Study finds over one third of European grown produce wasted each year
12 replies, posted
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-scotland-business-45238732
More than a third of farmed fruit and vegetables never reaches supermarket shelves because it is misshapen or the wrong size, according to new research.
A University of Edinburgh study found more than 50 million tonnes of fruit and vegetables grown across Europe were discarded each year. This was in part because they did not meet
consumers' expectations of how they should look.
The study was published in the Journal of Cleaner Production. It examined food loss and waste within the European Economic Area and examined how much food was discarded each
year before it reached the point of being sold.
The researchers attributed losses to strict government regulations, supermarkets' high standards as well as customer expectations of how produce should look. They also found that
farmers contracted to supermarkets typically grew more food than they were obliged to supply, to allow for a proportion that would not be deemed fit to sell.
The researchers suggested that greater awareness among consumers, and a movement towards shopping sustainably, could encourage the sale of more ugly vegetables.
Stephen Porter, of the University of Edinburgh's School of GeoSciences, said: "Encouraging people to be less picky about how their fruit and vegetables look could go a long way to
cutting waste, reducing the impact of food production on the climate, and easing the food supply chain."
In recent times, UK supermarkets have been making more space for increasing amounts of less-than-perfect produce. Last year, Sainsbury started a campaign to encourage use of
blemished bananas, while Morrisons introduced a new "wonky" range that included avocados. Others, including Waitrose, Tesco and Asda, also branched out into selling misshapen
fresh items.
That's 55 million US tons.
But guys, there's just not enough to go around
Sad but not unexpected, no one wants to spend the same amount of money they worked on earning for something they believe would be of a lower quality.
That food would be better off donated or just sold at a greatly reduced rate rather than trying to change people's minds and convince them to be less picky.
Yeah, the problem I see here isn't people being picky, it's this food not being donated instead of discarded.
What about bread.
refrigerate-
Freeze it, seriously.
Keep what you'll use for a few days then freeze the rest, when you need it, split it down again and keep the rest frozen.
Plus if you're someone who only ever uses bread for toasting, this is even better for you.
Still better than Brazil's track record. They keep tearing down forest and almost none of the food produced makes it to the main population centers.
Surprisingly, not even milk is dangerous when past its date, assuming it's pausterised. It just tastes fucking disgusting and is not recommended for that reason. In fact, the majority of moulds are not actually bad for us. Meat is the main thing we have to be careful with.
In terms of use by and best before, I totally agree. Eggs are supposed to last 2-4 weeks past their date with no issue, and I can confirm that they still taste and look fine as well as sinking in water at the tail end of that, so I do feel we should be more liberal with our dates, at least in terms of best before.
Known for decades, sadly. Images of dairy farms deliberately wasting away the milk or farmers destroying tons of oranges, apples and grapes because selling more of them would make lower the prices rather than donating them are common.
You can thank supermarkets for selling the final product several times the original price while paying the lowest price to the producers, making all of that waste possible. Capitalism is shit.
I generally don't even bother looking at dates, if it looks okay and smells okay, it probably is okay. Hasn't failed me yet
And some stuff like bacon lasts ages even after being opened
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