During their busy lives, people do not pay much attention to the expiry dates (有效期) on the food in their fridges. As a result, a lot of food is forgotten about and wasted. However, according to a recent research, being aware of (意识到) what you throw away can help you waste less.

The researchers measured (计量) food waste from 154 families across the UK. Half of these families in the research were asked to list the fruits and vegetables they had bought and their expiry dates. The families stuck the list on the fridge door and received a text message every day telling them to check it. The other half did not have to make a list and did not receive text messages. Over a six-week period, all the families were asked to measure their food waste at the end of each week.

The researchers were surprised to find that making lists and getting texts made little difference to how much food was wasted. However, each family in the research wasted less food—about 0.1 kilo a week.

The researchers carried on the research for six months, and found that all the families continued to waste less food. This shows that just measuring food waste encourages people to pay closer attention to it and throw less away.