12 ways to stop throwing away spoiled food. “Selling overdue

Did you know that one third of all food produced in the world is wasted? Meanwhile, these are the official UN statistics. The numbers are terrifying: food waste amount to 1.3 billion tons per year and cover an area of ​​1.4 million hectares.

Wasted food isn't just a waste of your money. Throwing food into the trash also means wasting water and energy (needed to grow it), and even changing the planet's climate. YES chain store team! I have prepared some tips to help you reduce the amount of food you throw away, and be careful with your family budget and environment.

1. Freeze food

If you've prepared more food than you can eat in the near future, simply put the leftovers in the freezer. You can freeze almost everything - fruits and berries, vegetables and herbs, even broth can be poured into an airtight container and frozen for about a month. Make semi-finished products from fresh minced meat and other meat products and freeze them - this way you will throw away less food, and you will always have an almost ready-made dinner on hand. We wrote earlier about what can be prepared, for example, from frozen berries.

2. Cook with leftovers

Keep track of the food you already have in your refrigerator and try to use it before it goes bad. If fruits and vegetables begin to lose their freshness, make a smoothie or cream soup from them. Almost any product can be put on homemade pizza: leftover meat and sausage, dried cheese and vegetables. You can also find collections of recipes using leftover food on the Internet.

3. Make crackers

Perhaps the most frequently thrown away product is stale bread. Meanwhile, you can make crackers from it that will be stored for a long time. To do this, the bread needs to be cut into small cubes and dried in the oven. It is better to store crackers in cloth bags. You can serve them with soup or salad.

4. Use sour dairy products

Do not rush to throw away sour milk or kefir. They can make excellent pancakes or pancakes. You just need to add eggs, flour and baking powder.

5. Make a shopping list

Before you go to the store, look in the refrigerator, think over your menu and make a list of necessary purchases. This simple tip will help you choose only the products you need and avoid buying something that will eventually go bad and end up in the trash. Buy less, but more often.

6. Study the operating mode of the refrigerator

The instructions for refrigerators usually indicate in which section it is best to store certain products. Similar signs can also be found in the refrigerator itself. Remember that pull-out trays are good for vegetables and fruits, and the door, where the temperature is always higher, is good for sauces and ketchups, but it’s better not to leave dairy products on it. You can also read about how to properly store eggs, vegetables and cheese in the refrigerator on the “YES!” website.

6. Share food

Don't wait for food to spoil. If you can't eat them yourself, share them with others instead of throwing them away. Take an old box of chocolates to work, share a pie with your neighbors, give dried sausage and meat to street animals. Sharing food is very pleasant, and the donated goodness will definitely come back to you!

In half the cases, it turns out that the refrigerator is overflowing with food that is already starting to spoil. For example, according to a 2014 American study, 31% (60 billion kg!) of food reserves remained uneaten. Wow! So next time you go to the grocery store, remember these six tips and your shopping experience will be quick and painless.

Plan your diet

Before you go to the store, try to make a meal plan for the week. This way, you will be less tempted to grab from the shelves everything that seems tasty, but which you most likely won’t eat in the end. "The problem is that people are buying too much," says Martin Bucknevage, senior security researcher at food products Pennsylvania State University. “They don’t have a plan, so they either take too much or take something they’re not going to use right away.”

Make a shopping list

And stick to it. “This will help you estimate the amount of food you are eating. And at the end of the week, you can modify this list,” says Kelly Pritchett, Ph.D., a board-certified sports nutritionist. This the method will also be useful in order not to lose your mind when passing by shelves with something alluring(yes, baking, we’re talking about you!).

At the end of the week, be honest with yourself. If you really ate all the fruit you bought, then a) you’re great! and b) next time don't forget to add them to the list again. If the fruits begin to wither and become moldy before you get to them, don’t spend money on them at all - or buy less. Be realistic!

Buy generic products

"Cooking meals that can last a couple of days will help you get the most out of them," says Pritchett. Be creative with leftovers, so that you don’t have to cook the same thing over and over again. For example, if you like chicken for dinner, use the leftover chicken the next day in a salad or wraps. And stay away from those types of meat that usually sit in your refrigerator for a week. On the weekend, you can cook up a simple dish from everything you haven’t eaten. “I make soup almost every Saturday to clean out the refrigerator,” says Alex Caspero, a nutritionist at HUM Nutrition in Los Angeles.

