Food Wastage

Institutional Affiliation

Date
INTRODUCTION

Food is an important resource that is useful in human beings lives for the purpose it
serves in giving energy and health in the bodies of human beings. However, there have been
rising crisis that is connected to the food wastage in which those who waste food do that either
with the knowledge that they are wasting food or due to other factors related to food. Food
wastage adversely affects the efforts that have been put in place in the creation of food security
for the fast-growing population of the U.S.A and the whole world too. This is a translation that
there will be drainage of the sources of food because there seems to that food is wastage rates are
increasing more than the rates at which it is produced.

Of the major causes of food wastage in the U.S.A are the date prints and labels on the food
consumed in the daily lives of Americans. Could the labels be an encouragement of consumers to
throw food? Often the most used labels are “best by”, “best before”, ‘use by’ and “sell by”
whose primary objective is to provide the useful information and advice on when a food product
is best for use. The big problem with these labels is that they, in most cases, fail to indicate actual
safety dates for the food products. Instead, they provide reflections of the estimates of when the
food is at the best taste or peak quality and this leads to a clear translation of a fact that there are
large volumes of good food being thrown away on the basis of the date prints and label annually
(Goldberg, 2016). This confusion has been identified by the agencies concerned with food
security has called for the food manufacturers to use one indicator, the “Best If Used By”
(BIUB). This is an indication of the dates for the best quality and flavor of a product and not an
indicator of safety. This means that food can be sold, donated and purchased for consumption
past the date indicated on the label if it does not indicate any signs of being spoiled. This will
show a step being taken to reduce wastage of food.

There are devastating effects that food wastage causes to the environment. What could be
the effects of food dumping in landfills? It has been researched and documented that people tend
to reduce food wastage if they are made aware of the effects food wastage causes to the
environment but while other tend to waste the food even if they are aware of the consequences of
their actions to the environment (Renault, 2017). The wastage of food brings about its effects on
other aspects of life and industries as well. A consideration is to be made on the impact of food
wastage on the energy and other resources that are used in production and processing,
transportation, storing as well as cooking the food. Wasted food from households, restaurants,
and hotels makes the biggest percentage of the waste collected in the United States and it ends up
in landfills. The United States has been ranked among the top three leading countries in the
world and this causes effects to the environment by affecting the environment’s biodiversity,
causes water wastage and land wastage as well (Harvey, 2016). These effects are evident as there
is usually production of methane, a greenhouse gas that has been said to be more powerful,
alongside with CO2 all of which are associated with the global warming and changes in climate
as well.

CONCLUSION

In order to stop the increasing wastage of food, there has to be change implemented in
every stage of food handling chain, that is, farmers to food processors to the dealers and then the
consumers. Also, there should be involvement of agencies in the government to lay down
regulations of date printing and labeling for the food that has been processed. Each of the
players in the chain mentioned has to seriously take part in curbing food wastage. This will
ensure that the food produced and processed is according to the demand of the consumers and
reduce food wastage by the consumers and also through the dates of use for the food that has
been processed. By doing this, there would be saving of the environment as well as the expenses
incurred in the purchase of food that ends up in the landfills.
 REFERENCES

Renault, Marion. “People waste less food if told of harm to environment.” The Columbus

Dispatch, 28 Jan., 2017. https://www.dispatch.com/news/20170128/people-waste-less-

food-if-told-of-harm-to-environment

Goldberg, Eleanor. “Dates On Food Labels May Actually Start To Make Some Sense.”

HuffPost,   23 Dec., 2016. https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/food-labels-may-actually-start-

to-make-some-sense_us_5859a8d9e4b0d9a594565572

Harvey, Chelsea. “The expiration dates on our food could be contributing to a huge

environmental problem.” The Washington Post, 19 May, 2016.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2016/05/19/the-

surprising-factor-thats-causing-people-to-throw-away-perfectly-good-food/?

noredirect=on&utm_term=.9d4b5e8a3435