As a lot of people on this thread have said I also try to not waste any food, unused vegetable scrapes get frozen and used to make stock, any that go bad go in the compost/garden. That said I seem to buy carrots and on a regular basis, forget they are in there and end up tossing them in the compost whole….
I also ran my extra refrigerator in the garage at low 30’s F. So when I installed a DIY kegerator in it and forgot that I had it set colder than the one in my kitchen the results were a frozen pony keg :person_facepalming: and no 
for a full week as it took a long time to thaw it out.
I buy most of our produce at a shop that sells everything rejected by the regular grocery stores. Most of it is half or a third of the normal price. And most of it will require sorting. So probably 10% of it goes to waste but I dont really count that as my waste. They sell watermelons that are about half the size of the grocery store watermelons, but they’re only a buck a piece. I’ve gotten strawberries for 50 cents a pound but you have to use them quick because they are at the end of their shelf life. All said and done after sorting I pay about half of what it would cost at the grocery store so it’s a win for me.
Now in the summer a lot of my garden food goes to waste, a couple squash plants will produce about twice what I use and the tomatoes seem to all ripen at once. And it’s usually when I dont have time to preserve them.
Swiss chard
A cow-orker used to bring in stuff from his garden, as it was Just Too Much.
I remember grabbing a few eggplants, then wondering “wtf am I gonna do with these??”, so I just peeled ’em, diced ’em, and tried frying ’em. They were actually pretty good in omelettes. Definitely “there” but not influencing the taste in any bad way.
I miss the whole bag o’ het-peppers, though.
You work with a cow?
Lightbringer has interesting friends!
No, silly, someone who orks cows, of course.
Fruit has been mentioned. I was terrible for letting things get over-ripe, but recently I’ve been dropping a couple of bananas, blueberries, strawberries, old apples, grapes etc into the blender with oat milk or cows milk, whatever, and whizzing it into a smoothie. Often add a load of milled linseed and oats (good for IBS and cholesterol).
It’s a slightly ‘disappointing’ breakfast in that there’s not much chewing, you don’t really feel you’ve eaten, but it works well. Peanut butter and a bit of ice cream added in helps a lot.
Other than that, I end up throwing out sliced meats. I’m a lover of ham and salami, but I’m the only one who is and as it’s sliced already, it doesn’t keep as well as a chunk. Freezer food gets chucked too, that left over pork chop or frosted over pack of burgers. The whole Covid thing hasn’t helped, there’s so much more prepacked fruit and veg now. We end up buying 6 apples when we only want 2.
Deli meat for me is an immediate-eat dealy.
Turkey, I’ll only eat the same day I buy it; even the next day it starts getting a stank to it and is quite obviously not as fresh as just-sliced. Day after that it’ll feel slimy and have a pretty nasty stale stank to it.
Ham, I’ll stretch that by only 1 day, as it, too, starts getting that rainbow-oil-slick look to it and starts feeling slimy.
Salami, etc., I can keep a few days. Liverwurst, too. That’s great with slices of onion and tomato, especially on a hamburger/dinner roll.
Cheese usually keeps a week or so. Murrcan, Münster, gouda, cheddar, etc. Big blocks of cheddar, like Costo brand, last nigh forever if unopened, ’though they get teeny crystalline “warts” on ’em after a while (harmless).
Freezerstoff, as long as I keep it wrapped tightly, it ain’t too bad.
Most of my freezer is either untouched-in-the-package butter, mozzarella, farmer-cheese, bacon, and some hotdogs, and recently, a bunch of creamed-spinach that went on sale.
I try to not go too crazy on meats, because I don’t want them staying for more’n a month tops. Like right now, I think I got 2 packages of some kind of chicken. Made ribs last week that were already aging out. The meat was good, but the fatty parts had an “off” smell. Haven’t been in a “meat” mood in a long time, except for deli meats.
Chopmeat, I’ll treat like deli meats, and only use it immediately and the next day.
