Throwing the banana out with the bath water: examining ways to reduce food waste

Recently, supermarket chain Dehaize announced it would begin selling “ugly vegetable” boxes in certain stores as part of a 14-week pilot project, once again bringing the issue of food waste into focus. Ugly vegetables are vegetables that don’t conform aesthetically to food retailers’ strict parameters of what a particular food should look like – and they’re a big problem.

Every year, 1.3 billion tonnes of food is thrown away globally, totalling a third of all food produced, according to the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). In Europe, this amounts to 89 million tonnes of edible waste, or 179 kilos per person per year. In Flanders, in 2014, this number was estimated to be over 300 kg per person.

This is not only an enormously wasteful and inefficient use of resources (like oil and water) and the labour farmers put into food production. It’s also dangerous for the environment. These 1.3 billion tonnes of food wind up in landfills where they decompose and produce methane gas, a main contributor to global warming.

What makes food waste happen?

Food waste is partly due to industry standards of what fruits and vegetables must look like (e.g. no straight banana or curved cucumbers). Unconventionally shaped, but equally tasty and nutritious items are thrown away by the tonne. Shipping and processing also lead to a large amount of edible products ending up in the landfill.

Finally, individual purchasing and consumption habits also play a role. Of the 89 million tonnes of food thrown away in Europe, nearly 40 per cent of that is household waste, so the stuff you and I are chucking from the fridge and pantry. A third of the time, this is before the “sell by” or “best before” date, according to the European Food Information Council. It also has to do with improper storage (e.g. not in the refrigerator) and the fact that expiration dates on food items are often arbitrary, leading people to throw away perfectly safe food.

At the end of the day, consumers throw away one third of the food they buy (or nearly €600 per year). That is essentially, walking out of the supermarket with three bags of groceries, dropping one on the pavement and not bothering to pick it up.

What can be done?

The European Parliament has declared the intention to halve food waste by 2025, while the European Commission’s “Roadmap to a resource efficient Europe” wants the same reduction by 2020.

Reaching these goals means changing our buying and eating habits on an individual level. You don’t have to become a “freegan” or dive into a dumpster to reduce food waste at home. There are several ways to reduce food waste in our own homes. The three most important are:

-       Shop smart: Buy only what you need by planning meals and not being lured by buy-one-get-one-free deals. And don’t not shop again until you’ve used everything - within reason.

-       Use or create public fridges: Now in several countries, including Belgium, you’ll find food sharing fridges – small refrigerators set outside where you can put excess food, for example, your leftovers or to empty your fridge before leaving on holiday. Only a few exist in Belgium: one is Freego in Ghent, and another exists in Brussels from the non-proft Corvia on Schaarbeek’s Avenue Lambermont.

-       Pressure supermarkets to be more food-friendly: tell them by unclear sell-by and use-by dates, only selling conventional-ooking produce, overstocking perishable items and offering buy-one-get-one-free deals they are contributing to the wasting of food.

Who’s hopping on the food waste bandwagon

Apart from Dehaize’s ugly veggie boxes, there are many organisations, businesses and communities stepping up to the food waste challenge.

Following an example, in the Walloon town of Herstal, the Brussels commune of Watermael-Boitsfort is pressuring large food retailers to donate food items that are about to expire instead of throwing them away by only granting environmental permits to businesses that agree to donate unsold foods. These moves are similar to a law passed in France in May that requires large supermarkets to donate all unsold, but still edible food to charity under threat of heavy fines.

Other organisation try to recuperate what has already been thrown away and use it for the good of the community. Both Degustation de bon sens (Good sense tasting) and Disco Soupe bring food waste awareness to the people through the language of soup. They collect food that would be thrown out, either from grocery stores or farmers´ markets, and use it to make an enormous soup. The meals are shared with all who would like a bowl in the spirit of solidarity.

Finally, an organisation called Foodwe helps unwanted food get into the hands of charity organisations by acting as a go-between for businesses with excess food, unconventional-looking or about-to-expire food and charities, food banks and low-cost food sellers that need it.