Kitchen Clean Out

Did you know that roughly one third of food produced in the world is lost or wasted? It seems hard to believe, yet I’m sure you’ve been there, staring at your fridge but feeling like you have nothing to eat. As time passes, you have to throw some of it away (or do you?). Or maybe you really want takeout, so you get rid of that breaded chicken you were so excited to make a few days prior (I’m not proud of this). Perhaps you’re perplexed about the ‘sell by’ and ‘use by’ dates, so you think your food has gone bad and you have to pitch it. The amount of food wasted annually is a serious issue, so we’re going to review some tips and tricks to help you organize your kitchen while simultaneously easing your food safety worries and minimizing your footprint on the planet. Let’s get started. Prevent Foodborne Illness How long should you keep your leftovers? The rule of thumb is three to four days after you’ve made or bought it, as long as it’s properly stored in the fridge. If you don’t think you’ll be able to eat your leftovers in that timeframe, freeze them. Your freezer can be extremely useful in maximizing the shelf life of your foods; you can store breads, meats, vegetables and more in there for much longer than in the fridge! This narrow time frame is essential because if they’re kept any longer, you run the risk of food poisoning, which is caused by harmful bacteria that often do not change the appearance or smell of your food. If you aren’t sure how long you’ve had the food, it may be best to throw it out. An important goal to prevent foodborne illness is to minimize the time the food […]

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Healthful Tips for Ordering Groceries Online

Health-related activities are often the first to go when life picks up, and having the time to grocery shop for fresh, nutritious food is no exception. Fortunately, these days shopping for food is more convenient than ever—with online grocery services, all you need is the click of a button. Web-based shopping isn’t a new concept, but the popularity of online grocery ordering has skyrocketed in recent years in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. IFIC’s 2021 annual Food and Health Survey found that 42% of survey respondents shopped online for groceries, representing about a 56% increase from 2019. The survey also found that consumers ages 18–34, people who identify as African American or Black, and parents tend to grocery shop online more frequently than other groups. Although concerns about contracting coronavirus from grocery stores seem to have been an initial reason for the significant increase in online grocery purchases, this trend appears consistent over time. The Benefits of Online Grocery Shopping Convenience With 52% of Americans citing convenience as a top purchase driver, consumers can log into their account, select their items, and designate whether or not they want to pick their groceries up from the store or have them delivered for an additional fee. These options enable consumers to do their shopping from the comfort of their homes while also avoiding long grocery-store lines and stressful parking lots. Easier Budgeting With online grocery shopping, you can easily see the price of each item you select and watch the total cost increase as you build your grocery cart. You can also easily remove items before check-out to stay within your budget, whereas if you’re shopping in person it is more difficult to keep a tally before you reach the check-out line. All this said, it’s important to keep in mind that […]

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Cracking The Code: What Will It Really Take To Make America Eat Healthy?

Have you ever created a seemingly foolproof plan to execute—only to watch it unfold far differently than you expected? As food and nutrition professionals, this is a challenge that many of us face as we work to communicate evidence-based plans and strategies to help consumers advance their goals and improve their health. The overall evidence supporting the basics of a healthy diet pattern is, in many respects, strong. Sure, questions remain. Do individual differences affect how macronutrients impact health? How do tens of thousands of phytonutrients function in the body? There are countless unknowns, and it will take generations to uncover them. Still, the most pressing questions—the ones with immediate, weighty implications—center on how we can effectively enable consumers to initiate, adopt, and sustain healthier eating patterns. Make no mistake, the stakes are rising alongside the increasing rates of overweight, obesity, and chronic diseases. Good nutrition can help mitigate these conditions. Perhaps Charles Duhigg, award-winning journalist and author of The Power of Habit said it best: “The gap between knowing and doing is where most of our food struggles live.” Improving Consumer Communication Through Research One of the keys to helping consumers eat healthier lies in what insights we can gather from consumers directly. This is one of IFIC’s greatest strengths—our relentless pursuit to be a “consumer whisperer” through our research and consumer insights platform. Specifically, we are interested in: Through the annual IFIC Food & Health Survey, monthly IFIC Spotlight Surveys, and a range of research initiatives, IFIC uncovers the beliefs, intentions, and behaviors that shape consumer food and beverage decisions. The IFIC Spotlight Survey: Americans’ Perceptions & Priorities on Healthy Eating offers key insights to understand consumers’ food and health struggles. Understanding Americans’ Top Food & Nutrition Priorities In the Stages of Change Model, pre-contemplation progresses to contemplation, […]

