We Throw Away Half Our Food

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How absurd is this? Enough to post the entire article here. Starvation? Why?

We throw away half our food. Up to half of all food is still wasted due to overly strict sell-by dates and the refusal of supermarkets to sell produce which doesn’t look cosmetically perfect, a new report claims. Up to half of all food wasted due to sell-by dates or ‘wrong’ appearance. Supermarkets often reject entire crops of ‘perfectly edible’ fruit and vegetables because of their appearance.

By Nick Collins, Science Correspondent

12:01AM GMT 10 Jan 2013

The Institution of Mechanical Engineers estimated that between 30 and 50 per cent of food produced around the globe, or 1.2 to two billion tonnes each year, never reaches a human mouth.

Vast quantities of produce from developing countries is lost due to poor storage or inefficient farming, while wasteful behaviour by consumers and supermarkets means half of all food bought in the west is thrown away.

As many as 30 per cent of UK vegetable crops are not even harvested because they do not meet retailers’ stringent demands on appearance, which are based on what customers will accept.

Supermarkets often reject entire crops of “perfectly edible” fruit and vegetables at farms because they have the wrong size or appearance, and are guilty of encouraging consumers to buy more than they can eat with promotions on perishable items, the report said.

Use-by dates can also cause more waste because retailers use conservative estimates to avoid the threat of legal action, thereby encouraging customers to throw perfectly good food away before it has gone bad, it was claimed.
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Dr Tim Fox, Head of Energy and Environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers said: “The amount of food wasted and lost around the world is staggering.

“The reasons for this situation range from poor engineering and agricultural practices, inadequate transport and storage infrastructure through to supermarkets demanding cosmetically perfect foodstuffs and encouraging consumers to overbuy through buy-one-get-one free offers.”

The report called on governments to introduce better technology and food storage facilities in the developing world and introducing policies to reduce waste by supermarkets and consumers in countries like Britain.”

January 11th, 2013|General Info|

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