This is our research about how to counteract food waste or how to use food that would normally be thrown away. This is our initial research, so it would be nice if you could leave a comment to tell us what you think about it and what we could improve. You can also sent other solutions you've found so we can add them to our research. We hope we can work together and help each other out!
- What can we do with leftover food that is normally wasted?
- What can we do with it at home?
https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2016/feb/02/cook-on-a-budget-cut-down-food-waste-save-money-tom-hunt
This article is about 10 things you can do with food waste at home. It is a style of cooking and living which can save you money and make sure that less food is wasted. We’ll list the 10 goods that you can use for something else instead of wasting them. The article goes further into detail about all the things you can do with these specific goods.
- Root greens
- Salad leaves
- Meat past its sell-by or best-before day
- Animal fat
- Sour milk
- Pastry and pasta offcuts
- Egg whites or yolks
- Stale bread
- Mouldy cheese
- Vegetable skins
We can also do composting of waste at home to use for a vegetable garden in our backyard or something else. There are other creative ways to use leftover food, but these are some ideas.
- What can stores do about it?
A possible solution for stores is to sell best-before or sell-by products at a lower price. The Delhaize next to our school helps for a little bit as well. It gives a 30% discount when it is the last date by which a product can be sold. I think that that is a good incentive so the products don’t get wasted.
Stores can also give food past its ‘best-before’ date to food banks or to homeless shelters. But then of course the stores don’t get extra money, but they do help people who are more food insecure.
KOR, Y. e.a., How large food retailers can help solve the food waste crisis, internet, 19 december 2017.https://hbr.org/2017/12/how-large-food-retailers-can-help-solve-the-food-waste-crisis
- What happens with deformed or wrong-looking food?
- What are the main reasons these products are not being sold?
It starts from the start of the chain, because of three set rules:
- general trade norms: freshness, safety and taste
- specifiek trade norms: appearance like size and shape
- 25 species abolished, but 11 remain (¾ of financial value)
- 3 quality classes (1 best → 3 worst)
- supplementary quality demands from retailers
- they want to have the perfect fruit or vegetables
- second class fruit and vegetables doesn’t reach the shelfs → fodder
→ food that isn’t perfect gets banned from class 1 to class 2, but that doesn’t mean that class 2 food isn’t tasty or healthy
Worldwide, 40% of fruit and vegetables is wasted before they reach consumers. In many countries, this happens because of insufficient storage, but in Europe, it mainly happens because of cosmetic reasons.
https://www.akkerbouwactueel.nl/nieuwsartikel/2018/carla-dik-faber-geef-ook-rare-paprika-s-en-kromkommers-een-kans-/b24g18c33o2293/
https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/misshapen-fruit-vegetables-business-case
- What are some possible solutions to counteract this waste of food?
A first possible solution is to sell the deformed or wrong-looking goods for a lower price. It shows people that we have to change our perspective on eating. We shouldn’t eat with our eyes, but with our stomach. This solution is also beneficial for the stores: they can sell goods that are normally not sold and they still get a bit of money. An example is a french store (Intermarché) where ‘ugly’ fruits and vegetables are sold. The separate alley with deformed food sells out really quickly because of a 30% reduction. It’s really a success.
Another solution is to donate the food to charity. Organisations can collect misshapen food from farms or stores and can donate it to people who have less money. An example is ‘Feeding the 5000’ in the UK: they managed to collect a lot of food for charity.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/food/article-2693000/Forget-ugli-fruit-meet-ugly-fruit-bowl-French-supermarket-introduces-lumpy-misshapen-fruit-vegetables-sold-30-discount-combat-food-waste.html
Research by Elias Janssens, Joppe van Loon and Anton Smets