The Love Food, Fight Waste program is a collaboration between nonprofit Table to Table food rescue and the City of Iowa City to offer community members resources and information on how to reduce food waste.

Smell it, taste it, and use these guidelines to determine if an unopened package may be OK to eat after its “best by” date. Remember: dates on food packages indicate best flavor and peak quality, but are not food safety dates (the only exception: infant formula).

Dairy

Eggs: 1 month

Milk: 7 days

Yogurt: 7 days

Shredded cheese: 2 weeks

Block cheese: 3 months

Baking mixes: 1 year

Canned goods: 1 to 2 years

Cereal: 6–12 months

Sauces: 1 year

Love food and fight waste

• Before you shop, check your fridge and pantry for what foods you already have.

• Make a shopping list to prevent over-buying.

• Eat a snack before shopping to ward off impulse buys.

• Don’t place milk in your fridge door. Frequent temperature fluctuation from opening the fridge can make milk go bad faster.

• Keep foods that need to be eaten soon at the front of your fridge so they aren’t forgotten.

• Store onions, apples, tomatoes, citrus fruits and bananas separate from other produce to prevent speedy ripening.

• Mark opened food containers and leftovers with a date of when they were opened or prepared to keep track of how soon to eat them.

• Freeze meat, cheese, produce and bread you won’t use right away, on or before its “use by” date, and it’s good to eat for another 4-12 months.

• Package food in portions before freezing for easy meals later! Use a muffin tin to freeze stews, casseroles, chili, etc. in lunch portions and put them in freezer bags.

• Do the same with ice cube trays to freeze sauces, juices and condiments.

• Stale bread makes great croutons, breadcrumbs, French toast, bread pudding or stuffing.

• Over-ripe bananas make good smoothies: Freeze them, peeled and broken into pieces, to use in a smoothie later.

• Simmer chicken bones, veggie peels and off-cuts from carrots, onions and celery, eaves included, in water with a few peppercorns to make stock.

These are just guidelines. Details can be found at foodsafety.gov. Dive deeper at table2table.org/ lovefood. Pick up your free fridge magnet of food extension reminders at Iowa City’s City Hall or at Table to Table.