Introduction
Food waste is a big problem that contributes to the environment, the world economy, and the community. At the same time, one third of the produced food was wasted in 2019, a total of 1,3 billion tones, while millions of people cannot get enough food and suffer from malnutrition. These findings highlight a conspicuous gap in public and policy understanding of the issue at stake and potential mitigation measures for minimizing food waste. This paper aims to understand the reasons why food waste occurs, its effects on humankind and the planet, as well as present potential opportunities to reduce food waste and its impact on the environment.
Essentials of Knowing the Causes and Consequences of Food Waste
The primary causes of food waste are divided into four main categories: fields of production, processing, distribution and consumption.
- Production Waste: The wasting occurs due to inefficient farming practice where optimum use of seeds, fertilizers, water, and tools of planting, weeding, and harvesting is not employed. Also, inedible parts of fruits and vegetables are also never considered fit for sale or consumption while spoiled food items are discarded by retailers’ and consumers’ choices alike contribute to wastage.
- Processing Waste: In the food processing, industry there is normally high wastage of raw materials either being thrown away or used for other functions. Normally, the parts that can be eaten such as skins, seeds or stalks are considered unfit for human consumption or are simply discarded ending up wasting valuable additions.
- Distribution Waste: Delays and other mishaps and mishandling during the delivery process lead to perishing of food or their spoils, thereby leading to high wastage. Further, unsuitable inventory control strategies result in incorrect stock flows and additional food waste.
- Consumption Waste: In the consumer level, one is likely to click on some of the factors which include; unscheduled meals, where an individual mismeasures portions size, or perhaps an aesthetic value. Individuals are known to either throw away food that has gone bad, make purchases of food items they never consume or just leave that food which was cooked and prepared in excess to go to waste.
The implications of food wastage are magnanimous; financial losses, environmental impacts, and worsening food insecurity. Evaluations show that food waste cost a global $1 trillion and is as damaging on the environment as well. The waste product of such food consumption is actually produced through the rural agricultural lands, freshwater, and energy sources which were already scarce. Further, a large proportion of food waste ends up in landfills where it produces methane, a strong greenhouse gas.
Solutions for Managing Minimized Amount of Food
With regards to waste, the best approach should be efficiency-based solutions geared towards reducing food waste. Here are some ways to minimize food waste across different stages of the supply chain:
Production Waste Reduction:
- Precision farming and adoption of better practice in agricultural practices in order to increase on productions and avoid wastage.
- The initiative to get retailers and consumers to embrace and buy ‘misshapen’ vegetables and fruits that are healthy to consume but are not fitting the western standards for perfect appearance.
Processing Waste Reduction:
- The efficient use of all components of the food product starting from the skin, seeds, and stalks in other different foods or products.
- Improving other process techniques that have higher yield and better utilization of the raw materials.
Distribution Waste Reduction:
- Optimisation of Supply Chain which involves better management of inventories and using new demand planning tools to avoid excessive storage and product wastage.
- Spending more money in acquisition of effective packaging materials that will ensure that the food products get to the consumer in the right condition and for the longest time possible.
Consumption Waste Reduction:
- Selecting appropriate foods and portion sizes for consumption, organizing shopping for such foods and/ or organizing how they are portioned in order to minimize wasted meals.
- Preservation of food destined for storage in order to reduce the possibility of going bad soon.
- Opening another container of food and using it to prepare a new meal for the next day or the next week, donating any extra food to the food banks or recycling it by compost whenever the leftovers are inevitable.
- Increasing the share of consumers’ knowledge about the actual cost of food waste and encouraging people to act more responsibly on this issue.
- Working as a team with the communities, stakeholders, and local authorities to implement_bottom-up solutions to the problem of food waste.
New ways of preventing food waste
Apart from the approaches discussed above, different measures have been developed concerning efficient combating of food waste.
Food Waste Tracking and Redistribution:
- Creating mobile applications and websites that allow tracking and delivering the stores’ surplus food items to charities and food banks in an instant.
- Adoptions of efficient transport and delivery channels to reduce food wastage while in transit.
Food Upcycling:
- Promoting the application and growth of new useful things from waste food and food waste like biofuel, fertilizer or materials.
- Encouraging upcycled foods that use the following as input ingredients to produce new, attractive, and desirable finished goods.
Circular Food Economy:
- Managing food waste, recovering the resources thereof, and implementing waste-to-energy technologies in the contexts of the food chain.
- Formulating markets and rewards to foster and encourage the circular economy of food by businesses as well as the consumers.
Conclusion
Food waste management is a worldwide problem that requires appropriate attention and cooperation even from developed countries. As we are able to identify the factors influencing food wastage, we will be in a position to advisedly and accurately design and launch techniques of containing environmental effects of food wastage on the environment, economy and society. It is time to take greater responsibility and think through our food choices and production systems to reduce the negative effects they have on our world and ensure a healthier and safer supply of the vital resource.