Know how much food you need

Cooking too much is also not an option. "By buying more food than you need, you're guaranteed to increase the amount of food wasted in the world—especially if you're buying food for one or two people," says Caspero. Stock up large quantities edible only because low prices, for example, on apples or pasta - the same pointless waste. A five-kilogram string bag of oranges may be more profitable than a small package, but if you only eat one, it’s better to buy that many.

Remember the expiration date

Check the dates on packages of perishable foods. When sorting out your purchases at home, write the expiration dates on the packages with a marker.. This way you will increase their chances of not suddenly deteriorating. By the way, you can extend “ life cycle» fruits and vegetables, buying them slightly unripe - they will reach the desired state already home. “The exceptions are fruits that are always sold already ripe, such as apples and oranges,” says Caspero.

Organize the contents of your refrigerator

Bad news for those who like to fill the refrigerator to capacity: this can cause food to spoil faster. “The free circulation of air is disrupted, which in turn causes the formation of warm and cold zones in the air,” says Bucknevage. Agree, I wouldn’t want yogurt or milk to end up in the “warm zone.” So look for a balance between an empty and a fully stocked refrigerator to ensure that your food lasts as long as possible.

Another way to waste less is to buy frozen. “These berries are good in smoothies or yogurts,” says Caspero. - Don’t worry, they are rich in vitamins, because they were frozen at the peak of ripeness. Plus cheaper than fresh ones. And you won’t have to throw anything away.”

I don’t know about you, but looking at the abundance of goods in supermarkets, I always wondered: are they really selling it all? And if they don’t have time, where do the expired products go? There is a common belief that “overdue” food is used for cooking or sold to budget chain stores, or even worse - that some manufacturers take back what is unsold and recycle it! Want to know where stores actually dispose of expired food?

Question: Have you ever had to throw out food from your personal family refrigerator that you had prepared but couldn’t eat? and it became such that it was impossible to burst it.

I will assume that the number of households that have encountered this annoyance is 90%.

Want to know what stores do with unsold, expired food? I'll tell you what I know and how I do it myself. This topic in retail management is quite intimate, and in some cases causes hemorrhoidal complications.

In Russia there is a society called “piggies against”, which seems to be fighting against delays, but in a bad way, to be honest. Through hysterics and provocations, through costumes and dirt.

I would do the work of retail quality control differently... but that’s not what we’re talking about

I’ll tell you what I heard from former employees of Chelyabinsk food retailers who came to us to get a job. I’ll also tell you what we do with unsold food.

Sellers from different grocery chains come to us for interviews. Lightning, Crossroads, Auchan, Dixie, Theorem.
Teorem, Molniya and Auchan are especially criticized with dissatisfaction.

Actually, I ask all my visiting colleagues a question about processing expired products, but, to their credit, everyone says that no one adds expired products to salads or grilled chicken.

And the employees from the intersection (X5) were even offended by me.

Therefore, if anyone thinks that on the networks they prepare your cooking out of date - nain: Molniya, Theorem, Perekrestok, Dixie, Romkor, Ariant. The staff confirmed. OK. No one makes a mistake out of delay.

There are two sausage producers on the shelves of our “Home” stores. Kalinka and Romkor. The first ones are more expensive, the second ones are cheaper. In terms of assortment - analogues. Only “Kalinka” does not take back unsold items, but “Romkor” does.

And now attention: Where and how does the second manufacturer make the product cheaper?

Eating secondary meat is evil.

Milk is a different story. We love and rejoice as partners in the successes of the CheMol plant, but not everything is for sale. I am categorically against writing off unsold goods. Therefore, the supplier compensates for write-offs using a certain algorithm.

Physically, we pour unsold dairy and other liquid products down the toilet. Danone, Activia - it all pours out.

Products that are not perishable also remain. Juices, butter, flour, sauces, etc.

I’m ready to give this to animal shelters, but there are some nuances: there are volunteers who are also business people and can cross paths somewhere after 20.00 to pick up the goods.....so it turns out that it’s easier to throw away food that the buyer didn’t buy near trash heap

And now the main question of this post: How to adapt the delay to the benefit of society and a minimum of effort for the owner.

