203 Million Pounds Of Turkey Meat Wasted Each Thanksgiving, Group Says
(CBS) -- Before you start cooking your Thanksgiving feast, you may want to re-evaluate the menu.
The Natural Resources Defense Council estimates Americans throw out 203 million pounds of turkey each Thanksgiving.
Danielle Nierenberg wants encourages you to stop and think about how much food you really need to serve today.
She's a former Chicagoan and president of the non-profit Food Tank, which aims to reduce food waste.
"Our eyes are often bigger than our stomach when we're purchasing food, especially when we want to be generous during the holidays," Nierenberg says.
Nierenberg suggests using an online portion calculator to figure out how much to cook and to really take care to preserve leftovers so they're safe to eat later.
Other the other hand, she's not bound to expiration dates.
She says they're only federal mandated for baby food. She encourages people to trust their gut on whether it's ok to eat items that have gone past them.