According to the world UN environment index, nearly 1 billion tonnes of food is wasted globally.
Reducing food waste at retail, food service and household level can provide multi-faceted benefits for both the people and the planet.
However, the true scale of food waste and its impacts has not been well understood until now.
COVID-19 threw the issue of food waste into stark relief for those fortunate enough not to spend too much time worrying about food security.
China, USA, India, Germany and Japan are among the countries who lead in the statistics of food waste.
The damage caused by food waste is enormous. About one trillion US dollars in costs are incurred annually by food that is thrown away — and this is only the financial damage. The environment, natural resources and people also suffer from this “throwaway culture”. But how do such quantities of edible waste occur in the first place?
WHAT ARE THE REASONS FOR FOOD WASTE?
Besides mold, bruises or wrinkled skin, large portions and incorrectly planned grocery hauls are often the cause of food being thrown away.
The biggest reason for private individuals to throw edible food into the bin is the best-before date, which is still regarded as a red line that must not be exceeded under any circumstances. It is merely an indicator of how long the original quality of a product is guaranteed in a sealed container if it is stored properly. However, many food products can be consumed days and weeks later. Therefore, it is better to rely on your own senses (does something smell funny, is mould visible, does it taste sour) than to throw away edible food just because of the best-before date
One side-effect of lockdowns was that consumers became more aware of the amount of food wasted in their households. The volume of domestic waste dropped by a fifth in the UK during each lockdown, and people’s pattern of consumption changed.
However, we can’t yet be certain that this will last, and there are still significant numbers of consumers who aren’t prepared to factor food waste ethics into their shopping habits.
WHAT IS THE SITUATION IN GHANA?
In Ghana, our food “waste” for example, chicken meat components, which are hardly used in Europe, are transported to Ghana and other African countries. This leads to a flooding of the local market with cheap, subsidized products from abroad. Local poultry suppliers cannot keep up with these prices and are visibly losing their market share.
In Ghana, a lot of foods end up in landfill. The Ghanaian NGO “Food for all Africa” even assumes that up to 45% of all food in the country is thrown away. However, only a very small proportion of this is due to consumer behaviour. Most of the waste is caused by incorrect storage, poor transport and the lack of sufficient refrigeration along the value chain.
Those further up the production process need to do most to get their houses in order. Activists will increase public awareness about this, and demand greater accountability from governments and businesses. This is a critical moment for the agricultural sector. It has an ever-decreasing window of opportunity to make proactive changes to reduce waste before it is forced to do so.
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