Almost half of the world's food thrown away, report finds

[Deleted]

Staggering don't you think?

"As much as half of all the food produced in the world – equivalent to 2bn tonnes – ends up as waste every year, engineers warned in a report published on Thursday.

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..."

Read more here

How are you with wasting food? Are you the kind of person that just throws something away the moment it "goes out of date", despite looking perfectly edible? I always make sure to try the food first & see how it tastes before throwing it away. Some things can be kept much longer than advertised while others (milk especially) tends to go off fairly fast after the use by date. Do you think use by dates are too rigid?

[Immitis]

the only time i throw out food is if it tastes bad and even then i usually give it to my dog or something O-O

[Deleted]

I used to throw a lot of food away as a kid. Nowadays I can't remember the last time I threw anything edible away, or when I had something go out of date before eating it.

I didn't read the article, but is the food mostly being thrown away after purchase, at shops, or before it even gets there?

[Rendia]

I work for a grocery as a produce department manager, and I am disgusted how much good food I throw away daily. All because it doesn't cosmetically look good. Natural imperfections are normal in all fruit and veggies, but some people think that it is automatically bad because it doesn't look like it belongs in a catalog.

[Tokru]

I used to throw a lot of food away as a kid. Nowadays I can't remember the last time I threw anything edible away, or when I had something go out of date before eating it.

I didn't read the article, but is the food mostly being thrown away after purchase, at shops, or before it even gets there?

I didn't really read the article, but something similar is on TV quite regularly.

It's mainly food that was not bought at a specific day that gets thrown away. For instance bread or meat. Bread gets hard and meat goes bad real quick, but because super markets have to offer them each day and the shelves have to be full all the time a lot of it gets thrown away because noone bought it in time. Or take pre cooked food at schools or canteens. A certain expected amount is prepared but it's usually too much because it would look bad if 1 meal is used up because for some reason everyone wanted to eat it that day and ignored the multiple alternatives. The rest gets thrown away.

[Deleted]

Never throw perfectly fine food away. You can make EPIC omelettes on most left overs. I also eat left overs for lunch from time to time.

[shamestia]

I'm American it's our tradition.

Infracted.

[Spectral]

I generally only buy things that keep for a long time or that I'll use within a couple days. As a result, I think I have no more than ~5% waste, but it's really hard to estimate.

[purpledrannk]

if youre interested in reading about waste, there is a fantastic book called "Garbology" by Humes. It really opened my eyes on how trash is handled and what can be recycled and where it ends up.

[Sound911]

i try not to throw much stuff out.

i work at a small grocery shop, we try our hardest not to throw out fresh fruit and veg but most of the people don't want bruised fruit even though it's still perfectly yummy. usually my boss lets me buy any bruised fruit and veg for a lot cheaper than he's selling it for just because customers don't want it and i'm fine with eating it and saving money

[Reg]

I'm American it's our tradition.

Being stupid and being American have nothing to do with each other. The former is a choice, and you are choosing poorly.

[drwelfare]

I trim mold off of my cheese in order to save a block.

If its a small amount left over I'll throw it out since it is not worth saving since it not enough to comprise a meal

[breadisfunny]

i throw it away once it gets moldy.
also anyone who throws away bread......shame on you.

[Underverse]

ugh and we wonder why we have people starving everywhere

fruits moldy ill throw out, but for cheese i just slice and nom...the not moldy part, that is

[Foosha]

Use-by/Sell by dates are there to protect the consumer AND the distributor/maker. You can't really blame them for not wanting a lawsuit on their hands, or the FDA having consumers eat possibly tainted food.

A lot of this waste comes from transportation/preservation during transportation. It takes too long, and on a global market, that pineapple from Hawaii or another tropical place has a lot going against it coming into the U.S or Britain.

[drwelfare]

Some things I will eat years after they got out of date, others dont last that long.

[Reeve]

I have some ground beef in my refridgerator right now I didn't use in time. That'll be thrown out, along with some sliced ham and some oranges. I try to use what I buy, but the fact is, there is always some waste, and that's after it's already made it through several stages that probably also had some waste before even reaching my house.

The 50% number doesn't really surprise me that much.

[Adam Jensen]

I usually eat everything, but I don't tend to finish french fries.

[Fugus]

What percentage of that food is from people throwing it away versus grocery stores and all you can eat buffets throwing out what hasn't been sold?

[Catta]

But i only like the legs on the lobster!