One issue that everyone understands is the importance of food in our lives. Many take it for granted they can help themselves to food whenever they want to. For others, though, finding food on the table every day will always be a struggle.
The importance of food was marvellously described in one of the lyrics of the musical Oliver Twist. “Food, glorious food! What wouldn’t we give for that extra bit more – that’s all we live for. Why should we be fated to do nothing but brood on food, magical food, wonderful food, fabulous food.”
While for some people shortage of food is a major challenge they have to deal with on a daily basis, for many others the wastage of food is becoming a serious economic and environmental risk.
In an international conference on sustainable food and bio-waste management, European Commissioner Karmenu Vella described reducing waste food as the “quickest and easiest” way of easing the strain on the environment. The social impact of food waste is even more worrying. Nearly one in 10 Europeans cannot afford a quality meal every second day and a fifth of all food produced in Europe goes to waste.
A Food and Agriculture Organisation report, published last year, concluded that “food discarded by retailers and consumers in the most developed countries would be more than enough to feed all of the world’s 870 million hungry people”.
The social, economic and environmental effects of food waste are, therefore, serious enough to call for immediate action by policymakers, regulators and business.
Many are urging food safety regulators to come up with more sensible recommendations to consumers about the consumption of food that is perfectly safe to eat but may have lost some of its appearance characteristics after the ‘best by’ date has passed. A cabbage may look a little shrivelled after it has been on display in a supermarket for a few days but it is likely to be still good to eat. If supermarkets do not want to sell such items that are still safe, they can always donate them to organisations that provide food for those who cannot afford to buy it, who are more numerous than most of us think.
A food waste action plan, published in January 2015, came up with some sensible recommendations like encouraging restaurants to include half portions on their menu. What seems to be still lacking is the sense of urgency needed to implement more measures to cut on food waste. A spokesman for the Sustainable Development Ministry told the Times of Malta that “to date, only two of the proposals of the action plan have been implemented”.
The economic cost of delaying action to cut food waste are enormous. Economists say food production is consuming vast quantities of water and land. Moreover, to preserve food that is ultimately not consumed, fuel has to be burned to process, refrigerate and transport food and eventually to throw away a substantial part of it because it is not consumed. Awareness of food waste is rising gradually.
However, more needs to be done to tie awareness to actions on the ground. It would be ideal if we find ways to deal with food waste in the most effective way. But even more important is a strategy that prevents overproduction of food a good part of which is never consumed.
It seems that, at present, we are just scratching the surface of this serious economic and environmental issue.