I baked the mushrooms in my handy toaster oven to emulate the pizza parlor’s handiwork and they were ready by the time the pie arrived.

This may not be a novel idea to some of you, but it seems like an easy way to avoid wasting food while saving money by just paying for a plain pizza. (Is it just me or have toppings become really expensive? Probably to cover the crazy price increases on cheese and flour.)

I can’t say that the black olives I also included were added to avoid food waste. There was, however, an open jar in the fridge, and the olives completed my favorite combination at a nice discount.

While mushroom and black olive is my standard order, I would do the same with most anything that needs using up. Because really, what can’t you put on a pizza? As for the ‘not baked in’ issue, I found that the toppings just needed to be pressed into the pie a bit.

In addition to a few other aesthetic changes, I’ve added a mailing list signup on the sidebar. Those shrewd enough to join the list will receive a monthly roundup and special notifications about upcoming Wasted Food excitement. Feel free to sign up, you can always unsubscribe!

Below that signup, you can subscribe to the RSS feed for the site.

(What’s an RSS feed?)

Logan is home to Utah State University and more importantly, many student apartments. Knowing that students moving out will leave behind plenty of good food, Logan’s Environmental Department decided to collect non-perishable food from departing students.

The effort will not only provide local shelters with food, but keep the items out of the waste stream. It’s a win-win and one of the first instances I’ve heard of public employees recovering food.

One question remains, though: how much Ramen can a shelter use?

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Here are some useful hints on how to avoid food waste at this blog and more here at Love Food, Hate Waste, which lets you search recipes based on which foods “need using up.” One question: who has trouble using up chocolate??

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The answer, comes from the ridiculously detailed UK report, The Food We Waste. Britons waste 7,800 tonnes of “chocolate/sweets (full packs)” and 1,000 tonnes of “chocolate desserts” at a combined cost of almost £50 million ($97.5 million).

For a more digestible version of the study, check out the executive summary.

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Staying in Britain, the Daily Mail ran an entertaining food waste diary written by a North London woman. Not to spoil it, but 36-year-old Ursula Hirschkorn tosses about half the groceries she bought for her family of four. After a wedge of brie goes bad in her fridge, she writes:

Now, I am all for good, smelly cheese, but this smelt like the contents of one of Max’s dirtier nappies. That will teach me for impulse buying — it makes the trip from store to swing bin without even being unwrapped.

And this humorous bit:

As I feared, the vegetable drawer contains the gooey remains of a cucumber, a couple of split cherry tomatoes and some suspicious looking mushrooms. I am not sure if the fungi were bought, or simply evolved in this primordial swamp.

Here’s The Food We Waste, all 237 pages of it. A good first step would be reading the executive summary.

It’ll take me a bit to digest this ‘Holy Grail’ of food waste research. Until I do, know that Britons throw away about one third of the food they purchase. Of that, 61 percent could have been eaten.

Like usual, the story is a bit more complicated than it may appear. As we see in the illustration, the cost of food is increasing in many, but not all categories. The prices of some items–snacks, “other fresh fruit,” seafood and juice–are rising at a rate lower than inflation (4 percent). The same goes for eating out at “full-service” (non-fast food) restaurants.

Not to belittle the suffering that rising food costs bring, but some items were actually cheaper in March 2008 than March 2007. Pork, lettuce, citrus and “other fresh vegetables” all dropped in price during that span. Now’s your time, bacon lovers!

How does this relate to food waste? In this armchair economist’s view, higher prices will likely cause folks to value their food more and, hence, waste less of it.

Price increases will probably nudge folks to plan meals, create disciplined shopping lists and make fewer impulse purchases that often aren’t used before they go bad. I’ve certainly seen an uptick in blog posts advising how to save money and waste less. I’m also guessing that food inflation will prompt less eating out. Based on the numbers, however, that may not make strict economic sense.

What about you? Have you noticed an increase in your grocery bill? If so, (how) has it changed your behavior and view of food?

I love leftovers, especially as the next day’s lunch, but many folks don’t. For you non-leftover lovers, ensuring that they’re consumed means planning a leftover meal.

It’s easy, all you have to is: nothing. Don’t buy food for that night or plan another meal. And don’t give in to complaints. Making it work may require some repurposing (i.e. throwing everything into a fritatta) or a little spin. For advice on how to do so, this useful column has an idea–give it a sassy name:

I learned years ago that I could create a complete dinner for my family one night a week using one to two servings of previous meals. Family members might eat different entrees, or we might each have a little of all the entrees. The key is to use every bit of the groceries you purchase. When my children were younger, I would call it “crazy dinner,” and they thought that was fun.

I would suggest “Loco Leftovers,” but some prefer a “smorgasbord.” Go with your gut here. Just remember this talking point: Leftover night rocks because instead of eating one boring ol’ main course, you can have a bit of three.

Wow. We sure do love to anthropomorphize food, but they’re effective spokespeople. Also, isn’t it a bit odd that these fruits and veggies are begging to be eaten? I guess anything’s better than the dreaded landfill.

Anyway, the real point is that food banks need your help. Rising food costs have hit them hard. Here’s an idea–give some (or all) of your tax refund to your local food bank or food recovery group. That’s what I’ll be doing.

The other lesson: Hopefully produce will not be judged by the (dis)color of its skin but by the content of its character. You know, to avoid food waste.

The food chain prizes uniformity. As anyone who’s grown crops or been to a farmer’s market can attest, the homogeneous supermarket displays are superficial. As a result, produce that’s too big, too small, the wrong color, oddly shaped, etc. is culled and often thrown out somewhere along the line. If they make it off the farm, they’re usually discarded by wholesalers. Now that’s stranger than talking produce.

First, the bad: Abu Dhabi’s resort buffets produce massive amounts of food waste. While this isn’t much different in Las Vegas or other buffet-laden destinations, it’s a problem.

Without local food recovery groups, Abu Dhabi’s resort restaurants, especially buffets, throw away tons of food each day. The Director of Kitchens at the Radisson SAS hotel, estimated that 10 percent of the buffet line went to waste (which sounds like an underestimation to me).

In addition, buffet items aren’t fed to the armies of hotel staff anymore. Food safety concerns apparently prevent this practice, which is still done at many Vegas hotels. Not sure why this can’t continue in the U.A.E…

Now the good: Abu Dhabi, in a move to address its post-oil economy, is designing a carbon-neutral city called Masdar. While Masdar’s government-backed planners promise to limit the city’s impact on global warming with a bunch of renewable and sustainable technologies, I hope they’ll address food waste (and apply these innovations for the 50,000 person Masdar City to the 1 million inhabitant Abu Dhabi).

Composting? Anaerobic Digestion? Mr. Fusion? Nothing would surprise me here.

Whichever technology, let’s just hope the issue of food waste is addressed. And minimizing that waste would go a long way toward being truly sustainable.

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Staying in California, The California bill to allow hotel or catering event customers to take home the leftovers food they’ve paid for (sounds like a no-brainer, to me, but I’m not impartial) is nearing approval.

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I just read about Fresh Pods, plastic contraptions that supposedly quadruple the lifespan of produce when placed in your ‘fridge. I have no idea how they work…or whether they do.

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I think if we grew our own food, we’d be less likely to waste it. Plus, we read many places that a classic grass yard is like a carbon Bigfoot. Hence, the idea (and book) Food Not Lawns, a nice play on the hunger relief movement Food Not Bombs.

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Did you know we’re wasting wild asparagus? Or at least missing out. Get on it, America! Start foraging.