Hold the Mustard–Harness the Hidden Superpowers of Your Fridge and Stop Wasting Food

New tech and tips can make your grocery bills more palatable.

Americans waste 30% to 40% of all food annually, equal to 145 billion meals sent to landfills instead of reducing food insecurity, according to Feed America. In addition, food waste is responsible for 8% of global carbon emissions.

If that’s not enough of a reason to work harder to stop wasting food, there’s also a financial incentive: the USDA estimates that the average American family of four loses $1,500 to uneaten food every year.

What can you do? Start by shopping carefully to buy only what you really use, then upgrade your refrigerator to a more energy efficient model and learn the best techniques for storing your food.

Food Storage Improvements

Refrigerators play a crucial role in preserving both fresh and frozen foods, helping to extend shelf life and reduce food waste, says Jessica Petrino, director of trade engagement and education for AJ Madison, a home appliance store. If you’re ready to upgrade your fridge and be smart about food storage, Petrino recommends looking for these features:

• Dual Refrigeration: Look for models that offer separate compressors and evaporators for the fridge and freezer. This helps maintain consistent temperatures and humidity levels in both compartments, keeping food fresher for longer. A bonus: No air exchange between the two sections—so your ice cubes won’t end up tasting like last night’s leftovers.
• Climate and Humidity Controls: Different foods have different storage needs. Adjustable climate zones, available in many high-end fridges, allow you to fine-tune temperature and humidity for specific compartments. Some models even feature independently controlled drawers or produce bins to help extend the life of fruits and vegetables.
• Stainless Steel Interiors: Borrowing a page from commercial kitchens, some premium refrigerators now offer stainless steel interiors. Stainless not only looks sleek—it helps maintain consistent temperatures, reduces noise, and is naturally resistant to bacteria, all of which contribute to longer-lasting food.
• Air Filtration Systems: Built-in air filters remove ethylene gas, which is released by ripening or expiring produce. Filtering this gas helps slow down the spoilage process and keeps the fridge smelling fresh.
• Smart Technology: Smart fridges do more than let you check the temperature remotely. Advanced models use cameras and AI to track inventory, suggest recipes based on what’s inside, send expiration alerts, and even enable grocery ordering. It’s like having a personal kitchen assistant helping you reduce food waste.

Where and How to Store your Food

To waste less food and save money, it pays to take the time to learn best practices for your refrigerator. Whirlpool’s refrigerator organization guide recommends keeping food items with a shorter shelf life visible so you don’t forget them.

You can even designate an “eat first” bin in your fridge to check first for snacking or cooking. And, with the price of eggs on everyone’s minds this year, remember they need consistent temperatures to stay fresh. That means a middle shelf is the best place to keep them – not in the door.

What should you keep in the door? Since it’s the part of the fridge that’s the most susceptible to fluctuations in temperature, Whirlpool suggests using it for beer and other beverages, nut butters, olives, pickles and condiments like ketchup and mustard.

Butter and soft cheeses are OK to keep in the door, but not milk or fresh-squeezed juices, which can spoil more quickly. Dairy products like milk and cottage cheese should be stored at the back of the fridge to keep them cold.

While you want to be efficient with your time along with your energy use, Whirlpool’s experts say it’s best not to wash or cut your produce and meat before you store it.

Cutting meat speeds up spoilage, and produce should be washed just before you cook it or eat it because washing adds humidity that can speed up ripening. Store meat at the back of the refrigerator on a low shelf and consider placing it in a glass or plastic container to keep juices from leaking onto other foods.

“Knowing where and how to store food in your fridge can significantly extend freshness,” Petrino says. Her recommendations include:

Fruits: Fruits do best in a low-humidity environment—imagine the dry air of an apple orchard. Set your crisper drawer to the “low” or “fruit” setting to keep them at their best. For delicate fruits like berries, keep them in their original container or a breathable produce box to prevent moisture from building up.

Vegetables: Vegetables thrive in high humidity. Set the crisper drawer to the “high” or “vegetable” setting to mimic the misty conditions you see in grocery store produce sections. This helps keep leafy greens and other veggies crisp and hydrated.

Don’t forget about your freezer’s role in reducing food waste, too.

“The ideal temperature for your freezer is 0°F (-18°C). This strikes the perfect balance between long-term food preservation and energy efficiency,” Petrino says. “At this temperature, harmful bacteria are kept at bay, and foods retain their quality over time without excessive energy use.”

