Attention home cooks: do you, like me, have half a lemon, perhaps encased in a beeswax wrap or clingfilm, sitting in your fridge? Half a cucumber, going dry at one end? Or maybe an open jar of capers, barely used, but well past the two-week recommended refrigeration period? So often, a recipe requires just half an onion, or a third of a block of tofu – especially when cooking for one.
According to the 2024 UN Food Waste Index report, about a fifth of the world’s food is wasted. Worldwide, households are responsible for the majority of it: about 60% of the 1bn tonnes of food thrown away annually. So how best to keep your leftover food fresh – and for how long does it remain safe to eat?
