Putting extra holiday cookies and leftovers in the freezer will not only extend their shelf life - it could also put a dent in the U.S. household tendency to throw away edible food, a new study suggests.
The national survey found that discarded frozen items make up about 6% of wasted household food in the United States. Based on frozen food's relatively small contribution to food waste and other findings in the study, researchers say urging consumers to stock their freezers might be one way to prevent premature disposal of food.
Results showed that though overall food waste remained high, there was a bright spot: Freezing food was associated with less food landing in the trash.
"We found that households with home freezing behaviors are more likely to have less food waste than other households," said Lei Xu, first author of the paper and a postdoctoral scholar specializing in agricultural and food economics at The Ohio State University.
"Food waste is not just an economic loss - it also causes environmental damage because more than 90% of wasted food goes to the landfill, and this can produce greenhouse gas emissions," Xu said. "The findings suggest that in the future, if we can encourage households to have home freezing behaviors, this small change in food storage habits can have a large environmental impact."
Xu completed the study with graduate student Ran Li and senior author Brian Roe, professor in the Department of Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics at Ohio State. The research was published recently in the British Food Journal.
Roe has been studying household food waste for years, but this is the first study to tease out where frozen food fits into the food waste picture. Recent estimates have suggested about 30% of food in the United States is wasted, but other research led by Roe suggests consumer food waste is trending upward.
"The fact that food waste is still increasing may suggest to policymakers that campaigns could be useful to educate households about balancing purchasing behavior and making the most of the food they buy," Xu said.
The current study data comes from frozen food-related questions added to the summer 2022 wave of the U.S. National Household Food Waste Tracking Survey in which 1,067 households participated. Respondents were asked to estimate the percentage of all discarded food in the previous seven days that had been frozen and whether it was bought frozen or was unfrozen and placed in the freezer later. They also reported the typical frequency of buying frozen foods.
The responses indicated that 85% of U.S. households buy frozen foods and among those, 55% of participants reported they purchased frozen food to reduce waste. Frozen food purchasers were more likely to shop infrequently - two to three times per month - and were more likely to be living in households with annual income of under $50,000. The most common categories of discarded frozen foods were meat (20% of total frozen food waste), vegetables (22%) and potatoes and grains (15% each).
"Based on what we're seeing among households, we still have space to increase awareness to save food by using freezing behavior," Xu said.
Data showed a link between frequent home freezing and significantly less total food waste. Respondents most likely to freeze fresh items or extra food were aged 45 years and older and living in households of three or more people - a possible sign, the authors said, that consumers with a home freezing routine may be more experienced at managing meals for a group and motivated to avoid food waste.
What the team considered somewhat surprising - and enlightening - was the finding that about 30% more of wasted frozen food was discarded from the refrigerator than from the freezer.
"Thinking about why that happens, it might mean they don't understand food storage techniques and don't understand how long they should keep certain foods and where they should put it," Xu said. "This suggests more explicit food storage instructions on food labels could educate consumers about how to correctly store foods to reduce waste."
Trends in the data suggest that consumer education about the freezer's role in saving food could make a difference economically and environmentally, Xu said, and also help address the societal problem of food insecurity experienced by 10% of U.S. households.
"Half of consumers buy frozen food to reduce waste. What about the other half?" she said. "We want to increase social awareness of how to save food, and explain how people use frozen food and home freezing techniques to save food. And freezing is one of the most accessible techniques because essentially all households have a refrigerator and freezer."
This work was supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, the National Science Foundation and a gift from the Frozen Food Foundation that facilitated collection of a larger survey sample size.
