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Half of All Food Produced Worldwide is Wasted

food, refrigeratorTremendous quantities of food are wasted after production. Edible food is discarded in processing, transport, supermarkets and kitchens.

A brief authored by the Stockholm International Water Institute, the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, and the International Water Management Institute argues that the current food crisis is a crisis of waste.

The brief states that, "More than enough food is produced to feed a healthy global population. Distribution and access to food is a problem -- many are hungry, while at the same time many overeat." However, it says, "we are providing food to take care of not only our necessary consumption but also our wasteful habits."

"As much as half of the water used to grow food globally may be lost or wasted," says researcher Dr. Charlotte de Fraiture.

In the United States, meanwhile, as much as 30 percent of food, worth some $48.3 billion, is thrown away.

Sources:

Dr. Mercola''s Comments Dr. Mercola's Comments:

Millions of people across the world are facing hunger and starvation due to the current food crisis. Yet, dwindling food supplies may not be to blame this time. Rather, massive problems with our food supply system, along with astounding amounts of waste, may be directly responsible for why some people don’t have enough to eat.

In poor countries, food waste happens before it ever reaches those most in need. The policy brief, "Saving Water: From Field to Fork -- Curbing Losses and Wastage in the Food Chain," found that depending on the crop, an estimated 15 to 35 percent of food may be lost in the field. Another 10 percent to15 percent is discarded during processing, transport and storage, the brief states.

In rich countries, however, production is more efficient but the waste is greater because of waste in restaurants, schools, hospitals and people’s kitchens.

"People toss the food they buy and all the resources used to grow, ship and produce the food along with it,” the report states.

It’s estimated that half of all the food produced worldwide is wasted!

How This Impacts Global Water Supplies

You may be wondering why a report on food waste has been released by prominent international water institutes. Well, as the authors state, food waste is water waste.

In the United States, for instance, 30 percent of food is thrown away.

"That's like leaving the tap running and pouring 40 trillion liters of water into the garbage can -- enough water to meet the household needs of 500 million people," says the report.

And just as there’s a global food crisis going on right now, a global water crisis has been brewing for several decades. Currently, more than one out of six people lack access to safe drinking water, and another two out of six lack adequate sanitation, according to the World Water Council.

Yet, as with food, it seems the problem isn’t about dwindling supplies so much as it’s about proper management and reducing waste.

According to researchers, up to half of the water used to grow food around the world may be lost or wasted.

How Much Food Waste is Acceptable?

The problem of food waste is clearly a large-scale one, with urgent changes needed to reduce spoilage in the field, during processing and during transportation. One part of the problem is that food is now being transported all over the world before it gets consumed, whereas food produced and consumed in a local setting has less chances of spoiling.

However, vast amounts of food are wasted, particularly in developed countries, in restaurants and schools and simply because we buy more than we can consume -- or put too much on our plates when serving ourselves in cafeterias.

In fact, the report mentions a 2008 article in the New York Times that found an average family of four people in the United States throws away 112 pounds of food every month!

Yet, it’s been estimated that at least half of the food thrown away in homes and restaurants across the United States isn’t bad and could easily be consumed.

So, aside from purchasing less food in the first place, and therefore having an easier time eating it before it goes bad, it seems clear that knowing when a food is actually bad, and when it’s still perfectly safe to eat, would help to curb some of this excessive waste.

I believe it is important to understand many of these global issues so you can avoid being confused or deceived the next time you encounter a media report on this topic. However, these are issues that most of us will not be able to influence so it seemed appropriate to provide you with some information where you actually can make a difference in food waste -- your own home.

Food Expiration Dates: When Are Foods Really Spoiled?

Many processed and canned foods will last indefinitely due to the massive amounts of preservatives and processing they’ve undergone. In order to be healthy, though, you need to purchase fresh, unprocessed foods for yourself and your family. Unfortunately, these are also the foods that will go bad the fastest.
 
