Wasted Food is a Global Concern. It’s a worthwhile reminder to all of us, to act and do something; do whatever possible to stop the wastage of food.
Food waste is a global problem we cannot hide, sooner or later we will need to control it. We expect the world population to grow to 10 billion in 2050. This is just 30 years down the line. This magnanimous population is to be fed and the production of food has to be ramped up exponentially. The University of Copenhagen has conducted a study and arrived at a figure which should alert everyone. Analysts say that to feed 10 billion people in 2050, we need to produce more food in the next four decades than was globally produced in the last eight thousand years! That is astounding.
The data of food wastage is just as high. At present, in the global scenario, as per the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), we are producing 1.3 billion tons of food waste every year while 800 million people remain undernourished.

WASTED FOOD
There are two causes of wasted food; one is food loss and the other is food waste. The FAO defines it as follows on their website:
Food loss: Food loss is the decrease in the quantity or quality of food resulting from decisions and actions by food suppliers in the chain (excluding retailers), food service providers, and consumers (SOFA,2019). Empirically, it refers to any food that is discarded, incinerated, or otherwise disposed of along the food supply chain from harvest/slaughter/catch up (excluding the retail level), and does not re-enter in any other productive utilization such as feed or seed.
Food waste: Food waste refers to the decrease in the quantity or quality of food resulting from decisions and actions by retailers, food service providers, and consumers (SOFA, 2019). Refer to the figure below for a schematic overview of wasted food.

Looking at the two definitions there are a lot of factors that we as consumers do not even know, neither will be able to influence directly. To reduce food loss we require a behavioral change, the help of governments, financial aid, and better technology.

The reason for food loss can be overproduction, too high costs of harvesting and transport, long traveling distances and bad roads, poor storage conditions, and of course ecological distress or natural disasters. As per the website foodprint.org, during the COVID-19 pandemic, for example, farmers lost a major portion of their business due to the closure of restaurants and school lunchrooms. This is not limited to farms. In fisheries as well there is so much fish discarded during fishing and thrown back in the sea because it does not fit the quality and size pattern of the industry and the fishing methods add their part to it. The documentary “The End of the Line” explains this with shocking pictures and the FAO talks about nearly 80 million tons of discarded fish per year.

If we now look at food waste, there are efforts to recycle food waste but after all, we open up other problems like methane emissions, water wastage, and high transport and energy costs.

For the normal consumer or the restaurant/hotel owner, food waste will be the part that we as individuals can influence directly and immediately. Strong awareness building has to be done for young and old, rich and poor. The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) strives to prevent surplus food waste through different activities such as the ‘Eat Right Campus’ initiative and certification, the creation of the Indian Food Sharing Alliance (IFSA), and publication of Food Safety and Standards to establish uniform national regulations.

For the restaurant and hotel owner, proper meal or menu planning is required which includes purchasing the right amount of food and concentrating on the frequency of purchase, storage capacities, and quality. Extensive menu choices implicate more food waste. Moreover, proper preparation techniques are also required to avoid food waste such as maximizing food use. It includes preparation in realistic quantities and avoiding overproduction because of commodities.

For the individual, avoiding ‘All you can eat buffets’ and making a habit to finish what’s on your plate, for you can always refill, should be constantly practiced. This should especially be practiced with children.

At any step of the food chain, we have ‘food loss’ and ‘food waste’. The figure below shows the food loss (in grey) and food waste (in red) for different continents (Ref: FAO Global Food Loss report). The food loss between continents is within the range of 120 – 200 kg/year. Moreover, the reason for food loss in more advanced countries like Europe and North America is mainly due to overproduction whereas in developing countries like  Africa and Southeast Asia it is mostly due to lack of technology and infrastructure. In comparison, if we look at the food waste over continents, we can see that the more developed countries have a higher food waste (per capita food wasted by consumers in Europe and North America is 95-115 kg/year versus 6-11 kg/year in Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia). In summary, the quantum of wasted food in developed countries is double that of Sub-Saharan Africa and Southeast Asia (280-300 kg/year vs. 120-170 kg/year respectively).

The side effects of food loss and wastage are enormous to the environment. FAO talks about an estimated carbon footprint of 3.3 billion tonnes of CO2 equivalent to Greenhouse Gas (GHG) released into the atmosphere per year. The total amount of water used each year to produce food that will never feed anybody sums up to 250kmᶾ, which is an enormous amount of water equivalent to the annual flow of Russia’s Volga River. Moreover, 1.4 billion hectares of land, equivalent to 28% of the world’s agricultural area is used to produce food that simply gets lost or wasted.

Looking at all the data and reports about wasted food I come to the conclusion that the best way to avoid food waste is on one hand not to produce it, and on the other hand to help people you are interacting with to make the right choices and not contribute to food waste.

(Chef Sebastian Breitinger is the Prof. Culinary Arts at V. M. Salgaocar Institute of International Hospitality Education (VMSIIHE) and heads the Food Production Dept. He is passionate about the slow food movement and sustainable agricultural practices.)

References: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) website: www.fao.org