Reducing holiday food waste

This is the time of year when many countries and traditions have major holidays.  Most of these holidays include large meals with friends and relatives, and the menus include lots of traditional favorites.  If you are hosting one of these meals, it’s easy to end up with more food than you can eat before it spoils.  Reducing holiday food waste starts well before the holiday meal. 

• Plan your everyday meals before the holidays to use up the perishable foods in your refrigerator and pantry.  That pre-holiday food might not get eaten after holiday leftovers crowd the refrigerator. 
• Determine if your guests are likely to bring food to supplement your menu, even if they don’t tell you ahead of time.  If so, plan to reduce your menu items. 
• When planning your meals, consider how many guests are coming and what portion sizes are appropriate for each guest.  Not everyone is a big eater, and if there are lots of choices, most people will eat only small portions of each food.  Are you planning to send leftovers home with each guest?  How many leftovers can you eat?  This will help you decide how much of each dish to make so that the leftovers can be effectively eaten.
• Determine what leftovers can be frozen for later.  Freeze them the next day while they are still fresh.
• Some people use the turkey carcass to make soup stock, or a ham bone can be used when making a bean dish.  Leftover vegetables might be good added to the soup.  Try to be inventive so as little food gets into the trash as possible.