Knowing when a food is still safe to eat, and when it’s not, is not as simple as going by the expiration date though. In fact, expiration dates on foods are completely voluntary (except for those on infant formulas and some baby foods, which the U.S. government requires). And the varying terms have very different meanings. For instance:

Sell by: This is a guide for retailers to know when to take the product off the shelf. A food will lose peak freshness after the sell-by date, but it will still be safe to eat for some time after.

Best if used by or before: Consuming the food before this date means it’s at peak freshness and flavor, but it is not a measure of safety. In other words, it’s safe to eat foods past their “best before” date.

Use by: This also refers to quality, and foods are still often safe after this date has passed.

Expiration date: This is the date after which a food may no longer be safe to eat.

In your own kitchen, you can greatly cut back on food waste in the following ways:

1. Only buy small quantities of perishable foods. If you’re not sure you’ll get to it before it goes bad, don’t buy it.

2. Freeze foods that are nearing spoilage. I generally believe you should eat foods fresh, not frozen, but if you find yourself with, say, two pounds of grass-fed beef that will go bad in a day or two, and you can’t eat it in time, putting it in the freezer will extend its shelf-life.

3. Get the air out of your produce bags. Using a vacuum seal or even just pressing the air out of the bag thoroughly can double the shelf-life of your produce.

4. Keep your refrigerator at the right temperature. 25 percent of U.S. refrigerators are kept too warm to keep your food safe. Your fridge should be kept at 40 degrees Fahrenheit or 4 degrees centigrade.

5. Avoid refrigerating leftovers in a big lump. This promotes bacterial growth because the center of the “lump” cannot cool down quickly enough.

6. If a food is slightly moldy, it doesn’t mean you have to throw it out. It’s perfectly safe to just cut the spot out and eat the food.

7. To maximize how long foods stay fresh, be sure to leave enough space between refrigerated items (if your fridge is too packed, it may make it harder for the cold air to circulate).

Of course, the fresher your foods are to begin with, the longer you can expect them to last as well. Ideally, choose the freshest foods you can find, and eat them as soon as possible, as some foods, particularly vegetables, lose nutrients after they’re harvested.


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Comment on This Article Community Comments (23)
 
 
Posted On Aug 26, 2008
The results of a food wastage survey were reported recently here in the UK.  The findings estimated that 1.3 million pots of yoghurt were thrown in the trash, unopened, every day!  Not to mention thousands of whole chickens, millions of apples, potatoes, eggs and countless other foods - about 1/3 of all the food bought.  Go to http://www.wrap.org.uk/retail/food_waste/research/the_food_we_waste.html for more details.

I'm sure I'm not alone here in being staggered by this.  I was brought up to never throw food away.  I either eat or compost everything.  Part of the problem is greed and thoughtlessness whilst in the supermarkets, but it's also down to the fear that's been driven into people that anything past it's 'best before' date will make you ill, when these dates are really only there to cover the manufacturers liabilities.

Whenever I hear friends/family/colleagues complain about the recent and impending increases in food prices, I politely suggest that if they reduced the amount they wasted then the increases could be nullified or even reversed.  Strangely, nobody seems to think that they are the wasteful ones... throwing away out-of-date food is considered acceptable behaviour; the idea of buying less to start with takes some effort to get into heads.

I hope that someday people will learn to choose for themselves what they believe.  Good on you, Dr M, for helping us to do that.


 
avagothen
Novice User Novice User, Joined On 6/2008
avagothen  
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leppert
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leppert  
 
Posted On Aug 26, 2008
When I was a kid most of the restaurants and grocery stores sent their past-prime stuff to the local pig farms.  I know a lot has changed in the last 50 years but isn't this still done?


