Somewhere between the convenience of supermarkets and the chaos of everyday life, I lost sight of what food really is. One day I read about “loss of food identity,” and it made me reflect.
WHEN FOOD BECOMES JUST…STUFF
Supermarkets always have everything: pumpkin in June, strawberries in January, three types of hummus in six kinds of packaging. It’s easy to forget that food is grown, not just stocked. And when something’s always there, it starts to feel disposable.
That’s what some experts call a loss of food identity: when food becomes just another consumer good, detached from effort, season, or place. Consumers and food producers get disconnected.
And I get it. Life is busy. It’s not realistic for everyone to grow tomatoes on their balcony and churn butter in the kitchen (although I definitely recommend trying it out, it teaches you so much about patience and rewards). But when food becomes faceless, it also becomes easy to waste.
So I started wondering: Is there a way to rebuild even a tiny bit of that connection, without overhauling your life?
WHAT HELPED ME WASTE LESS
Learning more changed how I saw food
I grew up in a Hungarian-Romanian household where food was highly respected. We ate seasonally, shopped locally, and didn’t buy more until the fridge was empty. Whenever we bought chicken, beef, or lamb, we used all parts. And it’s not that like my mom was a very creative chef - she was just following traditions, things she also learnt from her mother and grandmother. No waste, just tradition.
But even with that upbringing, I fell into wasteful patterns as an adult.
What helped me snap out of it? Getting informed. When I started researching food waste for OH, a potato!, I was shocked by what I found:
Household food waste is the #1 global source of food waste, not restaurants, not farms.
Young adults (18–34) waste more food than older generations, not out of carelessness, but often due to unstable schedules, less experience, or lack of time.
Since the pandemic, we’re wasting more staple foods like bread, potatoes, and chicken.
1 in 5 shopping bags ends up in the bin.
The problem with household waste is that waste at this level means wasting all the resources used to produce food, including water, energy, farmland, and transportation. If food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases, after China and the United States. In Germany, avoiding food waste could theoretically save approximately 2.6 million hectares of agricultural land, representing nearly 15% of the country's total arable area. Food waste accounts for approximately 25% of the global water supply in the form of uneaten food, resulting in $172 billion in wasted water.
It was hard to unsee.
Behind every tossed tomato is wasted land, energy, water - and effort.
That knowledge gave me a new kind of motivation: not guilt, but curiosity and respect.
Planning made it easier (hello, ideas for meal planning, we see you)
It’s not like we plan to waste food. We just shop without a plan.
I’ve done it all:
Grocery shopping while hungry
Buying random stuff on promo
Getting inspired by a new recipe and buying five ingredients I’ll never use again
Getting inspired in the supermarket by new ingredients and an innocent desire to try something new out
Forgetting what I already had at home
Ordering takeout because I was too tired to figure it out
So yeah, I've been there.
Building OH, a potato! made me rethink that loop. Now I (mostly) shop with a rough meal planning weekly menu in mind. I check what’s in the fridge before leaving. I buy less. And weirdly? I eat better and waste way less. Having a loose recipe weekly planner helped me actually use more of what I already have. I stopped panicking about lunch and dinner since I had planned them before, or had a place to look for lunch recipe ideas or quick dinner ideas.
I’ve been doing this for two years now. It’s not perfect, but it’s a habit that stuck.
SO, WHAT CAN YOU DO?
This isn’t about guilt or perfection. And I’m definitely not here to say you must do X, Y, or Z to save the planet.
But if food waste bugs you even a little, if you’ve ever thrown out a full veggie drawer and felt a pang, maybe try this:
Scan your fridge before you shop
Make a mini meal plan wih grocery list (even just 2–3 meals)
Start learning where your food actually comes from and how you can extend its freshness
And honestly, if you're anything like me, an app helps. The OH, a potato! app gives you an easy dinner planner - no guilt, just “eat what you already have” vibes. It helps you make a grocery shopping checklist, and even acts like the best app to store recipes.
REBUILDING FOOD IDENTITY STARTS SMALL
Rebuilding your connection to food doesn’t mean growing your own potatoes. It starts with paying a little more attention to what you already have.
It’s not about being perfect. It’s about remembering that food isn’t just stuff. It’s life, effort, and stories, and that makes it worth respecting.