If food waste was a country, it would be the third highest emitter of greenhouse gases after the US and China, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations. Between the farm and the table, a third of the produce is wasted. If, as a planet, we stopped wasting food altogether, we’d eliminate 8% of our total emissions.
Where does the waste occur?
Where food is most wasted differs across the world. In low income countries, 40% of food is wasted after it’s harvested but before it makes it to people’s homes, usually because of a lack of adequate infrastructure.
But in middle- and high-income countries, consumers play a bigger role: estimates suggest that in Europe households are responsible for up to half of the food waste.
What are the possible solutions?
- Shop smart: don’t buy more than what you need, check your fridge first and then make a shopping list, and don’t go shopping when too hungry!
- Give ugly vegetables a chance
- Beware of storage: Know the difference between best before and expiry date. ‘Best before’’ date doesn’t tell you the last day you can use the product - kept in optimum conditions, and check before use! FIFO (first in first out) Know your product and the best conditions of keeping it.
- Cook the right portions. Do not cook more than necessary and have tiny leftovers all over the place.
- Have fun cooking and explore! Today’s vegetables can easily be turned into soup for tomorrow; so you don’t have to eat the same dish twice.
If possible; in addition to the examples above
- professionalism in the domestic kitchen (Being aware of HACCP and having a basic kitchen education)
- smart appliances
MyFoodWays is an application designed to give you recipe recommendations depending on what you have in the fridge.
The Smarter FridgeCam helps you reduce waste while keeping a budget. A camera installed in your fridge keeps a list of what you have and avoids double purchases. When connected with Amazon Fresh or Tesco; you don’t even need to do your shopping list!
MyFruitTwin: An application that measures the humidity and temperature with a sensor placed inside the storing unit (fridge, walk in etc) and connects the data to make an estimation on how much longer you can keep your fruits and vegetables.
There are more innovative ways to use old food! Have you heard of gleaning, dumpster diving, circular economy, or community fridge?
What to do, if you still have food that has grown old
- Bread is one of the foods that is often wasted. With stale bread you can make croutons or homemade breadcrumbs - find some recipes here. Other options are French toasts, bread casserole or dumplings. The latter is a popular dish of the alpine cuisine.
- With vegetables that are no longer quite fresh, you can make soups or a tart.
- Older fruit are suitable for jams, apple sauce or a cake.
Outside the home, food waste is also often touted as an alternative energy source in the form of biogas. You can read how it works in this article. One advantage of this is the low dependence on countries with oil and gas reserves. However, there are critics who fundamentally do not want to use edible products for energy generation. In Germany, 75% of biogas is fermented from plants such as corn. Thus, fields are lost for the cultivation of food. It can be argued that we need this land for world food and biodiversity.
SDGs and food waste
Reducing food loss and waste is an important target of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), as well as a means to achieve other SDG targets, in particular relating to food security, nutrition and environmental sustainability.
Food loss and waste has become a major global issue and is enshrined in SDG 12 (responsible consumption and production), which even sets a specific target related to the reduction of food loss and waste:
SDG Target 12.3 calls for halving per capita global food waste at retail and consumer levels and reducing food loss along production and supply chains, including post-harvest loss, by 2030.
Credits:
Created with images by TheStockCube - "Food Waste" • Rodica - "Organic ugly apples growing on a tree The concept of protecting an apple garden from pests Crop of apples ruined by diseases of fruit trees Apple is affected by fungus and mold Bad harvest" • Impact Photography - "Woman ordering fruit and vegetables using a smart phone app" • fkruger - "rustic traditional british bread and butter pudding" • 18042011 - "Hipped Dried apple chips in glass bowl with fresh apple in foreground on light background - Image"