BeeGirl
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 4/2008
BeeGirl  
 
Posted On Aug 26, 2008
Leppert, I saw this a couple of months ago -

"Near record high prices for corn mean that farmers are feeding their pigs "people food" according to an article in The Wall Street Journal.
With demand for ethanol booming, American farmers are facing a dilemma when it comes to feeding their livestock. The Wall Street Journal, reports that some farmers are increasingly relying on food waste to feed their animals.
"Besides trail mix, pigs and cattle are downing cookies, licorice,
cheese curls, candy bars, french fries, frosted wheat cereal and
peanut-butter cups. Some farmers mix chocolate powder with cereal and
feed it to baby pigs," writes Lauren Etter. "California farmers are
feeding farm animals grape-skins from vineyards and lemon-pulp from
citrus groves. Cattle ranchers in spud-rich Idaho are buying truckloads
of uncooked french fries, Tater Tots and hash browns."
"In Pennsylvania, farmers are turning to candy bars and snack
foods because of the many food manufacturers nearby. Hershey Co. sells
farmers waste cocoa and the trimmings from wafers that go into its Kit
Kat bars. At Nissin Foods, maker of Top Ramen and Cup Noodles, farmers
drive to a Lancaster, Pa., factory and load up on scraps of the
squiggly dried noodles, which pile up in bins beneath the assembly
line," she continues"




Islander
Moderator User Moderator User Joined On 3/2007
Islander  
 
Posted On Aug 27, 2008
Leppert, that practice used to be common here in Maine for small-scale pig farmers. I used to have an agreement with a local supermarket to pick up outdated dairy, bakery and produce items three times/week. These "resources" were in high demand; especially desirable was the school lunch waste. (Sorry, NoName, it's true!) Then a law was passed that all food fed to pigs that were later to be butchered and sold, must be cooked.  That law didn't affect people like me who made their money selling piglets and who put a pig in their own freezer each year - but it did effectively put a stop to utilizing a lot of the food waste. Trust government to piss in the soup.


Brazil123
Novice User Novice User Joined On 4/2008
Brazil123  
 
Posted On Sep 12, 2008

leppert,

I used to work at a hotel reception during college. A guest once was outraged at the amount of food that is trown away. I checked in to see if the food could not be given away to shelters, unfortunately because people are so sue happy the hotels will throw the food away before they give it away and expose themsleves to a law suit by someone who claims they got sick of the food. The legal system needs to change first.


 
 
 
Posted On Aug 26, 2008
This post was deleted because it violated our Terms Of Use :
Abuse, harass, humiliate, deceive, threaten, impersonate, intimidate or engage in any other abusive behaviors with those who comment on Mercola.com.

 
_No_Name_
Users with negative points NoviceUser, Joined On 4/2008
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EarthWindFire
Novice User Novice User Joined On 6/2006
EarthWindFire  
 
Posted On Aug 27, 2008
I threw away some canned goods a few years ago that someone had given me because I just didn't know how safe it would have been to eat and I wasn't sure how botulism would work in a composte pile.
I don't know what to think of the whole bot info. It seems like the risk of exposure is very very low and the death toll even lower, but there's something scary about a toxin you can not see or smell that could kill you or your loved ones?


 
 
 
Posted On Aug 26, 2008
And the day shall come when ye shall say--give me food for I am hungry, and give me drink for I am thirsty.

And I shall say--I have given thee all that thy can eat and all that thy can drink. I have given thee means of growing and purifying. I have given the the ways of communucation and travel and clean air, but thou hast used up everything unwisely.

Yes, thou hast used everything I have given thee---except---thou common sense...now what shall ye do?

 
Rogway
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seg
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 11/2006
seg  
 
Posted On Aug 27, 2008
That day is already upon us.....Few will believe it though.....

 
 
 
Posted On Aug 27, 2008
The amount of food wasted by restaurants, stores, hospitals, schools, and in home kitchens is staggering. Someone told me yesterday that a local food bank has to discard fresh produce - 20# bags of potatoes, fresh winter squash, etc. - because it is not taken, and I suspect that's because people either do not know how to prepare fresh food, or are unwilling to spend the time cooking it.

But there is a darker side to this. We often hear statements like, "Food wasted at (fill in the blank) could feed 50,000 people in Darfur." In fact, massive donations of food sent to Darfur are sold by the government and never get to the hungry. Another example: in Sweden during World War II, people went hungry and food was rationed. Why? Sweden was growing more than enough to feed its own people, but it was more profitable to export it.