P.S. We do not use unsold items for culinary purposes, factoring losses into the price.
P.P.S. I recently found out that large networks They pay money to the landfill to throw unsold items into the landfill.
And it is true. Our partner company for the removal of everything from the construction site reported that there was a standstill for 4 hours. Not OK.

P.P.S. I also remember a call from one of the representatives of the funds - caretakers. They asked to give expired products of adequate value (flour, canned food) for food to CHILDREN. Fuck you. And I will send it. I’ll also send the hell out of them for food in prisons.

Expired food should not be given to people. Dogs/Cats/ are allowed.

Rational behavior is not the only thing that holds Russians back from throwing away purchased food. Attitudes towards food disposal were shaped by sociocultural attitudes, including gastronomic trauma experienced during times of famine and shortage. National characteristics, transmitted through generations, were studied by Valeria Erguneva and Daria Asaturyan.

Liberation from the undernourished

Interviews with Moscow residents helped us understand the meaning people put into throwing away food and what attitudes are triggered. of different ages(21–72 years old) and social status(employed, temporarily unemployed, students, pensioners, housewives).

The reasons that “provoke” food disposal turned out to be different - from problems with planning consumption to complete ignorance of storage practices.

Errors in calculations when purchasing food. They often arise due to the inability to anticipate the behavior of other family members.
“Periodically you calculate: “Now, I’ll buy 10 servings of something, and a person will eat these 10 servings.” And then it turns out that this one didn’t eat it, this one didn’t eat it, and this is thrown away” (male, 22 years old, student).

Change of desires and plans, impulsive “hungry purchases”, discrepancy in information about the availability of food in the house (there is already a product, but they have forgotten about it and are buying a new one; family members are not able to agree on parallel purchases). “Sometimes bread is thrown away for some reason - for example, I don’t know that dad went to the store. I get up in the morning, see that there is no bread, naturally, I go home from work and stop at the store, buy it, and then come home, and there is already the bread there, which he bought” (woman, 43 years old, massage therapist).

Discrepancy between the rhythm of life and the expiration dates of food products. The rhythm may change, disrupting your meal plans for the coming days.“We were planning, for example, to have dinner, but we stopped and went somewhere else or went on a visit. And so, you know, you weren’t home for 3-4 evenings, and then you open the refrigerator, and you can basically throw everything away” (male, 35 years old, driver).

Preference for instant food products.“It’s always too lazy to take and heat up soup for yourself, for example, you can eat something less difficult to heat up, and then some general products are thrown away” (male, 21 years old, student, research assistant, teacher).

Demonstrative throwing away and hedonistic attitudes. Some associate throwing away with poverty, considering excessive concern about throwing away food, constant counting and calculability as signs of under-resourced people.“This was somehow conveyed to me, too, that you can’t live in poverty or something. There is such poverty in the head, you know, when everything needs to be left behind, any broken thing, half-eaten food - all this needs to be stored in order to hide it.” (male, 22 years old, student).

In addition, food is perceived as a source positive emotions, and not “fuel” for the body. Hence the refusal to eat food that is not exclusively fresh (yesterday’s) and the obligation to finish what has been prepared.“The attitude towards eating through force was negative, because you go to a restaurant to have fun, not to necessarily eat everything there. And this is some kind of pettiness, if so, then why did you go then” (male, 25 years old, sports commentator).

Life transitions (moving to a new place of residence, often from villages to cities, leaving parents and starting an independent life). For those who “escaped” from their father’s home, thoughtless purchases and throwing away become a manifestation of newfound freedom. Settlers to a larger locality

are forced to learn new waste management practices due to the lack of usual disposal channels.

“When I lived in the village, food was not thrown away, it was eaten by pigs or dogs, because the dogs there are not as harmful as the city purebreds. They ate almost everything they were given. That's why we never threw away food. Then, when I moved here, well, of course, it was kind of scary to throw it away, but a person gets used to everything” (woman, 33 years old, owner of a hair salon).

Passing the buck

People can blame not only, and often not so much, themselves for throwing things away. Responsibility shifts to retail. Grocery chains are accused of two “articles”: inducing demand (“steaming” excess food) and unfair storage of products.

By “vaping” we mean the presence of anything that encourages unplanned purchases (special labels, promotions, etc.) and the sale of products “in packages of such a size that it is a priori impossible for households consisting of one or two people to consume them before the expiration date.”

