Food waste has become has grown exponentially in many countries, strengthening insecurity of food for millions of people. While this can be attributed to strict food aesthetic standards and consumer behavior, the problem can be addressed by redistributing food surplus and taking advantage of mobile apps.
One of the primary facts contributing to food waste is the high standards of perfection for the food appearance. These standards often prioritizes on visual appearance, focusing on factors such as size, shape, color, and texture, which can be resulted in perfectly edible food to be thrown away simply because it doesn’t meet the ideal appearance criteria. Korzinka, one of the well-known supermarket chains in Uzbekistan, recently faced criticism from the government and the public due to its careless attitude towards the handling food to the consumers. However, the public is not without the fault either. Residential food waste is the most significant contributor to what is sent to the landfills. This usually happens when people over-purchased or cook in an enormous amount of food portions that are not consumed, which often happens from lack of awareness or poor planning.
Regardless of the problem complexity, there are number of ways to address this issue. One of the effective measures would be to develop food redistribution programs. Such programs should collaborate with supermarkets and communities, particularly in the areas where food insecurity is widespread challenge, to ensure that the perfectly edible with some minor defects on its appearance is not wasted. This sort of action can have a two-fold impact by reducing environmental impact on food waste while also alleviating food insecurity for many people.
Another approach, one that would complement the first, is to use mobile food waste apps. Such apps help users track food items that have at home, preventing unnecessary purchases during shopping. Those sort of apps send reminders about expiration food dates or alerts when certain foods are close to spoiling, which can encourage people to use them before they become inedible. One such mobile application is “NoWatse” which received overwhelmingly positive reviews from their users.
In conclusion, the main reasons behind food waste are strict aesthetic standards for food and consumer behavior, such as over-purchasing and poor planning. However, this issue can be effectively tackled through measures like food redistribution programs and the use of innovative mobile apps.