Those who know me at all well will tell you how much I abhor waste. But for "the rest of the story," follow the money....

 
Islander
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EarthWindFire
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EarthWindFire  
 
Posted On Aug 27, 2008
Last year grocery stores that offered wild game processing participated in a program through which people could donate venison to area food shelves throughout the state. We were very excited about it, and many people participated.  Then the state proceeded to throw it all out, claiming that led had been found in the meat from the bullets used to shoot the deer.
People around these parts have been eating wild game for generations w/o any signs of led poisoning.
A crock and a waste and there's more to it than money imo.
Peace


BeeGirl
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 4/2008
BeeGirl  
 
Posted On Aug 27, 2008
Islander - our food bank receives complaints from the thunderdome kids that pass through every year because the produce isn't organic!!!

EWF - our grocery stores won't process game anymore because they were bought up by chains.




Timbear
Novice User Novice User Joined On 4/2008
Timbear  
 
Posted On Sep 11, 2008

I agree. While I am ambivalent these days on conspiracies, both supposed and possibly real...

*(the supposeds are insane. Lizard people? Geez!)

*(the possibly real? Well, you know, if you are dumb enough to think that you should never save money, that housing prices ALWAYS go up, and that using a home equity loan to remodel a den to house your big screen TV you also bought with that home equity loan, then how hard do you think it would be to create a set of circumstances such that the same willfully and malignantly stupid population we have in the US will wind up losing most of their assets to the GSEs this government is clearly setting up?)

The icing on this cake is the amount of money the big multinational ag firms spend on producing mule strains of food crops. In what twisted mind is it a good idea to produce a competitive crop gene set that is predisposed to producing sterile mule seeds?

Fifty years ago, this would be the storyline in a science fiction, end of the world thriller. Today, it is simply business. No point in outlining the parentage of that way of thinking because people have a Pavlovian response to looking away from truth that messes up their ability enjoy their cable TV, beer and Nascar....


 
 
 
Posted On Sep 11, 2008

You've heard about vegans, but what about freegans?

Use your Google skills for more info. Here's an excerpt from one dumpster diver's site:

"The first day I dived for food, I had just been IN the store buying marked down 1/2 gallons of orange juice for $0.50. While I was doing the rest of my shopping, someone came with a cart and loaded up all the orange juice into a shopping cart.

"So, I hung around to see what happened to it. They wheeled the cart out and threw scores of gallons and 1/2 gallons of orange juice away...that were still 2 days from their due date. They were pasteurized. They were still cold.

It was winter, so it was cool. I went to the dumpster and grabbed as many as I could carry. This experience was life changing for me.

"Where would you draw the line? Would you not buy the marked down OJ? Would you take it out of the guy's cart if he were a few feet from the dumpster and asked you if you wanted it for free? Would you take it out of the dumpster?

"We food divers tap into the sad fact that we're throwing away 96 BILLION pounds of perfectly good food into land fills each year in this country. By EPA estimates, we're spending $4.8 BILLION a year disposing of that perfectly good food.

"You can read more about food waste here:,Food Recovery and Gleaning - USDA

I'm working on a separate page for food diving.  Check back later."

Source: members.aol.com/.../thedumpsterlady.htm


 
Islander
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Timbear
Novice User Novice User Joined On 4/2008
Timbear  
 
Posted On Sep 11, 2008

Islander, clearly we disagree on an number of things. That is okay.

I have to say thanks for this link, though. I plan to see about implementing this. My first thought was that this is the oddest link I have followed in recent memory.

...but whatever makes it possible for me to retire earlier and go raise fruit trees and children in a third world country. Not for export, for self-sufficiency.

-Tim



Reesacat
Savvy User Savvy User Joined On 1/2007
Reesacat  
 
Posted On Sep 11, 2008

A very unusual link-but thought-provoking.  Thank you!


 
 
 
 
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