Time To Grow Up And Stop Food Wastage

Tue, Sep 11th 2012, 10:54 AM

Growing up, I spent more time than I would like to admit at the dining table staring at food that I was not interested in eating. I wouldn't get interested in eating no matter how long I was made to sit. However, I mastered the craft of surreptitiously throwing food on the floor, in the chairs or in any cracks to be found in and around the table. I am sure none of you ever did this.

But food wastage is of course no laughing matter, and I venture to say we in The Bahamas do our fair share of throwing away good food. We seem to have patterned our food consumption after our neighbors to the north, and this may not be a good thing. According to a recent Washington Post article - "Refrigerators: Who needs them?" - 40 percent of the food produced in the United States is thrown away each year.

While the website "Whole Living", reports that the average U.S. household discards about 14 percent of their food purchases each year. Not only does this wasted food represent energy wasted in its production and unnecessary waste headed to overtaxed landfills, it also translates into money wasted as well. Besides homeowners, restaurants and food stores throw away good food far too often.

This wastage has been reduced thanks in part to local groups like Hands for Hunger. No doubt there are more opportunities to distribute good food that might be otherwise thrown away to organizations with existing feeding programs. However, more focus on ordering and inventory management can certainly help as well. The Europeans are said to be slightly better, with the UK's Guardian newspaper reporting in November last year that 20 percent of food produced in that country is thrown away.

In Europe, generally they tend to use much smaller refrigerators, and tend to shop more frequently. Further according to the Triple Pundit website, London Chefs are taking it one step further by promoting a "Too Good to Waste" campaign to encourage persons to take leftovers home in a doggy bag. You see once food lands on your table it cannot be served to anyone else.

Consumers are advised to take simple steps to reduce waste, like limiting wholesale shopping as the food often goes bad before it is consumed, dine in as reportedly eating out produces 100 times more C02 emissions and remember to freeze food for later use.

The discussion around food production, its distribution and wastage is a complex one and cannot be fully explored here but I encourage you to think about how you purchase, handle and even waste food and ask that you look for opportunities not only for improvement but to pass on good food to where it can be best used. These small steps add up to a big difference.

• Send questions or comments to sbrown@graphitebahamas.com. Sonia Brown is principal of Graphite Engineering Ltd and is a registered professional engineer.

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