Hi there, today's topic is Food Waste! Did you enjoy Halloween night💀?
I enjoyed going out for a drink with my colleagues and I saw loads of Halloween decorations out there, including carved pumpkins.
I'm quite sure a lot of people are aware of food waste after Halloween.
In fact, more than 10 million of carved pumpkins in the UK will go to waste even though these Halloween pumpkins are edible.
In this entry, to those who are keen to contribute to decreasing food waste,
I'll quickly pick up how you can tackle food waste on a daily basis, with the important food waste facts and statistics.
Contents
- Food waste facts: About one-third of food in the world is being wasted
- Food waste statistics: By country/By sector
- How to tackle food waste?: Awareness/ Planning/ Mindful consumption
- Summary
Food Waste Facts
According to the United Nations, food waste has been increasing and now:
- About one-third of food in the world is being wasted
- This is equivalent to each person throwing away 120 KG of food per year
- 70% of the UK’s food waste comes from households
These are primarily why we might need to tackle food waste on a daily and individual basis.
Food Waste Statistics
By Country
As of 2020, China was the country that produced the biggest amount of food waste (91 million ton), Japan was the 11th, (8.1 million ton) and the UK was the 16th (5.2 million ton).
(Sourced by Statistica 2023, Annual household food waste produced in selected countries worldwide as of 2020*)
By Sector
As per UNEP food waste index, about 60 % of global food waste (569 million tons) comes from households.This is what shocked me and what drove me to be interested in food waste. Because if I put my best foot forward, it could make a little difference.
How to tackle food waste?
Awareness
You might have heard of the difference between 'Use by' and 'Best before' to display the expiry date.
Understanding this and dealing with food properly will stop loads of food from going to bin bags.
'Use by' is mostly used on fresh produce, which has to be consumed before the date printed due to safety concerns.
However, the food life can be extended by freezing it.
'Best before' is often used on non-perishable products and rather than safety.
It means that the food will remain at the best quality up until the date as long as you follow the storage instructions.
Planning
Planning your meals will also be of massive help.
I normally go weekly grocery shopping and beforehand, make a rough plan on what I'm gonna cook this week.
In this way, you won't buy anything you don't necessarily need, which will decrease food going to waste.
Mindful Consumption
Food has probably more edible parts than you think.
Washing ingredients properly and making a little tiny effort to use as much part of them as you can will make a huge difference.
Let's see how much food you will throw away tonight!
Summary
We've looked at some food waste facts and statistics.
It's really important for us to tackle food waste on a daily basis as more than 60% of food waste comes from households.
Although you didn't have any clue of what to do about food waste before, I'm sure you can start off somthing from today because you now know the difference between 'Use by' and 'Best before'!
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Below links are the first articles of each topic:
- Food Waste (1): TooGoodToGo app
- Reflective Journal (1): Benefits of a part-time job for international students
- Beyond the headline (1): Israel vs Palestine - History and Background -
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