Love Food? Hate Waste? Then, you’ll be pleased to know that a new national initiative has been announced to help us all reduce the waste of perfectly good food which occurs almost unregarded every day. It’s a Canadian thing, based on a great UK program which does more than just preach its point…
As much as 40 per cent of all the food produced on the planet never makes it
to the supermarket shelf or, ultimately, the consumer…
The Love Food Hate Waste program was founded in the UK by The Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP) headquartered in London. It’s a partnership between government agencies and private companies designed to make folks aware of the egregious waste of perfectly good food every day, waste that is often based on prejudice: ugly food is often culled even before it reaches the supermarket. ‘Grading’ programs and the use of terms such as ‘Canada Fancy’ assure that only the most perfectly-sized, shaped and unblemished Fruits and Veggies go on display. But the items that don’t meet muster are just as flavourful and nutritious as their runway-model cousins.
Let’s start with some stats…
The Canadian group’s leaders, in their launch announcement earlier this week, hit the media with some pretty horrific food waste figures. It’s estimated that every day, year round, Canadians trash:
- 2.4 million Potatoes
- 1.2 million apples
- 1 million cups of milk
- 750,000 loaves of bread
- and 450,000 eggs
Those, at home and at the supermarket, plus losses of all the other food items in the fresh Meat and Produce departments, total something like 2.2 million tonnes of edible food waste per year. And that’s just Canada. Little underpopulated Food-wealthy Canada. The global figures are almost impossible to comprehend.
And this is nothing new. A Canadian commercial initiative involving companies and tech research organizations launched back in 2016. And McLean’s magazine published a comprehensive story on the issue of Canadian Food Waste back in 2015.
Some approaches to curbing the waste…
Better farm and Food Chain management and closer attention to the environment could go a long way to curtailing food waste at the earliest stages of the food chain.
Greedy eyes at the consumer end of the Food Chain (especially at all-you-can-eat buffets) are responsible for enormous food waste in ‘leftovers’ and food left on plates.
Increasing awareness among consumers about the problem and its possible solutions could make a real dent in the waste figures…
What can we do?
- Embrace Ugly Food!
- Don’t abuse Buffets
- Shop Loblaw’s (and other chains’) ‘Naturally Imperfect’ produce aisles.
- Talk up the benefits of eating Ugly Food to your friends and family.
- And continue to eat well!
We’ll be keeping a close eye on this issue in the future…
~ Maggie J.