Food waste and food loss is a Huge Global Problem
Food is a material consumption by humans. But this consumption is a necessity for living. Food consists of drinks, manufactured raw materials, etc. It accepts things other than cosmetics and drugs. This necessity of the body is now discarded in many places. it is estimated that annual food waste globally is $1 trillion and this weight of 1.3 billion tons. Let me try to give you a hint, “We can say that an area larger than China can be used to grow food which has never been eaten". The total Water used in producing this amount of food is 250 Km3.
Let us do a deep analysis to try and understand. The broader aspect of “Food Waste”.
Food waste refers to the food which is discarded by people. Many people in this world are unable to have a balanced diet or availability of food, but many other people still exist which throws even if it is suitable for consumption. At an average American waste, roughly 40% of its food. Actually food waste is a specific food loss, this specific food loss is now everywhere. Sometimes it’s going to a restaurant when we leave food on the table and sometimes after a meal. Let’s have a deep analysis of where and all we waste food.
Household food wastage stands for topmost in the edible category of food waste. Our culture in India is that ” food is like a blessing provided by God”. Unfortunately according to the UN report household food waste in India is 68.7 million tones a year. According to a UN report, almost 61% of the food waste in the world is because of the household. These are all because of us who support the following in the household.
Excessive Buying: When we go to the mart. We took away the bulk of food baggage with us and we didn’t think about having it over. We think it will be used this month. Without any proper planning, we carry all the things from the mart.
Food spoiled: Overbuying leads to the other part of spoiled food. Food is stored in such a manner that it gets spoiled in refrigerators. This is all because of one reason lack of preparation
Preparing More: This is the major cause among all the above processes. We don’t prepare food in the right proportion with planning. Our phrase at that time “Oh! let it be, who cares” is how we react towards the food. That extra food would be thrown in the Hungry Bin. That hungry bin is in every household in the world. We are more fascinated by making rather than taking it in the right proportion.
Food waste in Restaurants
According to UN reports the total waste from food service services is 244 million tones. The Global average food waste is 232 kg/capita/year. We usually go to a restaurant and order food from the great menu. We don’t know whether we can finish it all on the table or not. All of us don’t look at the menu in quantity rather than seeing it as fascinating. The food cooked again goes in the Hungry Bin. The kitchen worker itself throws away much of the food if it doesn’t match the standard. Restaurants in services do a great waste globally. Therefore many of the restaurants have introduced a buffer system to reduce food wastage.
Most of the retail shops Waste huge amounts of food. According to the reports, 118 million tones of raw food is wasted by the retail shops. Yes, it is less than above all those Global food waste sectors but it matters. This retailer shop includes fruits, seafood, vegetables, seasonal items, meat, etc. The display dates are estimated and after that dating food expires, It again goes in the Hungry Bin. Even some cruel retails don’t want their items eaten by some needy people. They put bleach in bins so that raw food gets ruined up. We will be catching this later on.
We have created a detailed article on problems of FOOD LOSS AND FOOD WASTE
