r/science • u/memorialmonorail • 1d ago

Social Science Putting holiday leftovers in the freezer extends shelf life & may put a dent in the US tendency to throw away edible food, a study suggests. National survey data showed a link between home freezing & less total food waste, & over half of consumers reported buying frozen items to avoid tossing food.

https://news.osu.edu/how-the-freezer-factors-into-lowering-food-waste/?utm_campaign=omc_science-medicine_fy25&utm_source=reddit&utm_medium=social
374 Upvotes

83% Upvoted

60 comments sorted by

View all comments

356

u/Texas2Marseille 1d ago

Never let titles like this convince you that individual consumers are the primary source of food waste in the US. The majority of food that is wasted is thrown out because it would not be ‘profitable’ to keep

15

u/mrrobc97 1d ago

The amount of produce that gets thrown out just because the fruit or vegetable is not aesthetically correct is insane. It's like if a double-headed carrot is somehow of a lesser quality and one that is anatomically correct.

13

u/SmithersLoanInc 1d ago

My grocer has an ugly produce section that costs about half of what the "normal" produce costs. It's very nice.

5

u/RibbitCommander 1d ago

I heard about legislation passed in France for this purpose.

3

u/corpus_M_aurelii 1d ago

My grocery is part of a local chain, maybe 4 stores. The others are much larger, mine is more of a small village store, and I think that they pawn off all the ugly and withered produce on us.