food waste management

Hello! Today I'll be looking at Hong Kong as a case study, and how they manage their food waste! As with other cities, food waste is a major constituent to organic waste. In Hong Kong, 3584 tonnes of food waste generated each day, with 70% from households and 30% from commercial and industrial sectors. 

Currently, Hong Kong depends mainly on landfills to dispose food waste. Yet, this can lead to other environmental problems such as greenhouse gas emissions, odour and leachate problems. Currently, there are three sanitary landfill sites with a total capacity of 13,900 tons per day

In 2008, the government opened a pilot composting plant, which has in-vessel composting technology using the principle of a bioreactor. This technology has proved to be feasible for further up-scaling, to minimise problems such as odour. In addition, a modern organic waste treatment facility will also be set up, where it adopts anaerobic digestion and composting technologies to turn food waste into energy and compost products. 

Scenario A: System with all food waste landfilled

Scenario B: Management system using compost technology

Scenario C: Using combined anaerobic digestion and composting technology

In conclusion, after analyzing the environmental impact of the three different strategies, here are the results:

For scenario A, the food waste have to be collected, transported and then landfilled. This not only increases gas emissions, but it also required a lot of energy especially for the generators in the landfill. The leachate would also have to be collected and treated in a plant. Emissions from landfill contributed the most of global warming. Power and fuel consumption during landfill operation contributed significantly to acidification, nutrient enrichment and toxicity. 

For B, composting actually causes more serious acidification and nutrient enrichment than landfilling. This is due to the release of ammonia and sulfur dioxide gas during decomposition. However, using compost on farm lands can slightly reduce global warming, acidification and toxicity by fertilization substitution. 

For C, the energy obtained can result in more environmental benefits as compared to composting and landfill technologies due to lower gas emissions. Energy recovery counteracts the impacts of emissions, and contributes to the avoidance of human toxicity via water, acidification, global warming and nutrient enrichment. 

Thus, the suggested waste management for Hong Kong is the combined digestion and composting technology, which should be expanded to reduce reliance on landfills! 

References:
ZHAO Y., DENG W.J. (2014) Environmental impacts of different food waste resource technologies and the effects of energy mix. [Online] 92 (11). Available from: http://www.sciencedirect.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/science/article/pii/S0921344914001487 [Accessed: 26/10/2015]

trolley food waste

Hey there!

So far, I've been talking mainly about how food waste comes from households, firms, supermarkets etc (well, you get the general idea). But did you know that trolley food in hospitals are also included in food wastes? I came across this article and I thought it was quite insightful!!

In a study, it has indicated that "trolley food waste generation is a practice embedded within the limitations related to the procedures of meal ordering."

Trolley meal service is  a service whereby patients choose their meals directly from the food trolley and are served by healthcare personnel. Although this practice might improve patients' food intakes due to the customized approach, this practice can unintentionally lead to food waste problems. The unserved food remaining on the trolley wastes between 17-50% of bulk food from the kitchen, constituting as much as 30% of total food waste.

Problems include

• meal ordering - have to order in advance, but difficult to estimate the exact number of patients in the ward
• communication - problem of patients' schedules
• portion sizes - lack of flexibility 
• monitoring - no satellite kitchen, lack of monitoring on trolley food waste

Solutions? I feel that the hospital menu could be improved by providing the actual portion size, nutritional information etc for the patients so that they are able to make more informed decisions whenever they pick their meals. This allows patients to request a smaller/larger portion, or whether to omit certain ingredients in their meals - basically to allow more flexibility in the dishes. However, this solution might not be easy as the portion sizes depends of the intuitive skills of the serving staff, and the portion sizes might not be consistent for each patient.

