Have you ever carelessly discarded a sprouty potato? It doesn’t seem such a big deal, but that is just one of 2.9 million potatoes trashed every day in the UK alone. One-third of all of the food produced around the world in a year lands in the garbage. It’s like going to the store, buying three bags of groceries, and then turning around and throwing one away. That is what is happening with food waste around the world today.
With all our busy lives and sometimes not knowing what to cook, having to throw away old food seems almost written by the stars. Besides being kinder to the environment, reduced food waste can have certain economic benefits. For example, the average family of four in the UK wastes £1,000 worth of food every year. This not only has severe implications on the economy and the environment but also shows complete obliviousness to the fact that 800 million people around the world struggle to get enough food.
Food waste is not only an economic issue but also one of the greatest causes of climate change. If food waste were a country, it would be the third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases after the US and China. Yet perhaps surprisingly, supermarkets are by no means the worst offenders. In the UK, only 2% of food waste happens at supermarkets, whereas 60% takes place in our homes.
Fortunately, there are many things that we could do to reduce food waste in our homes. The fresh fruit and vegetables are among the most wasted foods. Most of these might be saved by planning meals and making use of leftovers. Leftovers make great lunches or meals that can be frozen for later use.
Food packaging labels could also prevent it from happening. ‘Best before’ dates are just guidelines; that is, the food is likely safe if it still looks fine, smells fine, and tastes fine. A ‘use by’ date tells when the food should be consumed or frozen to avoid spoilage.
Accurate storage is also friendly in making the life of this food longer. Fridge can add three months to apples and potatoes. Not all fruits fall under the fridge’s category, bananas, onions, and pineapples must be kept away from it.
Did you know that bread is one of the most wasted foods in the UK, with 25 million slices discarded every day? Bread might be less wasted if it were kept in the cupboard and slices were put in the freezer for toast.
Other traditional methods of food preservation, fermentation and pickling, also reduce food waste. Fermentation produces beer from yeast and kimchi from cabbage, but generally, the food-preserving action of pickling relies on a mixture of salt and vinegar as a preservative.
While the situation in high-income countries revolves around the loss that occurs at home, in poorer countries, due to weather conditions, pests, and poor storage during the farming stage, the food gets wasted. In India, with 195 mln undernourished, about 67 mln tons of food are wasted every year because of these challenges.
Others are more innovative, including bioactive packaging and genetically modified foods, which would further extend the life of food. The public is still skeptical of this, however; for example, a loaf of bread, sliced, which would last 60 days, could be seen as unnatural by consumers, even though this would reduce food waste.
Experts like Tim Benton say the global food system is broken. We have built a system that focuses on producing more food at ever-lower prices. In wealthier countries, it is economically rational to waste food because time is more valuable than money. The result is a careless discard of items such as that slimy bag of lettuce forgotten in the fridge.
Food wastage can only be reduced with respect for food and its growth from a local perspective. When we value food and understand how it traveled from the farm to the table, we are less likely to waste any. A more local and respectful food system would save biodiversity, reduce greenhouse gas emissions, and rebuild our relationship with food.
We need to fix the food system in the fight against climate change. We’d have the potential to actually make an enormous difference in the state of the planet and our future if only we treated food like the precious resource it is.
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