3 Reasons to implement waste-free cooking

Jan 27, 2023

By LivGood Team

3 Reasons to implement waste-free cooking

Often thrown away, sometimes forgotten, the peelings and other adornments of your food are full of unsuspected virtues. Zero-waste cooking offers benefits and savings for your body, your wallet and the environment.

Benefits for your body

Cooking zero-waste is the key for eating healthier. More generally, the peels and skins of your favorite foods are rich in vitamins, fibers and minerals. Be careful though because they are also concentrated in phytosanitary products from conventional agriculture. So favor organic ingredients when it comes to zero-waste cooking. Here are some ingredients that we consume regularly and whose peelings have surprising characteristics:

Apple: the skin is said to contain 2 to 4 times vitamin C and antioxidants than the flesh.
Citrus fruits: advice to people who have difficulty digesting, the peels of oranges and lemons - when they are brought to a boil and drunk in the form of juice, they can help solve intestinal problems.
Leeks: the green part of the leek contains a lot of vitamins A, B9 and C.
Carrots: carrot tops have properties of improving vascular health and bones are too often thrown wrongly.

Economical benefits:

It is an undeniable fact that food waste is a financial sinkhole. According to ADEME, it also represents 29 kg and 100 to 160 euros per person per year in Europe.

If you're wondering how to reduce it, here are some tips.

One of the levers of zero-waste consumption is, for example, to use leftovers from your fridge. This will allow you to get the most out of your food, since you don't throw away anything you buy. You should of course not forget the classics such as broths in which you can add peelings and carcasses of all kinds. One small step for your kitchen, one big step for your bank account.

Benefits for the environment

Your body and your wallet won't be the only ones to thank you. The blue planet will also be there, since cooking zero-waste greatly reduces waste and the water footprint of your daily life. This term refers to the volume of water necessary for the life cycle of a product, from production to consumption.

For example, without counting the water necessary to feed the hens, a 60 g egg represents approximately 200 L of water. The water footprint of egg production is moreover around 7% of the water footprint of animal production on a global scale.

A kilogram of bread, on the other hand, represents more than 1,800 liters of water, although the vast majority of the water required is used for the production of flour.

We quickly understand that cooking zero-waste saves impressive quantities of this resource which, let us remember, is not renewable.

Not sure how you can start? Here are some tips!

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Tips for a waste-free kitchen:

Use the same ingredient multiple times: aromatics like lemon zest or cinnamon can be used, cleaned and dryed and used a second time to infuse vinegars, teas, desserts or marinades

Preserve: Make ingredients that you have in bigger quantities last longer. Use them to make jams, chutneys and homemade pickles.

Use every part of ingredients: Use potato and carrot peels to make a healthier snack and cheese ends to add taste to your dishes

Use products to their fullest: egg shells can be used as a fertilizer for your plants or to scrub pots. Banana peel can also be rubbed on the skin to remove itchiness when there's a bug bite