Additionally, it is important for the staff to know the implications of food waste. Better equipment and tools such as computerized weighing scales with scanners and digital cameras can be used to track food waste data. For the unserved food, maybe it could be served to staff or for the patients' visitors, this can help to reduce food waste :)

K.T. OFEI, et al. (2014) How practice contributes to trolley food waste. A qualitative study among staff involved in serving meals to hospital patients. [Online] 83 (12). Available from: http://www.sciencedirect.com.libproxy1.nus.edu.sg/science/article/pii/S0195666314003985 [Accessed: 24/10/2015]

feed your garden

Hi guys! I'm back with another tip to reduce our food waste :) 

So, imagine if you could have an unlimited supply of food right in your own home!! Amazing, right?? In a way you not only benefit yourself by saving money but it helps to save the environment by reducing food waste (one mini step at a time) hahaha, so yeah here's some vegetables that you could attempt to grow by using unwanted food scraps :)

(https://www.pinterest.com/pin/360991726359682628/)

Sounds good, huh? I think I might gonna tr planting these soon, once I get my hands on some soil. Wait, but actually, some of the vegetables do not need soil to regrow! 

This includes: Bok choi, lettuce, carrot greens, celery, garlic, fennel chives, green onions, leeks and lemongrass :) the steps to regrow these vegetables are fairly simple, just google them! 

If any of you are gonna try it, remember to take the before and after pictures! So that you can compare them and feel a sense of achievement when the plant grows heh heh

Ok, till then! Bye!

expiry dates

Hi!! This time, I'm back with a post on food expiration dates :)

Expiration dates are not actually expiration dates! According to a study by Harvard Law School, U.S consumers and businesses throw out billions of pounds of food annually due to the confusion caused by the expiration date labelling practices. Additionally, more than 90% of consumers discard food prematurely (even though they are still perfectly edible and safe for consumption) due to them misinterpreting the expiration date labels as food safety indicators. It induces paranoia among consumers, that once the food goes past the expiration date, it's not safe for consumption and should be thrown out. Expiration dates are variable and set by the producers.

Types of food labels;

• Pack date: The day the product was manufactured. 

• Sell-by date: A note to retailers about when to pull a product from the shelves. It is also an indicator of the date by which the grocer should sell the items while still in its peak freshness. It’s still safe to use after this date, but grocers generally remove it because consumers won’t trust it.

• Best-if-used-by date/use-by date: This is a note to consumers and is typically later than the sell-by date would be. It indicates when quality and taste start to decline, although the product is still edible after this date.  

As long as the food is stored properly in the fridge, the food can actually still last (longer than you think) after it's 'expiration date'. In a news report with Emily Broad Leib, the Director of Harvard Law School's Food Law and Policy Clinic, and co-author of the new study, she mentioned that: "The big take-away from our study is really, these dates are not regulated and most people think that they have meaning, but in fact, at the federal level, the only food that has rules about date-labels is infant formula. Everything else is made up by states and by companies, there's… really no legal definition around them."

The important thing is to make sure that the leftover food is stored properly! Trust your judgement, use your sense of sight and smell! Use the expiration dates as a guide, and this can prevent unnecessary food waste :) 

Before I end off, here's a useful link - http://www.stilltasty.com/searchitems/search_page
The ultimate shelf life guide!!! It gives you the shelf life for common groceries + tips on how to store it properly.

Till then!

References:
HARVARD FOOD LAW AND POLICY CLINIC. (2013) The dating game: how confusing food date labels lead to food waste in America. [Online] September 2013 Available from: http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/foodpolicyinitiative/files/2013/09/dating-game-report.pdf  [Accessed: 18/10/2015]

LAURA SCHWECHERL. (2015) What expiration dates really mean. [Online] 16 April 2015 Available from: http://greatist.com/health/meaning-expiration-dates [Accessed: 18/10/2015]

ntuc fairprice to tackle food waste problems

Hi! Remember the last post, where I mentioned that the survey respondents were curious about NTUC Fairprice's food reduction measures? Well, Zero Waste Singapore sent the survey report to the top 10 F&B companies and urged them to take action, and would follow up with them to understand and get to know more about their food reduction strategies. Companies that take action would be highlighted by Zero Waste SG, because afterall, these efforts deserve recognition by the public.

So, let's take a look at what NTUC FairPrice has done! Firsly, they have introduced a Food Waste Index to track their annual food waste, and sustain their food waste reduction efforts. This is a first in Singapore's supermarket industry.

Secondly, the CEO announced the pilot "Great Taste Less Waste Selection" initiative at 7 FairPrice Xtra outlets. This is similar to the initiative adopted by the french supermarket, Intermarché. Fruits and vegetables that are unsold due to their blemishes but are still edible would be trimmed/cut into smaller pieces before they are repackaged and sold at a lower price. "Ugly" food are thus given a second life. Not only this, FairPrice will be educating their customers on the awareness of food waste, to handle food with care and to convince consumers that "ugly" food is still edible and safe for consumption.

