How to Waste Less Food

This is one of the issues with our modern fast-paced society, the question of food waste. And we can start back as early as the 1940s in the United States. During the Second World War, in order to avoid food shortages, the United States government encouraged citizens to stop making wasting food.

And in particular, they encouraged people not to throw away leftover meals, and to give them to their dogs instead. The dog bag was born: the famous doggy bag. With portions on plates often gargantuan, the United States then democratized the practice so that customers could shamelessly bring their leftovers home.

This bag has been widely anchored in Anglo-Saxon and Asian culture ever since. But not yet in France, where the fear of passing for a big stingy remains very present. But from 2021, everything will change in France since restaurateurs will have the obligation to provide doggy bags to the customers who request it.

So it is certainly not with the dog bag that we are going to solve the problem of food waste, but mentalities are changing in a context where waste is less and less tolerated. If we want to reduce the cost of food waste disposal and the effect on the environment, then we should all make an effort to reduce food waste.

What do food losses represent in our country?

Each year in France, nearly 10 million tonnes of edible food go into the trash bin. And if we take into account the whole chain, from production to consumption, it’s the equivalent of 150 kilos of food per year and per capita that ends up being sent directly to the dumpster. For the consumption phase alone, each of us throws away 30 kilos of food, including 7 kilos of unconsumed and still packaged food waste.

Food waste is unbearable because it represents a huge waste of natural resources such as arable land and water. But it is also greenhouse gas emissions that are emitted for no reason. According to the Environment and Energy Management Agency (ADEME), this represents 3% of all national emissions worldwide due to the energy required to produce, transform, conserve, pack and transport food. Such food waste is also estimated to generate losses between 12 and 20 billion euros per year in France only, and finally it is a social and ethical issue at a time when 1 in 10 people in that country are in a situation of food insecurity .

How can we fight this scourge?

First of all, by modifying our habits at home so that they are more respectful regarding our food. Individual losses represent 33% of the entire food chain. But that’s not enough. This is the reason why France, which wants to cut waste by half by 2025, recently adopted a law which strengthens the provisions and which plans more restrictive measures by extending the law to catering and industry after distribution.

It is mostly a problem of public awareness. It is also a problem of finding better ways to reduce food waste along the food distribution channels. Improving logistics, introducing more flexibility regarding which crops are planted, favoring better preservation methods and emphasizing more local production venues, these are some pointers that could help reduce our food waste.