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

[Liagala]

50% is a pretty scary figure. I occasionally forget there are leftovers in the fridge or find that I'm full when there's still some food on the plate, but not enough to be worth saving... but HALF? That's crazy. Imagine what it would do for 3rd world countries if we came up with a better method of food preservation.

[drwelfare]

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?

Also transport and harvesting.
Who wants groundfall oranges?

[Spectral]

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.

Yeah, ground beef and cold cuts are two items I don't fuck around with. I normally am wildly unconcerned about food borne pathogens, but there's just too high of risks with old ground beef or coldcuts, and they taste nasty as shit after they go off anyway.

[Twotonsteak]

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 Are you the kind of person that just throws something away the moment it "goes out of date", despite looking perfectly edible?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?

The US Federal Government, as a means of artificially inflating produce prices for farmers, actually purchases some crops and pays farmers NOT to grow others. The crops they purchase is often destroyed so that they don't "slip" into the market and lower those artificially inflated prices. Both of these practices (buying and paying to not grow) have been in practice for many years.

Personally I'm against the subsidizing of any industry. However the fact that the Government then destroys the crops it purchases when they could, I don't know, send them to starving nations, just seems very stupid to me.

Then again it is Washington we're talking about. Logic has little to do with that town.

On a personal level I try to waste very little. I portion out my dinners. What I don't eat I save and eat for/as part of a later meal. I don't do this out of some altruistic desire to lower my carbon foot-print or ensure that there is food for the starving. I do it because food is expensive. And when you are the one paying for it, you try to stretch it out as long as possible.

[PACOX]

Yeah, ground beef and cold cuts are two items I don't fuck around with. I normally am wildly unconcerned about food borne pathogens, but there's just too high of risks with old ground beef or coldcuts, and they taste nasty as shit after they go off anyway.

That stuff last a lot longer than what you are told. Use dates and expiration dates are purposely set earlier than actually dates to prevent lawsuits. "Expired" deli meats are usually put into your salad type dishes (ham salad) at the grocery story deli. The same reason why restaurants and grocery stores throw away so much food. Some even put locks on their dumpsters. People the food out of the dumpster and then try to sue. They can't (legally advised, not sure actually illegal) give it away for the same reasons. Send something back at McDonalds? They have to give it to you or throw it away enough their is a hungry homeless guy in the lobby.

I used to work at a grocery store. When I started we were able to make down all of the "day old" bakery/deli items. People would come in and they would sell out. Eventually the store said we couldn't do that anymore, we would have to throw away huge garbage bags full of perfectly fine food and less people bought stuff from the bakery.

[Spectral]

That stuff last a lot longer than what you are told. Use dates and expiration dates are purposely set earlier than actually dates to prevent lawsuits. "Expired" deli meats are usually put into your salad type dishes (ham salad) at the grocery story deli.

Yeah, I pay utterly no attention to expiration dates, my throw away impulse on meats is based strictly on an appearance, feel, and smell test.

The same reason why restaurants and grocery stores throw away so much food. Some even put locks on their dumpsters. People the food out of the dumpster and then try to sue. They can't (legally advised, not sure actually illegal) give it away for the same reasons. Send something back at McDonalds? They have to give it to you or throw it away enough their is a hungry homeless guy in the lobby.

I used to work at a grocery store. When I started we were able to make down all of the "day old" bakery/deli items. People would come in and they would sell out. Eventually the store said we couldn't do that anymore, we would have to throw away huge garbage bags full of perfectly fine food and less people bought stuff from the bakery.

Agreed, it's really depressing how much perfectly good stuff gets tossed for no particular reason, other than maintaining an additional veneer of safety. Really, our food supply is sufficiently safe that people should worry much, much less about these things than most people do.

I feel like I remember seeing a lot more "day old" racks at the grocery store about ten years ago when I first started shopping for myself. Do you know if the regulations changed on that or if it's just been a consumer driven trend?

[Prokne]

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?

I think its mostly businesses throwing away food. Grocery stores throw away food that doesnt sell soon enough before it expires, a lot of "made that day" fresh food. Restaurants are probably a bit better depending on what type of restaurant it is. I would think buffets throw away more food than others.

I get rid of anything that is close to the expiration date that smells funny. If its past the date it goes. Im not getting sick to save a few dollars. I also dont buy a lot of food that I dont eat so I usually only end up throwing out condiments. If you buy food closer to the date you expect to eat it, its less likely it will be thrown away and fresher when you eat it.

[Tripl]

@ home: I throw it away when I feel unsafe about eating it (whether it be a funky smell/look or a year over the date given by the producer) or when I'm done with it. Living where I do, food remains are separated from other garbage and end up on a big biomass heap (to produce fertilizer) or in a biomass plant (to produce electricity) so even if I throw away food, I never ever feel like destroying its value.

@the shop: Stores here (in the Netherlands) don't regularly throw away food, they give it to the 'foodbank', a private institution that divides the freely-given food under those that are having a financially hard time. (I deliberately try to avoid calling them 'the poor', for being poor in the Netherlands would still be rich outside of the west, but they do mostly have serious problems that can cause malnutrition (because you want to pay your rent) or eviction (because you want to buy your kids food))
Now the foodbanks have been noticing a reducing amount of food from the supermarkets, because with the crisis hitting all sectors, the supermarkets have begun using their brains when buying in supplies. Smarter buying = less redundant food = less food for the poor.