When talking about unfair storage, they mean manipulations with goods, after which they only appear to be of high quality, but in fact spoiled food is purchased.

“Because everyone is cunning, and simply throwing away food is throwing away your money. And who will throw away their money? Nobody. These are conscientious American stores; if they are close to being “overdue,” they throw them away, but we are already “overdue,” but they take it, erase the date, write a new one, and it’s fine. This is for sale. Why throw it away?” (male, 26 years old, graduate student, engineer).

Conscience frozen

Not everyone is worried about disposing of uneaten food. Some people consider this process natural, objective, and see it not as a problem, but as the consequences of “social evolution.”

Some people feel relieved when they get rid of food (“freeing up space in the refrigerator is good”).

On the other hand, even discard activists experience remorse when saying goodbye to still usable products. And then the refrigerator becomes not just technical device, but “a participant in the process of throwing away and alleviating anxiety about getting rid of food”: what is suitable is stored there until it spoils and is, without pangs of conscience, withdrawn.

“There were attempts to freeze it. But still, personally in my mind, when I defrost it, it seems to me that the taste is no longer the same, the freshness is no longer the same, and so on. And after I defrost it... that is, another stage is simply added between cooking and throwing away - this is freezing” (woman, 38 years old, technologist).

Conservation Philosophy

Now about the opposite: why they refuse to throw away and how to avoid it. The study showed that here, too, the palette of reasons is rich.

Rational behavior. Proper planning of the quantity of food, as well as its quality (including the choice of products with a shelf life that is more convenient for long-term use).

Financial constraints (poverty). Still objective high level Poverty creates the inability to act thoughtlessly in the process of consumption. “Those who express such an attitude consume exactly as much food as is necessary to satisfy the physiological needs of the body,” say the researchers.

Unconscious choice. A habit formed by growing up in conditions of poverty and scarcity.

Perceiving throwing away as a waste of one's resources: money spent on purchases, time and effort taken by going to the store and cooking.

The culture of treating food as the result of someone else’s labor, which dates back to the times of peasant Russia.“Even regardless of whose products I throw away, whether I bought them or not, I equally feel sorry for the wasted effort of the one who produced and the one who raised, and of the money in general, that it was wasted” (male, 21 year, student, research assistant, teacher).

Denial of ejection as such. Food is not thrown away, channels for “ waste-free production» (neighbors and friends, pets/stray animals, food processing, etc.). “Of course, if I take sausage, it looks, say, fresh, but the next day it happens that it has spoiled, although it is in the refrigerator. What am I doing? I boil it in two waters and then I can feed the animals on the street. But I won’t just throw it away” (woman, 38 years old, technologist).

Ethical consumption. Keep recycling to a minimum to help the environment. The interview results indicate that few are guided by this, but nevertheless: “I try as much as possible not to throw anything away, because, firstly, it’s not environmentally friendly. They killed some pig and you didn’t finish it. Not only did she die for you to eat her, but you also didn’t eat her, but simply threw her away... That is, for ethical reasons it’s somehow difficult for me to give up meat, but in connection with the environment, for example, I began to think about this. At the very least, don’t eat beef, because its production causes five or six times more harm to the environment than chicken.”(female, 22 years old, student).

Strength of injury

Sociocultural values ​​also become barriers to food waste. Some of them have purely Russian specifics.

Religious attitudes encourage thrifty behavior: “The attitude towards products should be sacred. It is a sin to throw away food, especially bread. Well, that's the way it is among the people. In general, it’s a sin to throw away food” (man, 72 years old, pensioner, watchman).

The “no” can be said by empathy for residents of less developed countries (compassion and a sense of shame in front of malnourished African children), or by memorable proverbs and sayings.

“I never leave a plate that is not empty. As my mother said, this is not good, otherwise you won’t get married” (male, 26 years old, graduate student, engineer).

“I was even taught, you know, how in Soviet school that bread is the head of everything, and everything else, and how much effort was put into it. These sprouts that were once planted in me are strong in me” (woman, 38 years old, owner of a network of foreign language schools).

But the key category, rooted in the socio-historical context of Russia, is called “gastronomic trauma” by the authors of the study, which refers to periods of famine and shortage: during the Great Patriotic War, V post-war era and in times of empty store shelves
in the 1990s.

