FOOD WASTE

An old lady, hunched, approaches to the heap of fruits that are piled in the hallways of a downtown market in Madrid. The fruits that are going to be thrown away because they are old and cannot be sold anymore. No matter, the woman with a bag on his arm and hands encased in plastic gloves, inspects gender and selected parts that she will take home. The picture is not new, but in recent years has become an increasingly frequent print.

In a time when efficiency is becoming they key word for development and sustainability, we can´t forget to be efficient in our consumption, not only in the energy field, also we need efficiency in the food consumption. Although few would agree to pull one of the shopping bags as they get home from the supermarket, Europeans throw away annually 89 million tonnes of edible food, Spain wasted an average of 163 kilos per person, totaling 7.7 million tons per year.

The entire food chain is responsible for this waste, from the production to the table, although the most private waste, 42% of the total. The first step in the food chain is the producers and the food industry, at this stage lost 39% of foods.

In the field no food is thrown, except the one that is thrown into crisis when the market sinks. The most recent was because of E.coli, the summer of 2011, which ended with tons of cucumbers and seasonal vegetables in the container because the health alert launched from Germany detracted prices and consumption of these vegetables.

There are 85,230 restaurants in Spain. In their kitchens they waste more than 63,000 tonnes of food a year-twice wasted two decades ago, according to a report from Unilever Food Solutions supported by the Spanish Federation of Hotels and Restaurants (FEHR). According to the study, 60% of this waste is the result of a bad forecast when making the purchase. Another 30% is wasted during the preparation of meals and only 10% is what diners plate, the real waste is left.

The final trip of any food, fresh or processed, are consumers, the biggest spenders of the whole chain (42% of total). Responsible for a poor planning but victims of packages that do not fit their needs and confusing labeling.

How to improve our “Food Efficiency” in every step of the food chain?

In the first step of the chain, producers can donate their food to Food Banks, where food is managed to give it to the people that need it, because it is food that they can´t sell due to the “beauty” of the product but it is 100% edible.

Large restaurant chains such as Grupo Vips, have computer systems to calculate the amounts of each dish sold daily, allowing them to estimate the necessary amount of food to be prepared before ordering.

Also in the last step of the chain it is needed more education and awareness from the consumer.

So one more time the ball is in our roof, are we going to face the problem? Or will we continue with our routine?.

Comments Off on FOOD WASTE / 28 Feb 2014 por marioescamilla
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