The TikTok Trend That Will Help You Eliminate Food Waste

The life hacks that you learn from TikTok can make you frustrated with the American education system. We learned calculus, which rarely applies in real life, but we didn't learn that there's a filter in the dishwasher that needs to be cleaned? There are also valuable tips about how to reduce food waste, which saves you money and the guilt of throwing away that pack of lettuce every week. TikToker @shelbizleee recommends keeping your greens in a container with a napkin on top so that they don't get all slimy and gross (and so you don't have an excuse to not eat them).

The TikToker also recommends utilizing your freezer to reduce food waste, and Medical News Today also recommends that, especially for items that you only use a small quantity of at a time, like fresh herbs. It may surprise you how many foods freeze well, and one TikToker, @lagomchef, has made their whole page about experimenting with freezing different foods and showing people how to use them. One video, which featured a notoriously finicky root, went especially viral with nearly 1 million views.

Freezing ginger makes it last longer and it's easier to grate into dishes

You may have reached for a knob of ginger that you thought we bought recently only to find that it has shriveled into a wrinkly, dry disaster. To prevent this, you can keep ginger in your freezer for about 6 months (via Insider). If you leave it on the counter, however, prime ginger time is cut down to a week. Freezing ginger prevents unnecessary waste and also makes it easier to grate into dishes. In the comments of their ginger freezing hack video, @lagomchef writes that they have been a chef for over 15 years and just now learned this.

The TikToker demonstrated that when you try to grate ginger that hasn't been frozen, a lot of the fibers get stuck in the grater, which is wasteful. If you put the ginger in the freezer, it grates much cleaner and "looks like Parmesan cheese" according to the chef. "I'm sorry, that is single handedly the best tip I've seen on this app. I use so much ginger in recipes!! Thank you," one user said. Other commenters recommended freezing chiles for similar use, and the chef tried it out in another TikTok with a giddy reaction.