The memory of the experience does not allow wasteful consumption and throwing away, and forms a thrifty attitude towards food. Moreover, this is typical not only for older Russians.

“Yes, I feel guilty [about throwing away food]. Well, because in my childhood and in my memory the example of my grandmother is alive” (woman, 27, young mother, on maternity leave).

Additionally, “there is a symbolic separation between food and the emotions associated with throwing it away.” That is, special experiences are experienced when disposing of certain products. For example, bread.

“It probably came from the time of the siege of Leningrad, well, yes, it’s left over from childhood, that is, I see that it seems to have become stale, I kind of want to throw it out, and then I think that no, I can’t throw it away” (man, 35 years old, driver).

“Well, bread is kind of a shame, every time I throw it away, something shrinks inside me. For some reason, it’s with bread, I don’t know... It’s like I’m committing a sin” (woman, 43 years old, massage therapist).

“Thus,” the researchers conclude, “despite the stated material transition to a consumer society and the abundance of goods on the shelves, in reality, behavioral attitudes that are recreated through generations, acquired during times of scarcity and poverty, turn out to be a restraining mechanism for wasteful attitude towards food and throwing it away what gives Russian model consumption with unique national characteristics.”

In Russia, for example, environmentally friendly, ethical consumption (in contrast to Western countries, where it is based on concern for the environment and the public good). And the low incomes of a significant part of the population (lack of money is one of the motives for not throwing away) do not allow “green” practices to develop: those who have not satisfied their primary needs are not in the mood to think about the environment.

7 facts about wasting food

Globally, 1/3 of all food produced is wasted every year.

In developing countries, losses occur at the production stage due to the lack of sufficient financial, technical and managerial resources, and in developed countries- at the last links of the supply chain (distribution, retail and consumption).

According to the European Commission, in Europe 42% of all food produced is wasted during final consumption, two thirds of which could have been avoided.

The production and supply of food products that turn out to be superfluous have a negative impact on the environment (high demand for agricultural land and, as a result, high blood pressure to forests and fertile soil; waste of water and energy; harm from biodegradable waste in landfills).

Anything bought but not eaten and thrown away results in financial losses. For example, households in the UK lose around £680 each year.

Valeria Erguneva, student of the bachelor's program "Sociology" of the Faculty of Social Sciences of the National Research University Higher School of Economics

Food activist Asya Senicheva organizes lectures in St. Petersburg on how what we eat affects people, the environment and society. To draw attention to the problem of irrational use of resources, she decided to conduct an experiment and for seven days she ate only what someone had already thrown away: she prepared breakfasts, lunches and dinners from products lying around at friends’ houses or found in the trash. The girl told us how she coped with the challenge and not only never got poisoned, but also fed all her neighbors with the saved food.

Background

I have been involved in food activism since 2017. Together with like-minded people from the project "Food will save the world" I provide catering for friendly cultural and social events using rescued food. We pick up discarded bread from bakeries, expired but edible jams and canned goods from friends, and prepare soups, compotes and pates from “ugly” vegetables and fruits. I also curate a lecture on food and society Food Talks. I invite chefs, journalists, activists, sociologists to publicly talk about how all production cycles affect the environment, how products get to our tables, how culture and social norms in different societies influence the perception and consumption of food.

Who throws away food and why?

Between 30 and 40 percent of all food produced in the world ends up in the trash. They throw it away at all stages of production: farmers get rid of what they grow because stores want to see only smooth cucumbers and perfectly round apples on their shelves, something spoils due to improper transportation conditions, packaging is damaged in supermarkets or products are lost marketable condition. Finally, consumers usually do not plan their purchases and take more than they can eat.

The most common argument against discarding: the huge number of needy and hungry people. There is no arguing with this: smarter distribution could be a solution to the problem. But there are other reasons. Along with food in the trash can are the resources that went into its production: forests that were cut down for agricultural needs, water, electricity, human labor. Besides, organic waste When rotting in landfills, they release methane, which causes Greenhouse effect even stronger than carbon dioxide. By throwing away, we harm nature and ultimately ourselves.

Idea and preparation

In order to study what is thrown away in St. Petersburg, and to show by my own example that much of it is edible, I proposed an experiment to my friend: for a week, eat only those foods that someone threw away.

