How to Reduce Food Waste by Freezing

Approximately 80 billion pounds of food gets thrown away in the US each year. And this food has a big impact on the environment. One easy way to combat food waste in your home is to utilize your freezer. Many foods can be stored in the freezer to prolong their life. Let’s review some food freezing hacks to help you reduce food waste.

Freeze before the Expiration Date

The first key to freezing foods to reduce food waste is to freeze food at the right time. You need to freeze foods before their expiration date or best-by date. It’s not always safe to eat foods after those dates or they may have a different taste or texture.

Avoid Freezer Burn by Storing It Right

To help avoid freezer burn, you need to store it properly. That means putting food in an airtight container or wrapping it well in aluminum foil or plastic wrap. For best results, you can wrap food in plastic wrap or foil and then place it in an airtight container. The goal is to expel any air within the container to help reduce the risk of freezer burn.

Defrost Your Freezer

Another way to avoid problems in the freezer is to make sure you start with a clean slate. If the sides of your freezer are covered in ice, then you need to clean it by defrosting. You’ll need to unplug your freezer and let the internal temperature rise enough to melt the iceberg inside. In the meantime, you should store any food in a cooler or another freezer at your house. Bring your freezer back up to freezing temperatures before you place your food back inside.

Make the Most of Special Offers

Sometimes, we tend to buy more than we need of an item at the grocery store simply because there is a good sale. When it comes to perishable items in bulk, consider freezing the excess so that you can actually use all of that wonderful food! Having to throw out some of your good deal is like throwing out some of the money you spent on it. You can also freeze individual portions of bulk food items to make it easier for future use.

Label Your Containers

As you freeze different foods, you should label each container with the name of the food and the date that it is going in the freezer. This will help you remember what you have frozen. No one wants to thaw out food only to realize that it wasn’t what you were hoping for. You can also add heating instructions as needed to help you or a family member know exactly how to prepare the food.

Take Stock of Your Freezer

Freezing food can be a great way to reduce food waste IF you eat the foods that you’ve frozen. Food can’t store forever — even in the freezer. So you should eat the foods you have frozen and avoid letting your appliance get too crowded. We recommend auditing your freezer frequently so you know exactly what you have. Then, think about how you can use those ingredients in your weekly meal plan.

EatLove makes it easy to find recipes so you can use those frozen foods! Check out our Search By Ingredients features.

Know What You Can Freeze

A big part of freezing foods is knowing what you can and can’t freeze. You’d be surprised that most foods can actually be frozen and used later. Let’s dive deeper into some of the food items you should freeze before they go bad.

Fruit & Veggies

You might not think that you can freeze produce, but you can! Foods with high water content — like tomatoes, spinach, lettuce or berries — might get squishy when you thaw them later because the frozen water breaks down cell walls. So you wouldn’t want to make a salad with lettuce that has been frozen. However, these foods can still be used in cooked dishes. You could use frozen tomatoes in a homemade sauce or throw a handful of frozen strawberries and spinach into a smoothie.

Some vegetables — like cauliflower and green beans — store best when they are blanched, or boiled in hot water for a few minutes and then cooled. You could also cook them completely before freezing as well. Then, when you pull out your veggies, they are ready to be included in a meal.

Raw Meat

One thing that can spoil quickly in the fridge is raw meat. However, you can keep your meat in the freezer until you’re ready to use it. You can freeze any type of meat from chicken cutlets to ground beef. Just defrost the meat thoroughly before you cook it. This is perfectly safe and won’t affect the taste of your meat.

Once you defrost meat, however, don’t refreeze it. Going from frozen to thawed back to frozen could give bacteria and germs the chance to grow on your meat. And the last thing you need to worry about is getting sick from your source of protein.

Milk + Dairy

Did you know that you can freeze milk? If you have milk on hand that you won’t finish, freeze it. Got extra shredded cheese from tonight’s dinner? Freeze it! Some dairy products don’t freeze well, including soft cheeses, which change in texture after being frozen. Yogurt, cream cheese, and other dairy products might change in texture as well.

Pasta

You can freeze cooked pasta as well, which makes for a quick and easy meal on busy nights. Just make sure that your pasta is al dente, or still a bit firm when you bite it. If your pasta is fully cooked when you freeze it, it may be limp and mushy when reheated. But al dente pasta will reheat perfectly and have the texture that you’re looking for.

Herbs

You can freeze herbs to make the most of a sprig of rosemary or bunch of cilantro. Don’t just throw your herbs in the freezer, however. When you take your herbs out, you’ll be sorely disappointed because they will be pretty soggy due to the water content. But you can chop up herbs and put them in oil or butter to freeze. And ice tray works perfectly for this! Then, you can take out a cube of herb-infused oil as you cook.

Leftovers

If you have cooked leftovers, feel free to keep them in the freezer. You can also freeze leftover side dishes, breads, and desserts. Most leftovers can be frozen for a few months. After that, leftovers may lose some of their moisture and flavor. You may want to watch out for meals that are heavy on the dairy because it may separate when you reheat it. However, other meals should reheat just fine!

EatLove has a Freezer Friendly tag within our advanced search function, so you can search for recipes that specifically freeze well.

What What Not To Freeze

There are some foods, however, that just will not freeze well no matter how hard you try.

• Soft cheeses
• Hard-boiled eggs
• Egg-based sauces (meringue, custard, mayo, etc.)
• Sour cream and cream cheese
• Yogurt
• Fried foods
• Carbonated drinks
• Raw potatoes
• Jelly — unless it’s specifically a freezer jam

We hope these freezer tips help you make the most of the food you purchase. If you aren’t a member of the EatLove community yet, sign up for a FREE 2-week trial today. Our platform optimizes for food waste at every step of the way, so it’s another way you can reduce food waste in your kitchen.