Sustainable grocery shopping tips

Small sustainable choices made during each food shop can contribute to a significant decrease in your environmental footprint.

Bring your own waste-saving items to the shops

Keep reusable fabric shopping and produce bags with you to avoid single-use bags. An easy sustainable option, this reduces waste and means supermarkets need to supply fewer bags.

Paper has less of an impact than plastic, but dyes can still pollute the environment. The material also doesn’t biodegrade in landfill.

When buying fish or meat, bring containers from home. This can help eliminate packaging waste from products that may be difficult to source without plastic.

Shop locally

Switch to buying locally from independent butchers, fishmongers, or greengrocers, rather than supermarkets. Direct contact with customers makes smaller businesses more likely to fulfil requests for low-waste choices.

Local produce travels fewer miles, meaning less emissions and fewer resources are expended. Reduced travel times may also result in produce being fresher and riper.

Money spent with local businesses is directly and indirectly invested in the local economy. This can provide funds for green initiatives such as improved recycling facilities.

If transportation is problematic, use delivery services. They can cover multiple homes with one vehicle, rather than dispatching individual vehicles to each home.

Eat fresh and seasonally

Fresh food is more nutritious and reduces reliance on mass-produced, pre-prepared food. Where convenience is needed, cooking in bulk and freezing can provide quick, easy meals without packaging waste.

Vegetables grown in season require fewer chemicals, and less water or artificial light, as they’re adapted to conditions.

Farmers’ markets and organic veg delivery services often provide seasonal goods. You could also try growing your own.

In addition, ‘wonky’ veg boxes will provide access to edible food rejected by supermarkets due to an unusual cosmetic appearance.

Plastic packaging is a source of non-biodegradable waste

Avoid plastic packaging. Buy in bulk to cut down on total packaging or choose alternatives – such as boxed dried goods or loose fruit – instead of those in plastic wrap.

You could also try making recipes from goods in cans or jars. Aluminium can be recycled, and glass can be reused.

Considerate consumerism

We’ve become accustomed to easily accessible luxuries such as chocolate and coffee. However, these products travel long distances. Their manufacture can also involve damaging environmental and trade practices in the country of origin.

Check products for seals certifying ethical growth, manufacture or transport, such as the Rainforest Alliance or Soil Association.

Avoiding palm oil is also a meaningful step towards embracing sustainability, as it helps to mitigate the damage to fragile ecosystems that its production can cause. Check product ingredients, and choose options free from palm oil.

Make your own meals

Mass-produced food is often wasteful, as supermarkets tend to incorrectly estimate customer demand. Making your own everyday products saves resources and reduces food and packaging waste.

Buy flour, sugar, and other baking ingredients at zero-waste bulk shops, or in paper bags for home baking. If you don’t have time, try a local baker. Bring a reusable cloth bag with you. Without plastic wrapping, bread will keep better. The plastic traps moisture, which aids mould growth.

Reduce meat and dairy consumption

If you don’t want to switch entirely to a plant-based diet, reduce how often you consume meat – especially red meat.

Try to use all of the meat produce. For example, you could make stock from the bones.

In addition, dairy alternatives and recipes without cheese can help reduce reliance on milk- and egg-based products. Cheap dairy produce may be sourced via resource-intensive farming methods that result in the mistreatment of animals.

Reduce food waste

Avoid wasting food by overbuying. Purchase according to the quantities listed in recipes. Soup or stocks can use multiple vegetables, if you have leftovers.

Save seeds to roast for snacks or for growing your own produce. Support green initiatives and join a local food scrap scheme. Alternatively, start a compost heap to utilise food scraps and compostable products.

Choose sustainable products

When consuming your meals at home or on the go, natural, compostable, non-plastic products such as wooden cutlery or reusable bamboo straws can be used in place of plastic utensils. However, proper disposal of biodegradable products is important for sustainability measures to be impactful.

To get a closer look at the complete range of environmentally friendly and sustainable tableware that FOOGO green offers, visit our online store.