Nowadays, it is evident that in numerous parts of the world, a significant amount of food is wasted and it is a growing concern for many people. There are several reasons for this problem such as strict aesthetic standards and lack of awareness and various measures including educating consumers about proper storage and selling “imperfect” produce at discounted rates can be taken to improve this situation.
There are two main factors that have led to food wastage. One of the major causes is strict aesthetic standards. This means supermarkets frequently reject products, even if they are perfectly edible only because products do not meet aesthetic standards such as size or shape. The second reason is lack of awareness as consumers do not know how to store food properly at home and misunderstanding of expiration dates also cause premature disposal. As a result, food expires earlier than expected time due to poor storage conditions which leads to large amount of emissions. For instance, Around 1.3 billion tons of food-nearly a third of global production-is wasted annually.
There are several actions that governments could take to solve the problem of food wastage. Firstly, a simple solution would be to encourage retailers to sell “imperfect” products at discounted rates. This approach helps consumers save their money as offers such as discount will attract more consumers, resulting in reduced food waste. The second measure would be education about proper storage. Namely, simple changes and knowledge of the storage rules for each product can have positive impacts on food waste. A successful example of this is that in Sweden, educational campaings about food storage reduced household waste by over 25% in targeted communities.
In conclusion, despite the obvious reasons, various measures can be taken to tackle the problem of food waste