Food waste and food loss are tough subjects to process and deal with. It sounds like an oxymoron to me when normal/fresh/edible food becomes a waste category (waste is an item that no one desires). And, I am not talking about peel, eggshells, or kitchen waste here. I am talking about when store workers have an A4 list of articles to be removed from the shelves on the same day because the expiration date has come to claim the products. I vividly remember a worker pulling some 70 packs of frozen Fondue Chinois out of the freezer and loading them onto a trolley. Each pack weighing 350g, each with the "Swiss guarantee" sticker. It was April 30 in the evening, and the packs had “Expiration date: May 2021” written on them. The regulation for the food and retail industry is rather simple when food expires. Tomorrow morning, these delicacies are served with a one-way ticket to the incineration plant (controlled burning) or anaerobic digestion plant (methane production) to be destroyed. They are obligated to do that.
That reminds me of a professional field trip for solid waste engineering, to a composting facility in 2017. You can see the picture of how 1m3 of packaged food looks like when it is ready to be destroyed. That day 6 identical boxes of expired refrigerated and frozen food like this came in from a major Swiss retailer to be destroyed in the facility. One more day at -18C would have been too much... That was just one retailer and one facility.
Composting facility that processes packaged expired food. Retailers are obligated to dispose of their unsold, expired food at the local waste management facilities.
We, as consumers, also do the same. We overbuy (supermarket overstocks) and let it go bad because we don’t eat it in time (supermarket doesn’t sell it in time). So we pull good food out of the fridge and pack it straight into the trash bag… In Switzerland and in most of the EU, trash bags go into incineration. And what about the “ugly veg”? Fresh products that do not conform to the beauty standards of the European supermarkets are thrown away before even hitting the supermarket. Carrot which is too crooked, pepper not bent enough, cucumber not straight enough are some examples of it. To quote my friend’s mum who works in agriculture “I mean, they will straighten in the pan… I don't get why we keep removing perfectly good products”. These products are composted on-site, in the best-case scenario. Seldom did I see in direct sales at farms, that ugly veg is offered at lower prices and I would welcome the opportunity to buy them. I hope someone disproves me and tells me where to buy those! ☺️
All these are instances of pre-consumer food waste as well as food loss. In the European food supply chain, 22% of all food available is lost due to such practices. Over half occur in consumption, a fifth in retail (handling, storage, and distribution), and a fourth in production based on estimates of World Resources Institute and data of the Food & Agriculture Organisation. Basically, out of 10kg of fresh edible 🌶 - 1.1kg rots away in our fridges (consumption waste); 0.46 kg is thrown away in retail and distribution; 0.5 kg never even sees the retail, being the production waste. 7.8kg of those 10kg of produced peppers is eventually eaten in Europe. North America is even worse - 42% of all food is just gone… They end up eating 5.8kg out of 10kg of fresh food.
Environmental and ethical arguments undoubtedly apply. Let’s focus on the environmental cost of food loss and waste. Food needs resources to grow - water (rain and more), soil nutrients, land to start with. Then, agricultural vehicles and trucks burn fuel, refrigeration requires grid energy all of which emit CO2 and have a negative climate footprint. Irrigation systems bring water from nearby sources and deplete aquifers to irrigate a crop with will be thrown away. This is extremely important is areas where water is scarce and products are green gold (watch DW on avocado production). Just like in fast fashion I wrote about, growing cotton so that you wear a shirt 3 times and throw it away is a hell of an unnecessary water footprint. Depending on the mode of production, there are more or less synthetic pesticides involved, which cause their own problems. There are more or less synthetic fertilizers involved to bring essential elements like potassium, nitrogen, and phosphorus to the soil. Natural replenishment of elements can’t cope with fast and intense harvesting cycles, so a “booster shot or nutrients” is necessary but it creates its own problem down the line. All these practices cause environmental stress which goes to waste together with food loss. Farmer’s efforts go to waste. All the resources go straight to waste together with trash bags. For example, nutrients from food like proteins, fats, or fibers are incinerated and “evaporated” into CO2 (more climate footprint). Vitamins or minerals are trapped in the incineration's bottom ash which is subsequently landfilled and lost for eternity (what about nutrient replenishment there?).
Ethical arguments are plentiful in a throw-away culture. Parts of society throw away food, others starve whether in your city or on the same continent. If you have seen the YouTube ad starting with “1 in 5 children does not have enough food to lead a happy and healthy life...”, you know that World Food Program cannot cope with global hunger. Plenty more examples, but I will leave it at that.
There will always be inefficiencies in the food supply chain, but there are improvements and initiatives that minimize the negative effects. I have seen charitable donations by supermarkets that give food close to the expiration dates to the soup kitchens. These kitchens don't have the luxury to fuss about the dates on canned food or expiration date on 250 million-year-old Himalayan salt (?!). They are happy to cook for their users. I wish the same has happened to those fondues, but we asked and the lady said they are packed for being destroyed. With developing supply chain management and AI solutions in retail, short-term pre-expiration food sales will become even more optimized. Ugly veg stores and deliveries are becoming a thing as well. 👩🌾
Four examples of minimizing environmental footprint of your food and preventing food loss. Buy at discounts, store properly, and when possible buy bio/organic food.
As always, how do you as a consumer cope with this without despair?
In shops, between similar products, prefer food that has red reduction stickers due to expiration date. In a country where meat costs 70 CHF/kg (about 65 EUR/kg), saving 50% of the money as well as saving some environmental costs of food loss is a deal I can only encourage.
Before shopping, check your stock at home to avoid overbuying food and then throwing it away at home. Make a shopping list to avoid overbuying. It hurts your budget too.
On that note, leave some "rescue space" on your shopping list for a surprise reduced fish/meat/grill cheese and vegetables that you will find stumble upon in the supermarket.
Do a regular check-up of your fridge food. Just yesterday we had a fridge-clean-up dinner, pulling out all the food that needs to be eaten within a couple of day, ending up with tortellini, grilled mushrooms, and some dips and salad on the dinner table.
Store your food properly to extend its lifetime. See recommendations here. I recently discovered that the best way to store 🥕 is to peel them and put them in jars with water in the fridge. Convenient when doing cooking too since half of the work is already done!
Become aware of how much you buy, how much you eat and how much you waste. Dare to ask your grandparents how it was with food when they were growing up - you might be surprised to realise we are only the first or second generation wasting good edible food.
Finally, if you live in a country where hunger and poverty are real, where people dig the dumpsters to stop feeling hungry - there is a gesture you can do. If you know you will not eat your fresh bread and yesterdays’ salami anymore (because you have an option not to), pack it well and put it in a visible place close to the trash cans. Someone will pick it up. Kindness runs deep.
Have a good (environmentally) responsible grocery shopping! 🍀
Honestly, consciously, and informedly,
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Pictures from personal collection.
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