How many tomatoes did you throw away last year? That is considered food wastage.
When you dined at a restaurant, did you leave anything on the plate? That is considered food wastage.
Did you leave any food on the counter overnight by accident and considered it unsafe to eat the next morning? That is considered food wastage.
I confess that I have been guilty of all of the above and more.
Food waste (aka food loss) is defined as food that has been discarded, lost or uneaten. There are two areas where wastage can occur on what is called the food supply chain. In low-income developing nations the wastage takes place during production; in developed nations loss happens at the consumption point. In 2011, as a global community, we wasted 1.3 billion tons of food, which equals a stunning one-third of global food production.
Dr David Suzuki estimates that the average Canadian household, discards one in four items of produce. In monetary terms, it is like dumping $600/family into the garbage can. Think of all that food that could have been consumed by others.
Dr Tim Fox, head of energy and environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, said: “The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is staggering. This is food that could be used to feed the world’s growing population – as well as those in hunger today.” BBC News January 2013