We identified three sources of food for the duration of the challenge: food from our friends' houses that they are going to get rid of; bakeries that often sell out bread and other baked goods in the evenings; food from a dump near the house. We decided that we would eat everything that looked and tasted good, but be sure to wash it with soap, and heat treat anything that was in doubt.

After posts on social networks many responded and gave us what had been on the shelves for a long time: pickles, frozen vegetables, cutlets and seafood, old preserves, tea, spices. We agreed with the Korzhov bakery through friends from "Foodsharing"- food sharing communities.

With the garbage dump it was more difficult: it was necessary to find out who was throwing it away, how much and where. It’s important to understand here that we weren’t looking for bitten sandwiches and half-eaten lunches, or rummaging through bags ordinary people. We were interested in what stores were getting rid of. Items written off from supermarkets are easy to distinguish: they are usually a large number of similar products. For example, at one time we found several bags of grapes or bread weighing a total of 50 kilograms. We discovered that “Pyaterochka” nearby carries out large quantities of overdue goods every day, and decided that we would go there.

A spontaneous meeting of the neighborhood community awaited us at the garbage: we met two women who also came to save food, and, as it turned out, not for the first time. Irina is an artist, she has her own studio in Kolomna, and Natalya lives in the same courtyard and works at the Mariinsky Theater. They often come here: one has relatives with a farm outside the city, she sends food to feed animals. Although they were noticeably older than us, we talked and exchanged contacts, glad that even ordinary citizens could be food activists.

1 day

The day before we went to the marked trash heap and found tomatoes, peppers, apples, peaches, pears, milk, cottage cheese, bananas and flour. Vegetables and fruits were in good condition, and the expiration date of milk and cottage cheese expired on the same day - July 31. We found out empirically that the numbers on the packaging are very conditional thing, because usually the products can be eaten for at least another 3-4 days.

That’s when I first realized the scale of the problem: every evening ten bags, each weighing about 20 kg, were thrown away outside the store. That's about a ton a week - from just one supermarket.

For breakfast that day there was porridge from cereal lying around the house and garbage milk, plus coffee, which a friend gave me because she didn’t like it. I had to prepare for a working day at the office and prepare lunch: I cooked buckwheat and fried zucchini, tomatoes and peppers from the trash. For dessert - fruit salad of peaches and pears with lemon juice and cinnamon. The fruits, oddly enough, were much sweeter and softer than those that I had previously bought in stores and markets.

It was difficult in the office because I wanted to eat, but I couldn’t buy anything, there was a lot of time left until the end of the working day, and the container was empty. My colleagues reacted with interest and nicknamed my food “garbage dump.”

When I got home, I wanted to quickly satisfy my hunger, and I decided to make pancakes - without eggs, since we couldn’t find any. I mixed banana, milk, flour, sugar, salt, cinnamon, and used jam given by friends as a topping.

Day 2

The most pleasant thing about this day: bread and muffins with chocolate, which they gave us at Korzhovo. There were so many loaves that I distributed them to colleagues and neighbors.

Disappointment awaited us at the garbage dump: after waiting for an hour and a half, we left with nothing. But we continued to get to know the local community. In addition to the creative intelligentsia, those who are truly in need come here to buy groceries: Natasha works as a janitor, and she has not been paid a salary for two months now.

Getting food from the garbage turned out to be a whole quest: you need to calculate the time at which the store usually takes out the bags, take gloves and a ladder with you, and you need to be prepared to wait for a long time without any help.

So that the evening would not be wasted, we decided to go around the small stalls and ask if they had any products that they were planning to get rid of. The sellers reacted aggressively: they refused, ignored questions, and hid their gaze. I’m sure that absolutely all stores throw them away, but it’s a shame to talk about it - everyone understands that this is bad for both the image and society as a whole.

Day 3

A reward awaited us for yesterday's wanderings. My relative was going abroad for a long time and she needed somewhere to put the remaining products, so I left her with large bags containing butter and vegetable oil, ice cream, chocolate candies, crab sticks, salmon, cakes, leftover pies. So we discovered another source of waste: people who move or travel. So next time I'll host a farewell dinner for friends before a trip - either to finish it off or to give away the leftovers. No luck with the trash bin again: Irina called and said that the food was delivered at 6 pm and had already been sorted out.