Your freezer can do more than you think to reduce food waste, Petrino says.

She recommends the following tools and tips that can help preserve more than just leftovers:

• Flash Freezing: Flash freezers are cutting-edge appliances that rapidly freeze, thaw, or proof food while preserving flavor, texture, and nutrients. While currently more common in commercial settings, home versions are likely to be available soon, perfect for serious meal preppers and food enthusiasts.
• Vacuum Sealers: Vacuum sealing creates an airtight barrier, preventing freezer burn and significantly extending the life of stored food. It’s ideal for prepping proteins, storing batch-cooked meals, and even marinating. While handheld versions are available, high-end kitchens are now incorporating built-in models for a more seamless experience.
• Quick Cool/Freeze Modes: Many modern refrigerators offer quick-cooling or rapid-freeze modes. These are especially helpful for quickly chilling groceries that have been in a warm car—just activate the mode before you leave for the store. Some models even allow you to turn on this setting remotely via a Wi-Fi-connected app, so your fridge is ready when you walk in the door.

Indoor Composting: Less Icky Than it Sounds

Of course, no matter how much you do to preserve and use all the food you buy, you’ll always have items such as banana peels, coffee grounds, avocado pits, onion skin and more that you’ll need to discard. While an outdoor compost heap could be ideal, it may not be practical if you live in an apartment or condo or have a small yard that you want to maximize for relaxing and socializing.

Plus, when it’s icy, snowy or rainy, a trip to the farthest reaches of your yard to your compost heap or a community compost site may not be the thing you want to do most.

The idea of gathering your potentially odiferous discards inside your home may not sound appealing, but an electronic indoor composter can be a solution if you have the space for one and can overlook the drawbacks. Electronic indoor composters cost from under $200 to more than $2,500 depending on the size and features.

A less costly alternative is a simple bin with a tight-fitting lid that you can use to gather food scraps and compostable items to store them until you take them to a community compost site. Whether that works for you depends on whether you have room in your kitchen or garage to store the bin someplace where you can’t smell the food waste until you can dump it.

Electronic versions come in a variety of sizes and some work better than others, especially on food waste that can be difficult to compost such as tough banana skins.

Most have a carbon filter to reduce odors and will need an electrical outlet for power, which could limit where you can store it. They typically work by heating and dehydrating the food waste. Some can be noisy as they break down the food waste, and, of course, since they use electricity, that adds to your home’s energy use.

Both Wired and House Beautiful reviewers like the Reencle indoor composter, which currently sells for about $400. It’s about the size of a small trash can and has an automatic lid and a carbon filter on the back to reduce odors. This compactor requires starting with a microbe mix that breaks down the food waste, but if the process stops working, you’ll get a rancid odor and you’ll need to dry it out or pump air through the filter.

Wired’s reviewer says the BeyondGreen Kitchen Composter, which also retails for about $400, uses natural bacteria and heats and stirs food waste to break it down. However, this product can be smellier, so it’s better to store it in a garage or basement than in your kitchen.

Whether you choose an indoor composter depends on the scraps you generate, whether you have a garden where you’ll use the compost, or the availability of a community compost heap, which could be a less costly solution.

Meal Kits and Food Waste

Getting your ingredients–especially the exact amount you’ll need per person, per meal–delivered with a meal kit like Home Chef or Hello Fresh can be convenient. They can be costly, too, although they may be less than getting fully cooked meals delivered or buying supplies at the grocery store that you don’t use. But what about their environmental impact? All that packaging plus the transportation from door-to-door adds up – or does it?

Researchers have found that meal kits have a smaller carbon footprint than grocery shopping. The 2019 study found that greenhouse gas emissions for a meal with ingredients bought at a grocery store were 33% higher than that same meal made with a comparable prepackaged kit.

Food waste is typically 38% less with a meal kit compared to buying the same ingredients at the grocery store, according to the Journal of Cleaner Production. An internal study by Home Chef found that 70% of customers lowered their household food waste since ordering Home Chef’s meals. An internal study by Hello Fresh found that on average, their customers reduced their food waste by at least 25%. Meal kit packaging can be recycled – and Hello Fresh says their carbon emissions are 31% lower than a typical grocery store because they have a shorter supply chain.