Lastly, FairPrice also has a long-term partnership with a local charity, Food From the Heart (FFTH). FairPrice outlets will donate their unsold canned food products on a regular basis. Currently, only 55 outlets are involved, but FairPrice has targeted for all 126 stores to eventually participate in this programme as well. 

So, in summary, here is what FairPrice is doing:

 It is heartening to see that actions are taken to reduce food wastage, especially by one of the leading retail supermarkets in Singapore. It is therefore important for other F&B companies to also follow suit, so that greater results can be achieved. Not sure if the FairPrice outlet at my house has the 'Great Taste Less Waste' campaign though.. I've never seen the 'repackaged' groceries before :( Would love to try it though!! 

Ending this post here now, bye!! Hope you enjoyed reading this :)


References:
ZERO WASTE SINGAPORE. (2015) NTUC FairPrice takes the lead to measure and reduce food waste. [Online] 28 May 2015. Available from: http://www.zerowastesg.com/2015/05/28/ntuc-fairprice-takes-the-lead-to-measure-and-reduce-food-waste/ [Accessed: 12/10/2015]

food waste from f&b companies

Food waste contributes to approximately 10% of the total waste generated, yet less than 15% of it is recycled. The amount of food waste produced in Singapore has unfortunately been increasing over the past 10 years, which could be due to the growing population and affluence.

However, Singapore has started to take actions by setting goals. Under the Sustainable Singapore Blueprint, Singapore aims to achieve an overall recycling rate of 70% by 2030. Recycling and reducing food waste is also part of the plans for Singapore to become a Zero Waste Nation. Naturally, the preferred solution to manage food waste is to reduce as much of it as possible.

In a survey conducted by students under the Chua Thian Poh Community Leadership Programme, the results have indicated that Singaporeans (the consumers) has concerns about food waste generated from F&B companies. Here are some of the key findings:

• Singaporeans do not agree with all sources of food waste, especially from bakeries

• Age is positively correlated with food waste concerns, and females are more concerned than males (I'm thinking that this could be because usually the housewives are the ones buying groceries?)

• Participants are curious to know about food reduction strategies adopted by F&B companies, especially for retail supermarkets, expressed their interests in wanting F&B companies to donate their excess, unused food products to charities  

• Participants are willing to continue patronizing and buy their products (as compared to no difference in support), spread the word about their efforts if companies do adopt food waste reduction measures

In a nutshell, it can be seen that consumers are concerned about food waste and that F&B companies should take actions to reduce food waste. This could be done through donate unsold food, sell it at a discounted price, reduce food waste through other means (such as during storage, transportation or cooking), or even to sell food in smaller portions. The consumers' attitudes are definitely a positive sign, which could help Singapore to progress towards a Zero Waste Nation :)

In the survey, respondents also listed the companies that they would most like to know about, in term of their food waste reduction strategies. And.. the top of the list was NTUC Fairprice, with Breadtalk following behind.

That's all for this post! Stay tuned for the next post where I will talk about how NTUC Fairprice has started to take action to reduce their food waste!

References:
CHUA THIAN POH COMMUNITY LEADERSHIP PROGRAMME, NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE. (2015) Report - Survey to understand consumer attitudes toward food waste by F&B companies in Singapore. [Online] Available from: http://www.zerowastesg.com/download/2343/ [Accessed: 9/10/2015]

NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT AGENCY. (2015) Factsheet on food waste management. [Online] 11 March 2015. Available from: http://www.nea.gov.sg/docs/default-source/corporate/COS-2015/cos-2015-media-factsheet---food-waste.pdf?sfvrsn=0 [Accessed: 9/10/2015]

gas emissions

Did you know that every time you sink your teeth into that juicy beef burger, you are actually contributing to the global carbon gas emission? Have you ever thought that what you eat (and worse, if you waste it) could potentially harm the environment?