4 day

I went to my friend’s dacha outside the city. If at work everyone always has their own lunch, then when visiting, it was difficult to explain about the experiment and refuse treats. Plus I was leaving for the whole day and had to take a lot of food with me. Already on the spot I found another interesting solution: the family has a one-year-old girl who ate very little and lost interest in dishes, and they gave the leftovers to me. One of the adults couldn't handle a piece of Napoleon, so I had dessert. I also picked fresh berries: currants, gooseberries, raspberries.

At the end of the day, everyone joked about me: if you don’t want to finish eating something, give it to Asya, she will be happy. Here I went beyond my crowd for the first time: if my neighbors and colleagues understood the essence of the challenge and asked me questions with interest, then there were acquaintances who knew little about activism and were kind, but were skeptical about this kind of experiment. Was waiting for me in the evening delicious dinner chicken and pasta: the neighbors cooked too much for themselves and couldn’t finish it all.

5 day

We went out of town for my birthday. I took with me yesterday’s chicken with pasta, made a sandwich from garbage bread, cucumbers and red fish, which a relative gave me. I also made a smoothie from bananas and blackcurrants found in the trash, and some fresh berries.

A friend responded to my story and was ready to give us another portion of homemade deposits. She brought two bags of delicacies straight to the party: olive oil, dried tomatoes, coconut milk, sesame seeds, jam and, what made us very happy, red currant liqueur. All this, according to her, her parents bought out of curiosity, and then did not eat because the products turned out to be too exotic.

At the picnic I realized that when you prepare food at home and take it with you, you produce much less waste. Usually in such cases I buy drinks, bread, sweets, fruits at the store, and all that remains is packaging. And this time I only had a reusable container and bottle.

Day 6

A lucky catch from the trash heap: bread, peaches and tomatoes. They took everything because they decided to organize a dinner for friends and neighbors right in the yard: to finish everything and celebrate the end of the experiment. We hung a notice in the front door and invited all residents of the house to join. We thought for a long time about how best to call waste food in Russian, so that it would be understandable and not intimidating - we decided to settle on “saved food”.

The bag of bread from the container was gigantic: we couldn’t pull it off the tall pukhto, so we lowered it down the pack and put what we didn’t need in boxes nearby so that someone else could pick it up. This was one of the most memorable moments of the experiment: the loaves seemed to go on forever. There were also dozens of packages lying here. chicken fillet: when animals are killed not even to be eaten, but simply thrown away - this is absurd. All the angry comments about how dumpster digging is dangerous and disgusting have been forgotten: it’s dangerous and disgusting when so much food ends up in a trash can.

Day 7

At the end of the experiment, I realized that I was physically tired: I’m not used to preparing breakfast, lunch and dinner for myself; I usually eat at home only in the morning. And here you had to constantly stand at the stove and invent dishes from what you had. Trips to the trash bin took energy: you had to look for normal products, take out heavy bags, drag it all home, and wash it for a long time and thoroughly. The final dinner was a success: about 20 people came, we actively talked about the experiment. At first, people looked at the treats with caution, but then they tried them and said that they had not eaten so deliciously for a long time.

Reaction and conclusions

People reacted to my challenge in different ways: someone said that seven days is too little, but you can eat like this for several months. Someone joked about the Botkin Hospital and advised us to make an appointment with a gastroenterologist in advance. Dad asked several times whether I was really rummaging through real garbage dumps or some special ones.

In the end, everything went well and everyone who ate our rescued food is doing great. I developed my imagination and learned to cook from what I had at hand. Many friends and acquaintances generally thought about the problem for the first time and began to become interested in it. I also saved a lot of money: I spend about five thousand a week in cafes and supermarkets. We had a lot of fun: our excitement awoke, we were happy when we managed to find something worthwhile.

I think that after some time I could repeat the experiment: eat like this not for a week, but, for example, for a month. I would like to create a food rescue system: for example, it can be transferred charitable organizations or launch an app where people could see which establishments and stores are about to throw away goods.

For many people, digging through a garbage dump is an extreme adventure that they are not ready to undertake and which is associated with a marginal lifestyle. But this is not necessary: ​​it will be good if more people they will begin to exchange with friends, give away food before leaving, prepare jams and sauces from what has spoiled a little, plan purchases in advance and pick up uneaten dishes from restaurants.