# Most often discarded food item **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [February 4, 2006, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962 "2006-02-04T04:42:43Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 4:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962/1 "2006-02-04T04:42:43Z")
It’s the weekend and it’s been a tough week (isn’t it always?), so I’ve decended to the depths of mundanity for this one. Which is the food itme which you most commonly buy and then never eat? For me, it’s the avacado. Bought loads down the years. Thrown most of them away. Love them, but for some reason, almost never get round to slicing it open, taking out that stone and gouging out the contents. So simple a procedure, and yet - for whatever reason - so rarely done. By me. What’s your nomination? And what is it that causes the slip twixt cupboard and lip? ---
**Author:** ![Tyr](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e56c9b/32.png) [@Tyr](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tyr)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 4:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962/2 "2006-02-04T04:45:30Z")
For me its butter, I live alone and just don’t use that much butter. I usually go through about a quarter of a stick at the most before it starts to go bad. ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962/3 "2006-02-04T04:49:04Z")
Ever thought of investing in a fridge?! ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962/4 "2006-02-04T04:52:55Z")
Sometimes it’s bread. I have very efficient friends who freeze theirs, thaw out what they want in the microwave, and never have a problem. As for me – I’m the backyard sparrows’ friend. 🙂 ---
**Author:** ![Emily\_Litella](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emily_litella/32/3370_2.png) [@Emily\_Litella](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emily_Litella)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 4:53am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962/5 "2006-02-04T04:53:03Z")
I have to go with lettuce. I plan to eat salads; then I eat the tomatos, cucumber, carrots, scallions, all the good stuff that goes into a decent salad _first_ and then the idea of lettuce mixed in doesn’t thrill me. I’ve even bought green and red, even young spinach leaves, but it still seens like so much rabbit food to me. Somewhere a guinea pig (in China) is going hungry… ---
**Author:** ![pendgwen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/3da27b/32.png) [@pendgwen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pendgwen)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 4:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962/6 "2006-02-04T04:54:23Z")
Green salad. I keep buying it because I have this perpetual goal to improve my eating habits. I keep throwing it out because I so often fail at this goal. ---
**Author:** ![Emily\_Litella](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/emily_litella/32/3370_2.png) [@Emily\_Litella](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Emily_Litella)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 4:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962/7 "2006-02-04T04:55:06Z")
> [@roger thornhill](#): > > Ever thought of investing in a fridge?! Even if refrigerated, after a while it gets rancid. I learned this the hard way. ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962/8 "2006-02-04T05:01:23Z")
> [@SeeNoReason](#): > > Even if refrigerated, after a while it gets rancid. I learned this the hard way. Yeah, well, it would, you living in a swamp and all. Next! ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 5:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962/9 "2006-02-04T05:04:32Z")
Lettuce! Lettuce…Gee, how could I forget lettuce? Maybe I just wanted to impress you with my rather exotic taste in comestibles. I think we have a winner. ---
**Author:** ![Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/regallag_the_axe/32/445_2.png) [@Regallag\_The\_Axe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Regallag_The_Axe)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 5:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962/10 "2006-02-04T05:07:09Z")
For my apartmentmates and I it’d have to be potatoes. We buy them with all the best intentions but they generally manage to go bad before we can eat the lot of them. ---
**Author:** ![Large\_Marge](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/50afbb/32.png) [@Large\_Marge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Large_Marge)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 6:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962/11 "2006-02-04T06:09:41Z")
Yogurt and sour cream. And, as many in this thread have said, lettuce. I just can’t get to it fast enough. ---
**Author:** ![Campion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/4491bb/32.png) [@Campion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Campion)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962/12 "2006-02-04T06:15:47Z")
Bananas. I’m very finicky when it comes to bananas. They must be yellow, with perhaps the merest _hint_ of green. But once the little brown spots start appearing, the banana flavor simply is too pronounced. So I have all these high hopes when I buy bananas, but they turn far too quickly. (And, yes, I bought bananas at the store tonight; anyone want to bet whether they’ll be consumed before they turn a nasty spotted shade?) ---
