Orga­niz­ing your pantry is no small feat. No mat­ter how dili­gent I think I am with my FIFO (First In First Out) rota­tion I always seem to find some­thing that’s expired. Other than a hand­ful of expired items our pantries can also hold many unhealthy foods and ingre­di­ents.  The pantry is a great place to start clean­ing for your health. So here are a few things to remem­ber when you clean out your pantry…

Check Expi­ra­tion Dates– The first thing to do is check expi­ra­tion dates on all pack­aged items. Throw out any foods with expired dates.  If you like to stock up on bulk items it is impor­tant to date your jars when you fill them.  These are typ­i­cally the items we most for­get about.  Here are a few to remember:

• Olive oil is full of healthy polyphe­nols that help fight can­cer, how­ever these com­pounds dete­ri­o­rate after about 6 months.
• Dried herbs and spices can have many health ben­e­fits like anti-inflammatory turmeric or cin­na­mon that can reg­u­late blood sug­ars.  How­ever, expo­sure to light and oxy­gen decreases their health ben­e­fits and flavor.
• Flours and grains are full of fiber and unsat­u­rated fats but can go ran­cid after about 3 months.
• Nuts con­tain healthy fats and omega-3s but go ran­cid in 3–6 months.

Read Labels– Ask your­self “Is this real food or is this a food prod­uct?”  Look hard at the food labels in your pantry. If pack­aged foods have more than six ingre­di­ents, then it is prob­a­bly a food prod­uct, regard­less of the healthy label­ing. This is a good rule of thumb to fol­low when pur­chas­ing and stock­ing foods.  Most pack­aged foods con­tain large amounts of sugar (includ­ing HFCS), sodium, arti­fi­cial col­or­ings and addi­tives, and preservatives.  

Foods to Throw Out– There are loads of com­mon pantry items that con­tain empty calories-or foods with lit­tle to no nutri­ents but high in calo­ries.  If you can­not quite part with an item, at least put it on a higher shelf out of reach and eye­sight.  This will keep the temp­ta­tion from con­sum­ing it to a min­i­mum. Get rid of foods high in sugar and high fruc­tose corn syrup.  Com­mon foods are cook­ies, cere­als, soda, ketchup, tomato sauce, break­fast bars, and desserts. Also, rid your pantry of fats.  Many pantry foods are high in sat­u­rated and trans fats.  For exam­ple, peanut but­ter, chips, desserts, but­ter pop­corn, cheesy crack­ers, and prepack­aged meals. For great alter­na­tives with no high fruc­tose corn syrup check out a Whole­foods in your area.

Uti­lize all shelves- I know that sounds obvi­ous, but you’d be sur­prised how much we cram in the eye-level areas, neglect­ing the lower shelves. Put kid-friendly snacks and meal options there; small boxes of cereal, crack­ers, fruit snacks, or fruit juice boxes can keep you in bed for a few more min­utes on Sat­ur­day mornings.

Orga­nize right away– (This is where FIFO come into play) When you bring new items home, make sure you put the new canned goods and boxes of snacks behind the older items. This will help you use up items before they expire, and it also means you’re reg­u­larly going through what you have — which makes it eas­ier to call up the con­tents of your pantry when you’re tempted to buy (yet another) jar of roasted red pep­pers on your next shop­ping trip.

Use air­tight containers- Make sure you have stor­age con­tain­ers for opened items. This keeps food fresher longer, so you don’t end up throw­ing away half a box of that pricey cereal because it’s stale. Choose clear ver­sions so you can see at a glance how much of each item you have left. And don’t feel like you have to make a major invest­ment in match­ing, stack­ing con­tain­ers: Clean, empty jars and take­out soup cups can help you orga­nize nuts, dried fruit, and small sea­son­ing packets.

Put every­thing in its place– Hav­ing a dry goods loca­tion and a soup spot, a space for the kids’ juice boxes, and a place for your husband’s brown-bag lunch snacks can also make your shop­ping trips eas­ier; you don’t need to know exactly how many juice boxes are in the cab­i­net if you know that the space has been look­ing a lit­tle empty.

A Well-Stocked Pantry– The main idea is to stock your home with more fresh fruits and veg­eta­bles and fewer pantry items. But, hav­ing a well-stocked healthy pantry can make meal­times much eas­ier. Fill your pantry with whole grains like brown rice, beans, whole-wheat pas­tas, lentils, and whole-wheat flour.  Have small amounts of herbs and spices so they will remain fresh.  Stock low sodium canned veg­gies and beans.  And when fill­ing the shelves with pack­aged foods make sure to avoid HFCS, trans fats, and lengthy ingre­di­ent lists.

Here is a great healthy pantry starter list from our friends at Whole­foods.