And yeah, I got another bag o’ apples that’s already started going mooshy, so unless I use ’em up FAST I’ll end up tossing most of ’em. 
Oh, had a bag of baby-potatoes that for whatever reason got stinky and rotted. Untouched, unopened. Maybe 1-2 were damaged and started rotting?, nfi. The stank was enough to make me gag, so the whole bag went right into the garbage. Even if most of ’em were still good, just the proximity probably would’ve left a nasty stank on ’em.
LB I had a bag of baby red potatoes do the same thing. It was horrible
LB and DJ, those were probably bruised during transport. Bruised produce of any kind does not preserve well at all. When I sort my purchases I don’t buy them even if the plan is to use them the same day, and no matter the discount either. It’s just not worth it when you’re essentially buying overpriced compost mulch.
We prefer to not buy produce that is pre-bagged, but if we do the first thing we do at home is to open the bag, inspect and sort the items for damage, and place them in preferential order of consumption.
As for deli meats, we haven’t bought any for many years. It seems to me, though, that if they don’t last at least three days I would switch to a different deli or check how/where I store them.
These were Green Giant, I think, in the prepackaged bags (LDPE with those little holes). I’ve had them before, all were good, just scrub them clean, cut in half, brush with oil, sprinkle with salt, then roast like french-fries. That’s what I wanted to use up the last of an open container of sour cream.
But yeah, all it’d take is one to be bashed up, go rotten, then everything else goes in a hurry.
I did once get regular potatoes on the cheap where a few of them had gashes like from a trowel or shovel. Needed to cut off the tainted parts, but they were mostly good.
I once got a container of shrooms (white button) that looked perfect when I bought them, but by the next day (!!) were all slimy and gag-inducing.
Yep, that’s what I do with bags of lemons/limes if I can’t get them loose, but I guess I gotta start doing triage on other stuff, too.
i've started doing this with potatoes. Just go thru the bag while you're grabbing what you need and squeeze them ...hard ones get to stay and anything remotely soft gets pulled to use first . i haven't had that one kill a dozen in years now . I pulled two just the other day now sitting on the counter ready to go .
I freeze a lot of things before they get a chance to go bad and was on a bit of a drying kick but have decided to stop with the bread crumbs or croutons since the kitchen probably doesn't need more bread mold spores :P
My brothers comment cracked me up about salsa not being salsa without something growing on top of it .
Is jelly supposed to last in the fridge for twenty five years ? ..Who needs 7 kinds of pickles . The amount of pickles in the fridge is equal to the thermal mass of 14 frozen bowling balls ...
Does your refrigerator look like this ?
or.... like this ?
Cantaloupe. I love the stuff, but it’s a chore to prep. Cutting it, removing seeds, and then there’s the large quantity of it you then have to pack up and put in the refrigerator. I’ll put it off… it’ll ripen… start getting soft spots, so I put in the refrigerator. Sometimes it gets tucked behind something and I forget that it’s there. I once had a cantaloupe that went completely “freeze dried” by sitting in the refrigerator for a few months. Was a little smaller than a tennis ball. Actually looked like some weird twisted piece of driftwood. I took photos of it, but can’t find them now (must be a on a backup drive).
I sometimes forget to break open pomegranate. And while it’s more tedious to extract all the fruit seeds, it’s so much easier to store.
just threw away some chewing gum.
does that count? is it real food?
we do not swallow it.
It’s like toothpaste. It resides in your mouth for a short while… then you spit it out. You don’t swallow it. 
I have gum from the 1930’s
Honey … does anyone need 3 jars of honey when they only eat two ounces a year ?
Chutney … who bought all the chutney?
How long does it take for hot sauce to go bad ?
It’s pretty much the same stuff , some of it
Just never gets tossed out
Does anyone really like orange marmalade ?
Chick filet sauce is good until you get a bunch of it .
Banana pepper rings from 1980?