As much as half of all the produced in the world – equivalent to 2 billion tonnes – ends up as every year, engineers warned in t. The UK’s Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) blames the “staggering” new figures in its analysis on unnecessarily strict sell-by dates, buy-one-get-one free and Western consumer demand for cosmetically perfect food, along with “poor engineering and agricultural practices”, inadequate infrastructure and poor storage facilities.
In the face of United Nations predictions that there could be about an extra 3 billion people to feed by the end of the century and growing pressure on the resources needed to produce food, including land, water and energy, the IMechE is calling for urgent action to tackle this waste.
Their report, Global Food; Waste Not, Want Not, found that between 30 percent and 50 percent or 1.2-2bn tonnes of food produced around the world never makes it on to a plate.
In the UK as much as 30 percent of vegetable crops are not harvested due to their failure to meet retailers’ exacting standards on physical appearance, it says, while up to half of the food that is bought in Europe and the US is thrown away by consumers.
And about 550bn cubic metres of water is wasted globally in growing crops that never reach the consumer. Carnivorous diets add extra pressure as it takes 20-50 times the amount of water to produce 1 kilogramme of meat than 1kg of vegetables; the demand for water in food production could reach 10–13 trillion cubic metres a year by 2050.
This is 2.5 to 3.5 times greater than the total human use of fresh water today and could lead to more dangerous water shortages around the world, the IMechE says, claiming that there is the potential to provide 60-100 percent more food by eliminating losses and waste while at the same time freeing up land, energy and water resources.
Tim Fox, head of energy and environment at the IMechE, said: “The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is staggering. This is food that could be used to feed the world’s growing population – as well as those in hunger today. It is also an unnecessary waste of the land, water and energy resources that were used in the production, processing and distribution of this food.”
In order to prevent further waste, governments, development agencies and organisation like the UN “must work together to help change people’s mindsets on waste and discourage wasteful practices by farmers, food producers, supermarkets and consumers,” the IMechE said.
A 2011 study by the Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology (SIK) on behalf of Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO), Global Food Losses and Food Waste, distinguishes between “food loss” and “food waste”, and provides figures for both:
Food loss measures the decrease in edible food mass (excluding inedible parts and seed) “throughout the part of the supply chain that specifically leads to edible food for human consumption”, that is, loss at the production, postharvest and processing stages. This definition of loss includes biomass originally meant for human consumption but eventually used for some other purpose, such as fuel or animal feed.
Food waste is food loss occurring during the retail and final consumption stages due to the behaviour of retailers and consumers that is, the throwing away of food.
One way of dealing with food waste is to reduce its creation. This attitude has been promoted by campaigns from advisory and environmental groups,[45] and by concentrated media attention on the subject.
Consumers can reduce their food waste output at points-of-purchase and in their homes by adopting some simple measures; planning when shopping for food is important, and spontaneous purchases are shown as often the most wasteful. Proper knowledge of food storage reduces foods becoming inedible and thrown away.
Through initiatives such as Cambio verde, farmers can provide surplus produce (produce they would otherwise discard due to too low prices/kg) to people that provide glass, and other waste.
