Food, taste it but don’t waste it

 

The EU produces 59 million tonnes annually, this would be enough food to fill 23,200 Olympic-sized swimming pools, yet according to the World Health Organization, about 11 million people die of malnutrition yearly. The sad reality is not that we don’t have enough but it is not distributed properly.

In addition,10% of global emissions result from food loss and waste. The food waste that ends up in landfills rots producing greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, this is not going to help the Paris Agreement in lowering global warming up to 1.5-2 degrees Celsius.

So, what is causing food waste?

The first step to reducing food wastage is to understand the difference between Food loss and Food waste.

Food loss: refers to loss at or near the farm and in the supply chain, for example, during harvesting, storage or transport.

Food waste: occurs at the retail level, in hospitality and households.

In the supply chain food loss can happen because of various reasons

How to reduce food loss in the supply chain?

Near the farm:

• The government can provide special schemes for farmers so that they can replace old machinery so that they can produce a decent amount of crops without much spillage during harvesting.
• By methods such as crop rotation, the quality of the crops can significantly improve at a higher tier in the food chain those foods are actually chosen instead of wasted for bad quality or taste.

In transport

• If food is left somewhere too hot or damp the chances of the food going bad are high. This can especially happen in developing countries, so investing in better refrigeratory systems can prevent food spoilage.

During food processing:

• Poor planning can cause food to be wasted, this can be solved by creating apps that can track and update the employees on factors such as temperature that need special attention.
• Better packaging can be done to prevent food from going bad, although it is important to reduce plastic and issues related to that food tend to spoil if the packaging is not good.

In stores and restaurants

• A major cause of food waste is the food advertisement which always shows food with the perfect shape and size. This causes stores or restaurants to not accept food that looks a little out of shape.
• If the store is constantly finding a particular type of product not being purchased enough, they can stop the retail of that so that the resources that go behind are not wasted and can be invested into a better product.

At home

• The government can provide schemes to buy smart fridges that give people the notification that a particular type of product is going bad.
• Food scrapes and be turned into compost which be used on plants at home.
• Understanding the date labels on food products (the difference between “best-before” and “use by”)

 

On the country level:

• Food that is about to be expired can be placed in a refrigerated environment like a venting machine but non-profitable, so that people in need can take food from there without paying money.