In an inspiring documentary, Cowspiracy, it features the agricultural industry and how it is actually the leading cause for various environmental problems such as global warming, water depletion, deforestation, species extinction, ocean "dead zones" and many others. Animal agriculture/ animal farming is actually livestock production, that refers to the keeping of livestock such as cattle, poultry and fish at high stocking densities than usual, compared to other forms of animal.

Livestock and their by-products account for at least 32000 million tons of CO2 annually, which is 51% of global greenhouse gas emissions! Not just carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxides are also released during agriculture. Cows produce 150 billion gallons of methane daily. Methane is 25-100x more destructive than CO2, and has a global warming potential 86x more.

The statistics shown are pretty interesting huh. Maybe we should all pledge to shy away from meat more often or something? It might be difficult for some but we can all try!

Here's an interesting website which lists the carbon equivalents of common food that we usually eat , such as eggs, breakfast and milk, stir-frys etc - http://www.eatlowcarbon.org/food-scores/# The "carbon dioxide equivalent" scores describes the amount of GHGs emitted throughout its entire production, such as the materials used in producing it, or the energy required to transport or process it.

Some tips before I end this post, 

1. You bought it - you eat it. Don't waste food
2. Make "seasonal and regional" your food mantra
3. Moooove away from beef and cheese
4. If it's processed and packaged, skip it

and finally, Take the low carbon quiz! Share with me your score if you've done it! :p
That's all for today, bye!

References:
COWSPIRACY (n.d). The facts. [Online] Available from: http://www.cowspiracy.com/facts// [Accessed 7/10/2015]

EAT LOW CARBON (n.d). [Online] Available from: http://www.eatlowcarbon.org/ [Accessed: 7/10/2015]

RICHARDS J (n.d). Food's carbon footprint. [Online] Available from: http://www.greeneatz.com/foods-carbon-footprint.html [Accessed: 7/10/2015]

food waste management

Not just the food itself can be considered a waste and affect the environment, the process of treating food waste can also considerably harm the environment, especially when proper techniques are not used. The agricultural industry is definitely one of the major food waste sources. However, the exploitation of these food waste can actually serve as inexpensive starting materials like anti-oxidants! A Greek company, Vioryl SA is an example, where they conducted studies on the pressed grape skins from wine waste and the citrus peels after juice removal.

Research and experiments were done based on the disposal and utilization of solid fruit, vegetable and other organic food waste:

- Flavonoids could be extracted from fruit peels, and then released using hot water and calcium hydroxide. The effect of peel maturity and recycling of the extracting liquor resulted in increased yields of hesperidin and naringin (flavonoids found in citrus fruits)

- Waste mushroom composts can act as an adsorption medium, and a microorganism source to absorb insecticides. Also, mushrooms could potentially save the world!!! They could clean up oil spills, provide defence against smallpox and break down toxic-based polychlorinated biphenyls. (PCBs - man-made compounds, mainly used in electrical industries in the past, but was banned due to environmental concerns)

- Agricultural compost and other waste, including apricot and cherry stones, almond shells and grape seeds, could pose as granular activated carbon biofilters in filtration plants. This helps to remove low concentrations of hydrogen sulfide and volatile organic compounds. (VOCs)

- Milling of olive paste during olive oil production is accompanied by continuous washing,  leading to significant wastewater quantities. A study has indicated that the wastewater extracts could have high anti-oxidant properties. If more research can be done to further prove it's anti-carcinogenic activity, the wastewater could be recycled and would be a promising use as an inexpensive source of anti-oxidants.

References:

ARVANITOYANNIS, S. (2010) Waste management for the food industries. Academic Press.

foodbank sg 2

Hi!!! I'm back with a new post hehehe.

If you've been reading my blog, you would have known about the Food Bank post awhile back. So, at that point I was pretty much still wondering what happens to the food inside the food bins/the food bins that are placed at Techno Edge. Will the people from Food Bank collect it weekly? Monthly?

And then.. as if to answer my question, an email was sent to me! (And probably all of you too heh)
The content was as such - a green bazaar would be held at UTown from 28 September to 2 October! :) Organised by NUS Students Against Violation of the Earth (aka SAVE), this green bazaar will include a food collection drive, and a clothes collection booth + bazaar!