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Americans Grade Themselves Better Than Average For Diet Healthfulness  

New Research Reveals Rising Awareness Of Dietary Guidance, Label Information & Ultraprocessed Foods  (Washington, D.C.) — Americans are paying closer attention to what’s on their plates and demonstrate greater awareness of dietary guidance, label information, and ultraprocessed foods. In fact, according to the 2025 International Food Information Council (IFIC) Food & Health Survey, Americans grade their personal diets higher than the average Americans’ diet.  “With the upcoming release of the MAHA Commission Strategy Report and the 2025-2030 Dietary Guidelines for Americans, food, nutrition and health are poised to take center stage in the national dialogue,” said IFIC President & CEO Wendy Reinhardt Kapsak, MS, RDN. “Before diving into these critical conversations, we must first listen to the consumer: How do they perceive their own eating habits, and how do those perceptions measure up against national recommendations?”  In 2025, 64% of Americans graded their own diet as a B– or better, while only 24% gave the same grade to the average American’s diet. While the grade given to their personal diets has not significantly changed since Americans were last to examine their diets in 2013, there is improvement in the grade given to the average American diet—up 11 percentage points since 2013.   “When we look at the research results, it echoes what we found more than a decade ago—that people perceive their own diets to be healthier than that of the average American. While this trend continues, we also see that Americans see improvement in the diets of their fellow Americans,” said Kris Sollid, RD, IFIC Senior Director of Consumer Insights & Research.   Dietary Guidance Reaches More Americans  Awareness of the Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) continues to grow. In 2025, 44% said they know at least a fair amount about the DGA, nearly double the share from 2009. […]

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Fast Take: Do Ultraprocessed Foods Cause Weight Gain?

While the quantity and quality of processed foods in our diets continue to be a major focus in articles and discussions about diet, the role of ultraprocessed foods is now gaining more attention. A new study published in Cell Metabolism is bringing the topic of ultraprocessed back in the news­­. This time, researchers are examining the link among ultraprocessed foods, calorie intake and weight gain. You may have seen the headlines, but what about the findings? Let’s take a closer look. How Was the Study Done? This study was a randomized control trial (RCT) conducted on twenty healthy people (ten males and ten females). Study participants were between the ages of 18 and 50 (the average age was 31), had a body mass index (BMI) above 18.5 (the average BMI was 27) and had body weights that had remained stable during the six months prior to the study. For 28 days, the participants lived at the National Institutes of Health facility in Bethesda, Maryland, where all their daily food and drinks were provided for them. The study assessed participants’ food intake and the resulting changes in their body weights. Two diets were tested in the study: one consisting entirely of ultraprocessed foods and the other containing only unprocessed foods. The diets were equal in total calories, macronutrients (fat, carbohydrates and protein), sugars, sodium and fiber. To construct the meal plans, study authors used the NOVA classification system, which characterizes food processing in the following four groups: (1) unprocessed or minimally processed foods, (2) processed culinary ingredients, (3) processed foods, and (4) ultraprocessed foods. In other words, the “unprocessed” diet was put together with foods from group 1 and the “ultraprocessed” diet was made with foods from group 4. Randomly, ten people were assigned to begin with the ultraprocessed diet for […]

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A Simple Guide to Plant-Based Eating

