1/3 of food produced is wasted each year - 1.3 billion tonnes, enough to give chronically undernourished people (who make up 10% of the population) 10 meals a day.
People in the US waste 95 kilos of food per person each year: that’s 250g of mostly edible food thrown away every day.
The sheer wastefulness of spending so much money and resources only to chuck edible food.
Most food waste is from households (70%) - supermarkets make up just 2.9%
A lot of food is however wasted due to high aesthetic standards
Over the course of a year, households spend ₤500 on food only to toss it. Considering the cost of living crisis…. (UK)
In developing countries 40% of food waste is due to poor harvest and processing
Food waste is decreasing across the board in the UK, showing it is possible to tackle this problem.
Retail
Calling for lower aesthetic standards for food.
Oddbox-like programs.
3 areas to solve
food not used in time (41%)
Better planning of meals - individual effort.
Plant-based foods keep better than meat and milk…
Even if past due date, it may be OK to eat if no mould / doesn’t smell bad (NOT MEDICAL ADVICE)
personal preferences (28%)
ppl were served too much (25%)
Ideally you should never throw away edible food; only inedible parts of food should be thrown away
This should be effectively composted for re-use in farms etc; collect methane emissions as biogas
Charging people for food waste (esp. in restaurants)
Used in Korea
Financial incentive for people to not waste food
Finances responsible disposal of food
Issue: isn’t food wasted anyway if ppl are eating way more calories than they need? Better to focus on responsible portion sizes and saving leftovers.
Developing nations
Strengthening the supply chain through the direct support of farmers and investments in infrastructure, transportation, as well as in an expansion of the food and packaging industry could help to reduce the amount of food loss and waste. -UNEP