What Everybody Ought to Know About Food Waste

How much food did you leave on your plate the last time you ate? 

Have you ever bought a large popcorn bucket at the movie theatre and not finished it? Me neither, but that’s not the point.

Food waste is a bigger problem than many realize. Let me give you some insights into what you’re actually doing when you scrape your plate into the garbage. 

What is food waste and why is it our concern?  

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), food waste refers to food appropriate for human consumption being discarded, whether or not after it is kept beyond its expiry date or left to spoil. This happens because food gets spoiled, or other reasons such as oversupply due to markets, and individual consumer shopping/eating habits

Around 931 million tonnes of food waste were generated in 2019 worldwide, 61% of which came from households, 26% from food service, and 13% from retail, as stated in the Food Waste Index Report 2021, published by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP). 

What about Switzerland?

In Switzerland, annual food waste corresponds to 25% of the entire nutrition‐related footprint, according to the results of a food waste study conducted by the Federal Institute of Technology Zurich (ETH Zurich).

“The more food is thrown away at the end of the production and marketing chain, the greater the environmental impact. The resources consumed are more numerous then and more emissions have been produced for transport, processing, storage, packaging and preparation,” said FOEN. 

Per year, every person is directly responsible for under half a tonne of CO2. Wow!  

Food consumption in Switzerland generates 2.8 million tonnes of avoidable food waste per year at all stages of the food chain (Federal Office for the Environment). Agricultural production accounts for 13% of the environmental impact of all such waste and loses approximately CHF 600 million a year from avoidable food loss. 

Food wasted in processing is responsible for 27% of the environmental impact of avoidable food waste, while wholesale and retail trade accounts for 8%. 

However, half of the environmental impact of all avoidable food waste is generated by households (38%) and the catering industry (14%) consumption. This is because food waste at the end of the value chain has a higher environmental impact, on average than food waste incurred at the beginning.

The Swiss retail trade and major distributors (Coop, Migros, Aldi, Lidl, Denner, Spar and Volg) generate around 100,000 tonnes of food waste in total each year. Around 95% of this could be avoided! This costs the retail trade around CHF 10 million a year. 

Adapted from FOEN.

Why is food waste a problem?

You might be thinking that food waste doesn’t affect you. Think again.  

If food loss and waste were a country, it would be the third biggest source of greenhouse gas emissions”. Inger Andersen, Executive Director of the United Nations Environment Program. (Follow her on Twitter)

As stated by ETH Zurich, producing food that is not consumed results in unnecessary CO2 emissions, biodiversity loss and land and water consumption. Believe it or not, this corresponds to around half of the environmental impact of Switzerland’s motorized private traffic. Food waste also has economic consequences. Discarded food generates costs all along the production and value chain, and consumers ultimately pay those costs. 

Making better use of food with the current level of production would help meet future demand with a lower increase in agricultural production. If food waste and loss across the food chain continue to increase, food production will need to be substantially higher to meet the demand of the increasing world population (FAO). 

Love food, hate waste

We need to treat food like the valuable good that it is. We can all pitch in to combat this global issue because it’s clear that when we waste food, the planet picks up the tab. 

The fact is that food waste is often invisibly baked into how we shop, cook and entertain. It’s up to us to change the way we think and consume food in our daily lives. Here are some tips that will help you shrink your carbon footprint and save you money.   

  1. Shop smart. Avoid buying more than you need and try to use up all the food you purchased before your next trip to the supermarket.  
  2. Don’t be picky. Though identical in taste and nutrition, avoid passing up on “ugly” fruits and vegetables for more visually pleasing produce.  
  3. Keep the fridge clutter-free. You’ve probably heard the saying, “out of sight, out of mind.” Keep your fridge clean and organized so you can always see the foods you have.  
  4. Blend it up. Blending up a nutrient-packed smoothie with over-ripe fruits and vegetables can be a delicious way to reduce food waste. 
  5. Pack your lunch more often. A helpful way to save money while reducing your carbon footprint is to bring your lunch to work with you. Don’t worry, you can still sit at the cool kids’ table.  

Road to success

In 2015, Switzerland and more than 190 other countries adopted the UN’s 2030 Agenda for Sustainable DevelopmentThe goal is to halve per capita food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains by 2030.

Achieving this goal could reduce the environmental impact of avoidable food waste caused by Swiss consumption by around 40–60%. The overall environmental impact of nutrition would decrease by 10–15% and the greenhouse gas effect of nutrition by 9–15%. 

To sum it up, reducing food waste would benefit society by increasing food availability to the most vulnerable, increasing productivity and economic growth, reducing GHG emissions, and reducing pressure on land and water resources.

By working together, everyone can dial up their self-awareness and make a differenceLet’s hit the ground running! 

If you want to know more about how to reduce food waste, watch the video in my next post.

Sources

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) (2013). Food Wastage Foodprint. Impacts on Natural Resources

United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) (2021). Food Waste Index Report 2021. Download from https://www.unep.org/resources/report/unep-food-waste-index-report-2021 

Swissinfo.ch (2019). Survey reveals full impact of Swiss food waste. Download ETH Zurich report from https://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/stop-the-rot-_survey-reveals-full-impact-of-swiss-food-waste-/45324664

Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN). Food Waste

World Economic Forum (2019). How developed countries can reduce their food waste

United Nations. Transforming our world: the 2031 Agenda for Sustainable Development

Francesca Bosancic

Hi! How cool would it be to live in a world where no food is wasted? Food production requires valuable, scarce and environmentally harmful resources that are wasted every day. This waste is avoidable. My goal is to raise awareness and inspire and move you all to stand up against food waste. Let's actively tackle this issue together so we can reduce the unnecessary consequences of food waste!

View all posts by Francesca Bosancic →

16 thoughts on “What Everybody Ought to Know About Food Waste

  1. That’s some hard work right there! Thank you Nina! Can’t wait to read more articles 🙂

  2. Heey Nina,
    Incredible numbers of food waste – worldwide, but also here in Switzerland. It’s crazy how many resources have been wasted when we throw away food at home. I think we can all do our part to reduce global food waste. Hopefully we can raise awareness of this issue more so that something changes in the future.
    I’m really looking forward to your next posts. 🙂

    1. Thank you for sharing your thoughts Sophia!
      I believe that if we are all mindful of this issue, we can make a real difference.
      It won’t happen overnight, but we can start by taking small steps towards reducing the food we waste.

  3. Hey Nina, what a website very interesting and helpful to the community, thanks alot for this experience.
    Can’t wait to see more.

    1. Thank you Sven! I will try to include more interesting sources in my next posts.

  4. Great post and very important topic! Numbers provide a clear overview. I especially loved the advice part, we have to make sure people are aware of the simple steps they can make to solve the issue as much as it is possible! Looking forward to next posts!

  5. Such an interesting and valuable post, Francesca! Unfortunately, my family does not perform too well when it comes to food waste. We all have second places we stay at, and therefore it is tough to plan out our eating schedule, and things can be forgotten in our fridge. But also, my dad and my brothers don’t see why I think we should buy less food at once and just go to the store more frequently to avoid not being able to eat everything before it expires.
    I’m looking forward to your future post! (maybe they can help me improve my arguments😁)

    1. Thank you, Demet!
      Your suggestion is very much appreciated! I will look into this organization’s efforts in tackling food waste 🙂

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