What Can and Can’t I Bokashi? Your Complete Guide to Fermenting Food Waste at Home

Bokashi composting is one of the simplest, cleanest, and most regenerative ways to deal with food waste at home. Unlike traditional composting, bokashi doesn’t rely on oxygen or worms to break things down. Instead, it uses specially inoculated bran and anaerobic fermentation to transform your kitchen scraps into a microbe-rich pre-compost that feeds your soil.

But one question comes up again and again:

What exactly can and can’t you put in a bokashi bin?

This guide breaks it down clearly so you can ferment your food waste with confidence, avoid smells, keep your microbes happy, and transform more of your waste into healthy soil.

Why Bokashi Is Different From Normal Composting

Bokashi is microbial fermentation, not decomposition. That means:

• It works without oxygen

• It thrives on diverse food scraps

• It handles items traditional composting often struggles with

• It keeps your kitchen smell-free and maggot-free

• It captures nutrients rather than letting them escape as odour

Bokashi is particularly powerful if you live in a flat, have limited outdoor space, or simply want a cleaner, faster way to regenerate soil.

What You Can Put in a Bokashi Bin

Here’s the good news: bokashi is incredibly flexible. Most food waste can go in. The more diverse the scraps, the richer the fermented material becomes.

1. Fruit and Vegetable Scraps

✔ Peels, cores, trimmings

✔ Cooked and raw veg

✔ Citrus (yes, really!)

✔ Mouldy fruit and veg

Citrus is fine because bokashi doesn’t rely on worms at this stage. The acidic environment helps the fermentation process.

2. Cooked Food

✔ Leftovers

✔ Pasta, rice, noodles

✔ Stews and sauces

✔ Leftover breakfasts and lunches

This is where bokashi shines. Cooked food shouldn’t go in a traditional compost bin, but it ferments beautifully.

3. Bread, Cakes, and Baked Goods

✔ Stale bread

✔ Biscuits

✔ Pastries

High-carb foods ferment easily due to their sugars and starches.

4. Meat, Fish, and Dairy

✔ Raw and cooked meat

✔ Bones (small bones ferment well)

✔ Fish scraps

✔ Cheese, yoghurt, butter

This category is a game changer. Bokashi safely manages these scraps because fermentation suppresses pathogens and odours.

5. Eggs and Eggshells

✔ Shells

✔ Cooked or raw eggs

Eggshells add valuable minerals to your soil once the pre-compost is mixed with browns (like wood shavings).

6. Coffee Grounds and Tea Bags

✔ Coffee waste

✔ Loose-leaf tea

✔ Tea bags (check they’re plastic-free)

These help with structure and microbial diversity.

7. Leftover Snacks and Processed Foods

✔ Crisps

✔ Biscuits

✔ Crackers

✔ Old cereal

Fermentation handles these better than you think.

8. Small Amounts of Paper Towel and Tissue

✔ Used kitchen paper

✔ Tissue used for food handling

Avoid large volumes, but small amounts are acceptable.

What You Can’t Put in a Bokashi Bin

Although bokashi is powerful, a few things don’t ferment well, and it can disrupt the microbial balance.

1. Liquids

✘ Milk

✘ Soups

✘ Oils

✘ Juices

✘ Alcohol

✘ Excessive moisture

Liquids increase the risk of anaerobic rot instead of fermentation. Keep everything as dry as possible.

2. Non-Food Waste

✘ Plastic

✘ Metal

✘ Foil

✘ Compostable packaging

✘ Bioplastics

Even “compostable” packaging doesn’t break down in bokashi.

4. Cardboard, Paper, and Wood in Large Amounts

Small quantities are fine, but bokashi works best with food scraps rather than dry carbon materials.

5. Mouldy Food with Black Mould

White mould is totally normal in bokashi, and is actually a good sign!

Green, blue, or black mould indicates that something has already decomposed aerobically. Small amounts are acceptable; large amounts disrupt fermentation.

Top Tips for Bokashi Fermentation

1. Keep It Airtight

Oxygen is the enemy. Press down your scraps and close the lid firmly each time.

2. Add Enough Bokashi Bran

A light sprinkling per layer ensures beneficial bacteria dominate.

3. Chop Scraps Small

Speeds up fermentation, especially for meat and veg skins.

4. Drain the Bokashi Tea Regularly

This nutrient-rich liquid can be:

• Diluted and used as a fertiliser

• Poured down drains to clean pipes

• Used to boost soil microbes in your garden

5. After 2 Weeks, Mix with Browns Outdoors

Once fermented, your food waste becomes “pre-compost”.

Mix it with wood shavings, sawdust, or soil to complete its transformation into living compost.

Why Bokashi Fits Perfectly into a Regenerative Home

Bokashi is low-energy, low-cost, and incredibly efficient at capturing nutrients that would otherwise become climate-warming gases.

Instead of shipping food waste across cities or sending it to landfill, you’re returning it directly to soil.

Healthy soil = healthy plants = healthy people.

In a world where food systems are broken and waste is normalised, bokashi gives households a simple way to participate in regeneration every day.

At Generation Soil, we use the bokashi method at scale through our Bristol Living Compost Project, where households and businesses across the city ferment their food waste before we collect it, process it, and turn it into nutrient-dense, microbe-rich living compost. The bokashi stage gives beneficial bacteria a head start, keeps scraps smell-free, and ensures every bucket we collect is already primed for rapid regeneration.

If you want to learn more about how the system works or sign up for collections, visit the Bristol Living Compost Project page. And if you don’t want to wait for your own compost but still want soil packed with microbes, you can order our Living Compost directly from our shop. For guidance on composting at home, you can download your FREE Beginners Guide to Compost, Microbes, and Regeneration when you sign up to our mailing list or book a 1-to-1 Compost Clinic Consultancy for personalised support.

Final Thoughts

If you can ferment food, you can build soil.

If you can build soil, you can grow nutrient-rich food.

And if you can do that, you’re already part of the solution.

Bokashi composting is one of the most accessible tools for closing the loop at home and nourishing your garden, your gut, and the wider environment.