New estimates put food’s greenhouse gas emissions at a whooping 1/3 of the world’s total emissions. Food production also accounts for 70% of water withdrawals, and the conversion of 1/2 of all habitable wilderness into agricultural production. For these reasons food production is the primary driver of biodiversity loss, with agriculture being the leading identified threat for 86% of the 28,000 species at risk of extinction.
These are the main reasons why the UN has called for an urgent reform in how we produce our food. Their main recommendations include a rapid move toward more plant based diets, more protected areas and a transition to more nature-friendly farming that limits additions to the land while avoiding mono-culture practices. Tucked away in the UN’s headline recommendations to reduce the negative impact of our food production is to reduce food waste.
Reducing food waste seems to me to be the lowest of hanging fruit in helping to preserve the environment. Fully one half of all food produced is thrown away. To the dump, to compost piles or in some cases to biomass burners. This is absurd and demonstrates our complete gluttony when it comes to prioritizing money over protecting our home’s health. It is unlikely that we can reduce food waste completely to zero, but we can make a big dent in food disposal. While it is a rather crude estimate, if we eliminated food loss we’d reduce global water withdrawals by 35%, free up 1/4 of all arable land on the planet for biodiversity and carbon absorption, and reduce global carbon emissions by 16%. That’s massive. No wonder both the UN and the US have targets of reducing food waste by 50% by 2030.
Picking apart when food is lost from the system will help us to reduce this waste. And while I’ve thrown around the terms loss and waste interchangeably above, these terms have specific meanings in the literature. “Food loss” refers to food disposed of between between harvest and the point of retail so food rejected by farmers, food that spoils en route and so forth. The UN estimates that globally about 14% of food is lost in this stage. A lot of that has to do with poor infrastructure - like lack of cold storage or inadequate packaging. Reducing this loss of food becomes mathematically complicated as there will be environmental tradeoffs involved in building better food transport systems. Almost undoubtedly, the best solutions is to sell and buy locally grown food. “Food waste”, on the other hand, refers to food which is disposed of by retail shops (especially grocery stores) and in homes. The UN doesn’t have an estimate for retail and in home food waste, but the EPA estimates that US food waste is between a 30 and 40% of food grown. This is the larger of the leaks in food production and is where we as consumers can wield the most influence.
Now that we’re all feeling properly motivated to reduce our own food waste, let’s get down to business.
The most striking and useful piece of info I found when researching this article was about “sell by” and “use by” dates. I has assumed there were strict regulations about these dates and that we should be very careful about using any food that was past its date. But that’s not true at all. In the first instance, the use by dates are ‘best by’ dates for which the manufacture has estimated the peak in the quality of the food, not warnings about dangerous foods. And secondly these are estimates, which for most foods are not regulated and vary from company to company. The US’s Food and Drug Administration says:
“With an exception of infant formula, if the date passes during home storage, a product should still be safe and wholesome if handled properly until the time spoilage is evident. Spoiled foods will develop an off odor, flavor or texture due to naturally occurring spoilage bacteria. If a food has developed such spoilage characteristics, it should not be eaten.”
This means that so long as we’ve kept our food at appropriate temperatures, we can eat it unless it smells bad, tastes off, or has a change in texture. This does means that we shouldn’t eat foods that need refridgeration that have been in temperatures exceeding 40 degrees Farhenheit (4 Celsius) for 2 hours or more. The safe “left out” window closes to under an hour if it is 90 degrees Farhenheit (32 Celsius) or hotter. I know now that I have thrown away foods that were just fine because the date on the package had passed. Even more surprising to me was that discoloration in meats is not a sign of spoilage. Again, I quote the FDA:
“Microorganisms such as molds, yeasts, and bacteria can multiply and cause food to spoil. .… There are two types of bacteria that can be found on food: pathogenic bacteria, which cause food borne illness, and spoilage bacteria, which do not cause illness but do cause foods to deteriorate and develop unpleasant characteristics such as an undesirable taste or odor making the food not wholesome …. A change in the color of meat or poultry is not an indicator of spoilage….The quality of perishable products may deteriorate after the date passes but the products should still be wholesome if not exhibiting signs of spoilage. ”
Another trick here is to make sure to remove food from its packaging before giving it the sniff test to see if it has gone off. This is probably most commonly known for milk cartons, as milk on the spout of the container may have gone off but the milk in the carton is fine.
Guides to reducing home food waste tend to concentrate on shopping techniques. I think most of these are quite obvious like making a grocery list or a menu plan and sticking to it. This makes perfect sense of course, but even though I’ve thought “Good idea” for years now, I’ve never managed to actually draw up a list. For those of you who share my inability to organize life to that extent, the tip of taking a picture of the inside of your fridge before you go to the store may work better. In addition to being organized, we’re encouraged to buy only what we’ll eat and to resist the 2-for-1 offers that we’re unlikely to use in time. Some folks even suggest organizing your fridge by freshness, again not happening in my house.
One idea that I have taken to is to “go ugly”. Up to 40% of veg gets rejected by grocery stores because the produce is misshapen. We can teach the stores we’ll buy this by frequenting their ‘wonky veg’ section if they have one or buying the misshapen produce in the regular bins. If they don’t have a wonky veg section, you’d do us all a favor if you’d let the store know you wish they did. While you’re at is, you can ask for smaller portion sizes and less packaging. :^) Alternatively, there are a number of produce box delivery schemes that specialize in wonky veg both in the UK and the US.
The advice which resonates the most for me is to use up food in the fridge. No lists or planning required. If I don’t stick to a weekly grocery shop regime, but rather to go to the store only when we’ve used up the fresh foods, I’m far more likely to be creative and avoid food waste. Over the years I’ve come across a number of other useful ways to use up odds and end. I like to make stir fried rice with bits and pieces but other folks make leftovers into kimchi, quiches, frittatas, or lasagna.
Sometimes I’m even noble enough to save my veg cuttings like ends of onions and carrot peelings in the freezer. When I’ve collected enough I make a delicious veggie stock. There are also a number of apps that help us use up odds and ends - I favor this one where I can search for recipes based on ingredients.
The last piece of advice is to grow some of your own food. I’d always advise gardening, but hadn’t considered it’s impact on food waste. But as the UN argues, when we grow something we realize just how much work goes into a simple tomato. We are far less likely to waste food or to balk at the prices of organic foods if we’ve grown our own food recently. And of course, home grown is the ultimate in local. In case you’re thinking now is a silly time to mention this, in the northern hemisphere we can plant the following in September: lettuce, broccoli, chard, kale, Brussel sprouts, peas, spinach, beets, carrots, onions, and chives. See, the answer is almost always in the garden.