There’s no doubt that following a special eating pattern has become increasingly en-vogue in recent years—and the rising popularity of specific diets continues to be backed up by data from IFIC’s annual Food and Health Survey. Among the top growing dietary trends is plant-based eating, and it gets a lot of hype for good reason—scientific research shows that plant-based diets can have many benefits. But here’s the rub: What individuals perceive as “plant-based eating” is highly variable, and the term is not well-defined. Case in point? Some people assume the term “plant-based” is another way to describe vegetarian or vegan eating. In reality, a broad spectrum of plant-based eating exists, and there’s no one way to do it. If you’re looking for tips increase the amount of fruits and vegetables you eat—and maybe even foray into your own version of plant-based eating—use the below guide to understand what plant-based can mean, what its benefits are, and how you can implement this eating style. Defining “Plant-Based” Plant-based diets have existed since ancient times, but the term “plant-based” is just around 20 years old, according to a 2022 review that defines plant-based foods as fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, herbs, spices, and whole grains. Unlike vegan eating, a plant-based or, alternatively, plant-focused, diet does not have to exclude animal foods like red meat, fish, chicken, eggs, and dairy. Rather, a plant-based eater may still enjoy animal foods while deliberately building an overall eating pattern that is rich in or primarily made of plants, but not consisting only of plants. The Benefits of a Plant-based Diet There’s no doubt that many plant-based foods are full of nutrition and health benefits. Just the act of making healthy, plant-based choices can confer better nutrition in the way of more vitamins, minerals, and phytochemicals. But plant-based […]

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What Is Baby-Led Weaning?

Highlights The basics Weaning is the time when infants transition from breastfeeding or infant formula to solid foods. The process is not immediate, but incremental. It’s an important time in the development of a baby’s food preferences and impacts a baby’s eating behaviors and body weight. Traditional weaning involves introducing solid foods to babies via spoon-feeding. In recent years, an alternative approach to introducing complementary foods has gained popularity: baby-led weaning (BLW). The baby-led method was first coined by Gill Rapley in 2005. It’s a type of weaning that involves a baby being offered solid foods for self-feeding, with no help from an adult. This style of infant feeding is meant to encourage self-regulation and simpler feeding experiences due to the baby eating with the family instead of separately. How does it work? In traditional weaning, babies are spoon-fed purees or mashes and are eventually offered the same foods as the family. With baby-led weaning, parents offer baby-sized pieces of whatever the family is eating from the start. With baby-led weaning, parents oversee what foods to offer as well as when and in what form they will be presented. Babies then choose from the parents’ food offerings and decide how much and how quickly to eat. More simply: Baby-led weaning relies on a baby’s innate ability to respond to cues for hunger and satiety and is thought to promote healthy weight gain. However, some health professionals are concerned that baby-led weaning increases the risk of choking and may not provide adequate nutrients to a growing baby. Let’s look at what the evidence says about this alternative feeding approach and whether it might be something worth trying. What does the evidence say? One systematic review critically examined the current evidence about the baby-led weaning approach and assessed whether or not it […]

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Transglutaminase: Safety, Function and Benefit to Our Food Supply

With the rise and fall of nutritional trends, scary news about new food ingredients, and rediscoveries of traditionally used ingredients, some common parts of our food supply often fall in and out of public scrutiny. One such ingredient is Transglutaminase (TG), a naturally occurring enzyme used to develop flavors and enhance texture in food. Unfortunately, its nickname (“meat glue”) does nothing to accurately describe its safety, function and benefit to the consumer.  Today, we will correct a few inaccuracies and share some science to debunk several myths and misperceptions associated with the use of Transglutaminase in our food supply.  First off, what is Transglutaminase (TG)?  TG is an enzyme that occurs naturally in plants, animals, and our bodies. The TG enzyme helps our bodies perform certain tasks such as building muscle, destroying toxins and breaking down food particles during digestion.  What are enzymes and how are they used in food?  In food, enzymes are used to develop flavors, colors and textures and to enhance the palatability of our favorite foods. Enzymes are critical in making cheese, brewing beer, baking bread and extracting fruit juice.  Other functions of the transglutaminase enzyme include:  What do chefs and culinary experts think of Transglutaminase?  While other safely and often used binders include egg whites or gelatin, the use of TG as a binder reflects the evolution of this practice by famous chefs and culinary experts and contributes to the creation of well-known and popular dishes. TG is mostly associated and used with meat, poultry, and seafood products. For example, it can be used to bind smaller cuts of meat together to make a larger cut, or it can be added to imitation crab or sausages to improve texture. It can even be found in bacon-wrapped beef filets that may be served at your favorite restaurant.   Is TG safe?  Yes. TG is safe to consume and has been classified by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) as GRAS (generally recognized as safe) for over 10 years.   The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) has approved the use of TG in meat and poultry products. In addition, the Food Safety and Inspection Service (FSIS) has verified the safety of the enzyme for meat and poultry products that have been developed to reduce sodium or fat content.  To date, TG has proven to be a safe […]

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