SUGAR In one month a family of four wastes Processed Fruit and Vegetables 10.5 lbs 4.7 kg Fresh Fruit and Vegetables 24 lbs 10.8 kg Other 12.8 lbs 5.8 kg Fluid Milk 22 lbs 9.9 kg Fats and Oils 8.60 lbs 3.9 kg Grains 18.5 lbs 8.3 kg Sweeteners 15 lbs 6.8 kg Meat and Fish 10.4 lbs 4.7 kg DATA SOURCE NEW YORK TIMES
waste Apple peels are delicious but we still waste a lot in our own kitchens PAUL MANSFIELD PHOTOGRAPHY GETTY IMAGES Too Much Food Is Tossed Away Think of all the food the world produces as a pie a big delicious apple pie Now cut it into three huge slices and throw one out That’s how much of the world’s food we waste In wealthier parts of the world like North America and Europe you’d have to throw away an even bigger piece of that apple pie How is this possible Some of the food we grow stays on farms or on our trees because it isn’t picked Some is rejected by grocery stores because it’s misshapen Some is wasted at restaurants because portion sizes are too big and people can’t finish what they order But the largest cause of food waste might surprise you It’s us Families waste more than grocery stores and restaurants combined How Much Is Too Much One study looked at food habits in the United States Canada Australia and New Zealand Here’s milk meat 20 percent 22 percent grain products 38 percent what people in this group of countries fruits and vegetables countries waste at home seafood 48 percent 50 percent DATA SOURCE FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION 2011 5
That food adds up in big ways In the United States a family of four spends 1,500 a year on food they don’t eat That’s like buying five bags of groceries and throwing two in the garbage When you add up how much most families waste it totals more than 180 billion You could probably buy every professional sports team in North America for that and still have money left over for a stadium hot dog In the United Kingdom people throw away up to 11 million tons 10 million metric tons of food each year because they buy too much or don’t use it all on time A food-waste organization called Love Food Hate Waste found that every day about 20 million slices of bread are thrown away in UK homes enough to feed 10 million people After a year those slices could circle the earth from pole to pole 28 times Canadian households waste almost 20 million tons 18 million metric tons of food a year 63 percent of which could have been eaten What does that look like Every day Canadians waste Too much good produce is wasted in grocery stores But households are the biggest source of waste of all AANEELA DREAMSTIME COM 470000 heads of lettuce 1200000 tomatoes 2400000 potatoes 750000 loaves of bread 1225000 apples 555000 bananas 1000000 cups of milk 450000 eggs Erin Silver
BITS BITES BITS BITES Finding solutions is hardly a piece of cake But some countries are leading the way France is doing a fantastique job The government made it illegal for grocery stores to throw away edible food Now the country has the top spot on the Food Sustainability Index which ranks 60 countries each year according to how much food they waste per person Other countries making great progress include Norway Denmark Japan and South Korea United States 209 pounds 95.1 kg Belgium 192 pounds 87.1 kg Canada 172 pounds 78.2 kg France 148 pounds 67.2 kg Food for Thought Food for Thought Food Waste around the World The 2021 UN report found that the global average of food waste per person each year is about 163 pounds 73 kilograms The exact number may vary depending on who is measuring and how they’re measuring it but one thing is clear we all need to cut back Food waste is a global problem Experts believe that people in more developed countries are choosing to throw away food because they don’t value it Developing nations on the other hand don’t have a way to keep food fresh for long It goes bad before people can eat it resulting in food waste These countries don’t have the refrigeration transportation systems or infrastructure to avoid food waste In other words they don’t have a choice Imagine how the statistics would change if people in wealthier countries appreciated their food a little more WASTE PER PERSON PER YEAR
