Why You Should Stop Throwing Out Leftover Bread Crust

One of the more frustrating aspects of fixing your child a sandwich is finding the crust (and a good chunk of the actual sandwich) left behind on the plate. So the next time you make the kiddo a sandwich, you neatly cut off the crust to prevent any of the sandwich meat and cheese from being wasted. However, under both scenarios, you are left with pieces of bread crust that you just end up throwing in the garbage.

Next, comes the guilt from knowing you are wasting food. Feeding America reports that every year in the United States, 108 billion pounds of food is wasted that costs $408 billion. Also, Feeding America states that in America, about 40% of all food ends up in the garbage. 

In addition to not wanting to add to the amount of wasted food, there are reasons to eat the crust, like how it contains antioxidants, according to How Stuff Works.  Research has shown that antioxidants can help to fight cancer, and the fiber that is in the crust can help to prevent colon cancer, according to How Stuff Works. According to Science Daily, when bread is baked, an antioxidant called pronyl-lysine is created. It is eight times more abundant in the crust than in the rest of the loaf, per Science Daily. 

Repurposing bread crusts

There is something easy that can be done to save those bread crusts from the garbage can while also bringing antioxidants and fiber back into your diet. All that needs to be done is to turn the bread crusts into bread crumbs, recommends Meg Bickford, executive chef at Commander's Palace in New Orleans, as reported by People

Bickford said that she takes the crusts from the sandwiches and puts them in a plastic bag in the freezer to be used at a later time for bread crumbs or even a simple bread pudding.

To make bread crumbs, Wide Open Eats says tear the leftover bread into small pieces and place on a baking sheet in a single layer before putting the sheet in an oven that has been preheated to 350 degrees F. Bake until the bread pieces are completely dried and a light golden brown color, which usually takes about 15 minutes, according to Wide Open Eats. Stir the crumbs every few minutes while cooking.

Use those bread crumbs to coat and fry up some of the other foods your children may need a little help in eating, such as chicken and fish, which The Daily Meal lists as two of the 15 foods that kids hate to eat.