Nowadays, it is evident that the food waste is a growing issue in many countries around the world. There are several reasons for this problem such as Overproduction in the Food Industry and lack of Awareness in storage food at home. However, various measures could be taken by government and individuals to improve the situation: Educating customers on proper storage and Improving inventory managment. There are two main factors that have led to food waste. One of the major causes is Overproduction in the Food Industry. This means retailers often overstock shelves in the store to meet customer’s expectations, leading to unsold goods. The second reason is lack of Awareness and consumers improper storage at home. Namely, many people have lack of knowledge about how to store food properly. As a result, misunderstanding of expiration dates cause food to spoil.
As an example in India, there have estimated around 40% of the produced food, which proves sustainability of cause.
There are also several actions that government could take to solve the problems above. First solution would be to educate customers on proper storage techniques as “use-by” vs. “best-before” dates, which means to choose groceries properly and be attentive to expiration dates. These simple changes in consumer habits could have a large impact on food waste. Therefore, this approach could be useful for solving this problem. In Sweden, for example educational campaigns about food storage reduced household excess if food by over 25% in targeted communities.
The second measure would be to improve inventory managment as reducing overproduction can cut down waste. Campanies such as Walmart and Tesco have started using advanced forecasting software to better predict demand, resulting in less overstock.
To sum up, despite some obvious reasons, various measures such as Improving inventory managment and education for consumers can be taken to tackle the problem of rotten food.