Shining a highlight on meals loss and waste within the farm-to-fork journey will not be a brand new idea, but highlighting the prevalence of the place alongside that highway it happens presents new alternatives for the business to handle it.
Globally, roughly 13% of the meals produced is misplaced between harvest and entry into the retail house, the United Nations (UN) reported. As well as, round 17% of worldwide meals manufacturing is wasted in households, meals service environments, and retail.
Tackling meals waste and loss
The UN’s Worldwide Day of Consciousness of Meals Loss and Waste centered on “Lowering meals loss and waste: Taking Motion to Remodel Meals Programs” as its core 2023 message. A 3rd of all meals produced worldwide is misplaced or wasted, the Meals and Agriculture Group (FAO) reported. This coupled with the UN’s Sustainable Improvement Objective (SDG) 12.3 to halve this quantity by 2023, means world strain is mounting to sort out meals loss and waste.
As a part of its 2023 Day of Consciousness, the UN urged shoppers, native and nationwide authorities, and companies to prioritise actions and progress on options to decrease meals waste and loss. Specializing in discount by way of motion and reworking our world meals techniques, the UN centered on restoring and rebuilding a greater and extra resilient meals system to sort out insecurity and feed our rising inhabitants.
In addition to forming a part of SDG 12, which seeks to make sure sustainable consumption and manufacturing patterns, meals waste and loss is prevalent in different particular world actions to create constructive environmental change, together with SDG 2: Zero Starvation, the UN Framework Conference on Local weather Change together with broader efforts to scale back impacts on local weather, water, land, and vitality and enhance the economics of nations, cities, companies, and households.
The European Union (EU), which sees practically 59 million tonnes of meals wasted yearly, introduced in July 2023 its proposal to revise the EU waste framework directive. Presently underneath dialogue, the revision contains new EU targets for meals waste discount for 2030. As a part of European efforts to scale back meals waste and loss, the European Fee introduced it is going to put ahead legally binding targets to scale back meals waste throughout the EU by the tip of 2023 and a revision of EU guidelines on date marking, referring to ‘use by’ and ‘finest earlier than’ dates.
Accompanying a group of EU actions to sort out meals waste in Europe, The EU Motion Plan for the Round Economic system proposed a platform devoted to stopping meals waste. The Fee subsequently arrange the EU Platform on Meals Losses and Meals Waste (FLW), designed to attain SDG 12.3 with out risking meals security, feed security and animal well being.
Understanding the explanations for meals waste and loss
Within the Meals and Agriculture Group (FAO) context, meals losses are prevalent after harvest and earlier than retail. “Meals losses are prevalent in growing international locations and outcome from the insufficient/lack of infrastructure, expertise, packaging, logistics and the restricted data and expertise of provide chain stakeholders,” a spokesperson for the Meals and Agriculture Group (FAO) informed FoodNavigator. “Overproduction can be usually an issue on account of manufacturing planning,” the spokesperson added.
Meals waste is prevalent in households, the meals service sector, and retail. “The very best ranges of meals waste happen in households, largely on account of poor shopper understanding of date labelling on meals merchandise, which ends up in meals of fine high quality being discarded,” detailed the FAO spokesperson.
Shoppers usually throw away meals match for consumption as there may be confusion over meals labels. The “finest earlier than” date pertains to the standard of the meals product, whereas the “use by” pertains to the meals’s security. “Meals that’s correctly packaged and saved could be consumed effectively past its best-before date,” confirmed the spokesperson. There are, nonetheless, meals security dangers related to meals that has handed its “use-by” date, indicating the important thing distinction between “finest earlier than” and “use by” and labels.
A number of different contributing elements result in meals waste, FAO’s spokesperson detailed, together with poor meals buy planning that usually ends in overbuying, improper storage of meals within the family, cooking greater than is required and discarding leftover meals.
Stopping meals waste and loss
“Meals loss prevention should begin with manufacturing planning to keep away from market gluts,” FAO’s spokesperson stated. Avoiding meals waste and loss additionally necessitates investments in expertise and primary infrastructure by growing roads, electrical energy, and potable water provides, that are essential. Put up-harvest-specific infrastructure, comparable to cool and dry storage services and services for applicable freezing, transport, sustainable and environment friendly chilly chain techniques, and logistics, are additionally very important.
Meals processing and packaging additionally contribute considerably to decreasing meals losses. The business locations its concentrate on growing packaging that may be reused or recycled. “Meals packaging performs a essential position in extending the shelf-life of meals and stopping and decreasing meals waste,” added FAO’s spokesperson.
“Developments and innovation in packaging expertise towards enhancing sustainability and circularity will go an extended strategy to assuring safer meals merchandise with longer shelf life and decreasing shopper meals waste in a sustainable method,” added FAO’s spokesperson.
Utilizing good labels that visibly observe product freshness helps cut back meals waste and loss. Digital enablers such because the Web of Issues, blockchain, synthetic intelligence (AI), and good sensors more and more play a task in stopping meals waste. Constructing stakeholder expertise throughout the agrifood system can be essential to making sure the sustainability of meals techniques operations.
