We care about food

The topic for our presentations in Latvia was 'We care about food'. Here is the content of our presentation:

Over 100 million tonnes of food are wasted annually in the EU (2014 estimate). If nothing is done, food waste is expected to rise to about 126 million tonnes by 2020. About a third of all food produced globally for human consumption is lost or wasted - around 1.3 billion tonnes per year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation.

 

Causes of food waste

Food is lost or wasted along the whole food supply chain: on the farm, in processing and manufacture, in shops, in restaurants and canteens and in the home. The reasons for food waste vary widely and can be sector-specific.

Factors contributing to food waste include:

• Insufficient shopping and meal planning and promotions like "buy one get one free" leading to too much food being purchased or prepared; 
• Misunderstandings about the meaning of "best before" and "use by" date labels leading to edible foods being thrown away;
• Standardised portion sizes in restaurants and canteens;
• Difficulty in anticipating the number of customers (a problem for catering services);
• Stock management issues for manufacturers and retailers;
• High quality standards (eg. for produce sold at retail);
• Overproduction or lack of demand for certain products at certain times of the year; product and packaging damage(farmers and food manufacturing);
• Inadequate storage/transport at all stages of the food chain.

Underlying all these problems is an overall lack of awareness, by many actors, of the sheer scale of the problem and the benefits that come from reducing food waste.

1 Plan your shopping: Menu plan your meals for a week. Check the ingredients in your fridge and cupboards, then write a shopping list for just the extras you need. Take your list and don’t shop when you’re hungry — you’ll come back with more than you need. Buy loose fruits and vegetables instead of pre-packed so you can buy exactly the amount you need.

2 Check the dates: If you are not planning to eat a certain item with a short “use by” date, look for one with a longer “use by” date or just plan to buy it on the day you require. Be aware on the meaning of date labels: “use by” means that the food is only safe for consumption until the indicated day (e.g. for meat and fish); “best before” indicates the date up until whenthe product retains its expected quality. Food products are still safe to consume even after the indicated “best before” day.

3 Consider your budget: Wasting food means wasting money.

4 Keep a healthy fridge: Check the seals and the temperature of your fridge. Food needs to be stored between 1 and 5 degrees Celsius for maximum freshness and longevity.

5 Store food in accordance with the instructions on the packaging.

6 Rotate: When you buy new food from the store, bring all the older items in your cupboards and fridge to the front. Put the new food at the back to reduce the risk of finding something mouldy in your food storage compartments.

7 Serve small amounts of food with the understanding that everybody can come back for more once they’ve cleared their plate.

8 Use up your leftovers: Instead of scraping leftovers into the bin, they can be used for lunches the following day, go into the next day’s dinner or be frozen for another occasion. Fruit that is just going soft can be used to make smoothies or fruit pies. Vegetables that are starting to wilt can be made into soups.

9 Freeze: If you only eat a small amount of bread, then freeze it when you get home and take out a few slices a couple of hours before you need them. Likewise, batch cooked foods so that you have meals ready for those evenings when you are too tired to cook.

10 Turn it to garden food: Some food waste is unavoidable so why not set up a compost bin for fruit and vegetable peelings? In a few months you will end up with rich, valuable compost for your plants. If you have cooked food waste, then a kitchen composter will do the trick. Just feed it with your scraps, sprinkle over a layer of special microbes and leave to ferment. The resulting product can be used for houseplants and in the garden. 

(Source:http://www.recycleforgreatermanchester.com/reduce/food-waste; http://ec.europa.eu/food/safety/food_waste/index_en.htm; http://www.soscuisine.com/fr/blogue/article/le-marketing-des-legumes-moches)

Marliese & Khiet Tam (Year 10)