Expert reveals the fridge fail costing Aussies $4000 a year

Shocking new research has revealed 94 per cent of Australians organise their fridges based on ingredients, or not at all, and 53 per cent throw out food from the fridge at least once a week.

This results in about $3800 of groceries per household going to waste every year and contributes to the nation’s shocking annual 7.3 million tonne food waste disgrace.

But there is a simple way to reduce this sobering statistic, according to professional organiser Gemma Quinn.

She is urging Australians to start organising their fridge based on meals, rather than ingredients.

“When you organise your fridge based on ingredients, it makes it harder to visualise a delicious meal in front of you,” she said.

“You have to mentally connect one ingredient to another in order to see your next meal in your head. It adds to the mental load of cooking and can suck both time and energy.

“My number one hack is to organise your fridge based on meals as opposed to types of ingredients. From the moment you open the fridge door you’ll see breakfast, lunch, dinner and snacks staring right at you.”

Another 36 per cent of Australians waste too much time in the kitchen trying to decide what to cook, according to the national research by HelloFresh.

Ms Quinn said organising the fridge by meals will also speed this up.

The research found 55 to 65 year olds are the least organised when it comes to the kitchen fridge, but 24 to 35 year olds spend the most time procrastinating about what to cook. The younger age group also throws out the most food.

Despite these habits many Australians want to be more organised in the kitchen, with 30 per cent hoping to make meals quicker while 37 per cent are striving to reduce food waste.

Other hacks include having healthy snacks at eye level and packing things in clear containers.