Going slightly side-topic here, because I know it will be brought up sooner or later if this thread goes over a few pages:
On the other side, 'throwing away food' causing a buzz or like here leading to the creation of a thread usually has to do with the idea that the majority of the people in this world have to live with less than recommended food intake. Even though it hasn't been mentioned yet, I do want to say that this is not so much the problem of the west as much as it is a problem of humanity's disability to stop reproducing. When we look at, for example, Somalia, a country with 10 million people but with only 1.64% arable land, then we have to consider if it is really worth sustaining a population which lives in an unsustainable location (read: an outright desert). Food problems are usually caused by overpopulation in underdeveloped countries, not by wasting in developed ones.

[breadisfunny]

Also transport and harvesting.
Who wants groundfall oranges?

starving people in africa?
people who havent eaten anything in awhile?

[Ragedaug]

As a couple people have noted, the bulk of the food waste likely comes from Markets who have hard sell-by dates that they have to go by for legal reasons, as well as the other thing noted that is the shoppers will cherry pick cosmetically pleasing produce & meat. Restaurants are probably next (at least in the US) as they tend to provide way more food than most people can eat for each meal, so lots of wasted cooked food, as well as the expiration rules that they have to follow for their non-cooked food.

I think that makes a much larger percentage of what's thrown away versus people clearing out their fridge or not eating all the left overs.

[Kraenen]

starving people in africa?
people who havent eaten anything in awhile?

how are we going to get them to africa?

[Mandible]

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?

Loads are being thrown away in shops for going out of date, and there are entire corn storages being wasted because they don´t want to sell it at a lower cost. Its one of the same reasons why third world countries suffer, since they are unable to sell their produce at a decent rate.
But to add to this all the shops who are about to have food items going out of date could donate it to shelters (or similar) however most will throw it away in dumpsters where it will be illigal to take it from afterwards, since its still technically the stores items.

Funny how much positive response places could get if they gave items like that to charity instead of thinking 100% of their own profits.



---------- Post added 2013-01-13 at 06:44 AM ----------

starving people in africa?
people who havent eaten anything in awhile?

It will take quite alot before any farmer who thinks they can get any type of profit from it will just give any type of produce away in that manner.

[nightfalls]

Loads are being thrown away in shops for going out of date, and there are entire corn storages being wasted because they don´t want to sell it at a lower cost. Its one of the same reasons why third world countries suffer, since they are unable to sell their produce at a decent rate.

It's an infrastructural problem, and governments iirc are part of it more than solving it. I'm thinking one solution would be "smarter" marketing tech - better analysis on how much stock a store should hold at one point, and more realistic estimates of how much product a store will sell. Not only will that reduce waste, but both consumer and market profits will increase (food will cost less for consumers, and the market wastes less so it will profit more).

That and incentivizing farmers to waste less helps too.

[semaphore]

I've barely ever thrown out food. Freezers are god.

But I also have a bottle of butter chicken that expired in 2010

[onefour88]

I put maps of Africa and Haiti above my trash can so I can get that warm fuzzy feeling whenever I throw away food.

[nightfalls]

It will take quite alot before any farmer who thinks they can get any type of profit from it will just give any type of produce away in that manner.

Even if they do, the point is that the food will be held until it's expiration date, and after that it would be illegal (and in a sense, immoral) to give it out for free.

[Badpaladin]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trader_Joe's

Trader Joe's maintains low prices by having smaller and plainer stores and carrying a smaller variety of products and getting more turnaround on products they do carry, which enables the purchase of larger quantities of perishable items closer to the expiration date at better prices, knowing that they can be sold within shelf-life limits.

Really the only thing you can do is shop at places similar to this. I don't doubt a significant portion of food thrown out is from grocers, and if you shop at places that simply stock less food, you'll be doing your part. Plus you'll be supporting a smart business practice, which feels nice in that sense.

[goobernoob]

The US Federal Government, as a means of artificially inflating produce prices for farmers, actually purchases some crops and pays farmers NOT to grow others. The crops they purchase is often destroyed so that they don't "slip" into the market and lower those artificially inflated prices. Both of these practices (buying and paying to not grow) have been in practice for many years.

Personally I'm against the subsidizing of any industry. However the fact that the Government then destroys the crops it purchases when they could, I don't know, send them to starving nations, just seems very stupid to me.

Then again it is Washington we're talking about. Logic has little to do with that town.

On a personal level I try to waste very little. I portion out my dinners. What I don't eat I save and eat for/as part of a later meal. I don't do this out of some altruistic desire to lower my carbon foot-print or ensure that there is food for the starving. I do it because food is expensive. And when you are the one paying for it, you try to stretch it out as long as possible.

I'm normally massively against subsidizing industries but agriculture is the one major exception, farming at capacity leads to famine when there is a drought and damages the soil reducing future capacity.
Destroying crops after they have been harvested to keep prices down seems petty to me, but folks seemed to think that doing so has helped our economy in the past. I would love to see someone find out if we are still doing that in the last few years, I would think they would put them towards making bio diesel instead of just destroying them.

[PACOX]

starving people in africa?
people who havent eaten anything in awhile?

Sending it to Africa isn't fool proof though. What happens is that the food is seized by militia and gangs.

Something to think about. A lot of people become overweight because they are taught not to throw away food. I know a lot of adults over the age of 40, not so much younger adults, who very reluctant to see food go to waste. My grandmother had fridges and a large freeze. All of her freezers were full because throwing away food was horrible to her.

Think of it the way people jump all over Steam sales. A lot of people will buy games just because are sale because they remember not being able to afford games when they were kids. Throwing away food is different scenario but the mindsets are similar.

[Deleted]

I only buy food that I'm gonna eat within a few days, don't really buy food for like half a month, rather go several trips to the store than have something go bad due to being out of date.