That too much food gets thrown away is something we all know by now.
But what can we actually do about it?

Design duo Jana Flohr and Thomas Linssen from Overasselt have come up with a creative solution:

a special quartet card game, presented for the first time during Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven, which starts today.

The pair are showing their Cibus Domus Quartet — Latin for House of Food.

It’s all about fruit, vegetables, and food waste.
Through the cards, players learn in a playful way how to better store fresh produce and get a glimpse into the logic of nature.

The game works just like a traditional quartet (Go Fish–style) card game.

Under the illustrations are different pictograms that provide information about each food.
Next to them are positive and negative indicators:
the number of green and red dots shows how good or bad something scores.

For example, the red dots represent the size of the ecological footprint and pesticide use, while the green dots indicate nutritional value and nutrient density.

Flohr and Linssen form the design duo behind House of Thol.
In their workshop near the Hatertse and Overasseltse fens, they develop practical products that encourage people to change their everyday habits.

.

“The fridge isn’t always the best option, - says Flohr.

She and Linssen try to handle food more consciously themselves as well.

“Still, we used to throw away quite a bit too,” Flohr admits.

“That’s how we realised how serious the problem of food waste really is.

Not only is a lot of food being thrown away, but the nutrients in that food are also often lost unnecessarily.

It’s about making people more aware of how and where they can store food best.

The fridge, for instance, isn’t always the right place.

Most people want to do the right thing — they just lack the right knowledge.”

— Thomas Logebeke, De Gelderlander