**Author:** ![dalej42](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/67e7ee/32.png) [@dalej42](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dalej42)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 6:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962/13 "2006-02-04T06:37:47Z")
I’ll never get through a dozen eggs. ---
**Author:** ![roger\_thornhill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/d9b06d/32.png) [@roger\_thornhill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/roger_thornhill)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 9:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962/14 "2006-02-04T09:24:20Z")
**Campers** , unreal. Totally unreal. Am with you down to the last (or first) brown dot. I’ve made it a rule in the family now that one buys no more than 5 bananas at a time, because I was getting fed up with chucking them out. I also buy them myself at work for work, and the supermarket, knowing how perishable they are, sell them in as big job lots as possible, binding them in bunches of no less than 7 with tape. No problemo. I just tear through the tape (nails not so hot, so had to use the teeth last time - pleased they’re still working when you get to my age) and pull off the three I need for the next 48 hours. In this cool weather, they’ll keep that long. But you really have to plan it like a military campaign to ensure a) you don’t bin any and b) you don’t end up eating two when you only want to eat one. Keep it rolling - this is proving totally absorbing. **AndyPolley** , what are you chucking off the Brooklyn Bridge? ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 9:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962/15 "2006-02-04T09:31:08Z")
Milk. Hands down. I don’t really like it, except for on cereal. And I don’t eat cereal often enough to drink the whole carton. It’s almost impossible to find smaller cartons of 2%, so I often end up throwing away a quart or more of milk. ---
**Author:** ![don\_t\_ask](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@don\_t\_ask](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/don_t_ask)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 9:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962/16 "2006-02-04T09:32:54Z")
> [@Campion](#): > > Bananas. I’m very finicky when it comes to bananas. They must be yellow, with perhaps the merest _hint_ of green. But once the little brown spots start appearing, the banana flavor simply is too pronounced. So I have all these high hopes when I buy bananas, but they turn far too quickly. (And, yes, I bought bananas at the store tonight; anyone want to bet whether they’ll be consumed before they turn a nasty spotted shade?) Exactly. Last time I bought bananas I got 3 because they looked like they would last days. I only had the one I ate when I bought them. Luckily I gave the other 2 to a visitor. From now on I am buying one at a time. ---
**Author:** ![Lsura](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7993a0/32.png) [@Lsura](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lsura)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 11:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962/17 "2006-02-04T11:16:19Z")
I rarely buy bananas now because for the same reasons that others have mentioned - if they’re too ‘banana-ey’ tasting, they turn my stomach. I bought 3 the other day at a near-perfect level of ripeness - a little too much green to eat right away, but I figured that would let me eat them before they got too ripe for my liking. I have to finish them today and tomorrow, or else they’ll go overripe. But for me, the thing I probably throw out most often is bread - I just can’t get through a loaf before it starts molding (which is why I buy about the least expensive that I can, at $.89 for white and $1.49 for wheat). I know I can keep it in the fridge longer, but I always forget to stick it in there after I make my sandwich in the morning. ---
**Author:** ![FairyChatMom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fairychatmom/32/21906_2.png) [@FairyChatMom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FairyChatMom)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 1:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962/18 "2006-02-04T13:07:16Z")
Sacks o’salad. They go on sale, so I’ll buy two. We’ll have a nice salad for dinner the night I bring it home. Then the other sack sits in the crisper drawer till it’s mush. But it was _ON SALE_!!! ---
**Author:** ![gardentraveler](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gardentraveler/32/3576_2.png) [@gardentraveler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gardentraveler)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 1:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962/19 "2006-02-04T13:23:08Z")
I believe the correct answer is lettuce. I make it through just about anything else pretty well, but lettuce…what **FCM** said. GT ---
**Author:** ![WhyNot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/c77e96/32.png) [@WhyNot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyNot)\ **Post date:** [February 4, 2006, 2:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962/20 "2006-02-04T14:05:48Z")
Cilantro. I only ever need a tablespoon or two of chopped cilantro, but they only sell it in rather large bunches. I’m always throwing out wilty, yellowed cilantro. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/most-often-discarded-food-item/342962.md?page=2)