I thought the idea of the clothes bazaar was pretty good and interesting. By exchanging your unwanted clothes for 'coupons', it allows you to redeem clothes from other participants as well! Imagine all the #ootds you can have hahaha. Then again, for this kind of activity to work, it requires participation from a lot of people. The more the merrier after all! So all of you with unwanted clothes, just go go go and donate it!!

Okay, but more importantly is the food collection drive! (since this is a blog on food wastage haha) Happening right here right now at NUS~~ do donate if you have excess of these items :)

Time: 10am - 6pm

Date: Mon 28 Oct - Fri 2 Sept (Week 7)

Venue: UTown Plaza

update on 1 Oct: the bins at Techno Edge are gone!!!!! I think they took it to Utown for the bazaar hmm

foodbank sg

Hey guys!

So today I was in the engineering canteen, Techno Edge, and I happened to come across these food bins (in which I discreetly took a photo of :p)

Which reaaaally caught my attention because I have never seen one before. Or maybe I just wasn't paying attention to the problem of food wastage before this.......

(Side note: I found out they have 6 food "banks" where you can drop off the food. And 1 of it is in NUS! How convenient for us!!)

And hence I learnt about Food Bank .Singapore - an organisation which collects unwanted, unused excess food from people, and then distributing these food to the poor or the needy. Their aim of this organisation is not just to provide a helping hand to the less fortunate in Singapore, but also in raising awareness of the problem of food wastage. In Singapore, food is the 2nd highest type of waste!!! This alarming results has thus led to the set-up of this charity organization.

In the past, they have had events such as Project X-pired, FoodLanthrophy and Food ReXycling Day. They have an upcoming Project X-pired II coming soon in October! Art pieces made from food waste (e.g expired food) will be used to make art pieces :-) Head over to the website to find out more about their events if you're interested yeah!

Food banks have been around since 1967, including the world's first - St Mary's Food Bank Alliance in Arizona! Seems like one of the ways to mitigate the problems of food wastage lies with us - in preventing food from ending up wasted in the bins in the first place. Just got to take note of the expiry dates on our food!

References:
NATIONAL ENVIRONMENT AGENCY. (n.d) Waste statistics and overall recycling. [Online] Available from: http://www.nea.gov.sg/energy-waste/waste-management/waste-statistics-and-overall-recycling [Accessed: 30/9/2015]

PRISCILLA GOY. (2015) Don't throw away cny goodies, donate them. [Online] 5 March 2015. Available from: http://www.straitstimes.com/singapore/dont-throw-away-cny-goodies-donate-them [Accessed: 30/9/2015]

US food waste reduction goal

On September 16, 2015,

The government has announced the United States' first ever national food waste reduction goal!!!! *throws confetti* They have called for a 50% reduction of food wastage by 2030, so as to improve food security and conserve the nation's resources. 

It is known that the US enjoys an abundance of food, but this only results in huge amounts of wastage. Agriculture secretary Tom Vilsack has mentioned that an average family of 4 leaves more than two million calories of food uneaten each year, which is equivalent to approximately $1500. Reductions in food losses in developed areas can decrease the number of undernourished people in developing regions by up to 63 million. (FAO, summarized by Yosuke Munesue)

In the past, there have been successful campaigns to reduce food wastage, such as the US Food Waste Challenge. For this food reduction goals, there will be many partnerships with various organizations, the private and local sector, the governments and many more. This is a major opporutnity for US to work towards cutting down on food wastage. As EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy wisely says, "Let's feed people, not landfills." I look forward to seeing the progress in US' new initiatives. :)

References:
UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. (2015) USDA and EPA Join with Private Sector, Charitable Organizations to Set Nation's First Food Waste Reduction Goals [Online] September 2015 Available from: http://www.usda.gov/wps/portal/usda/usdamediafb?contentid=2015/09/0257.xml&printable=true&contentidonly=true [Accessed: 20/9/2015]

YOSUKE MUNESUE. (2015) The effects of reducing food losses and food waste on global food insecurity, natural resources, and greenhouse gas emissions [Online] 17 (1). Available from: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs10018-014-0083-0 [Accessed: 20/9/2015]

ugly but beautiful

I'm back with another post on how supermarkets are dealing with food wastage! This time, we take a closer look at a french supermarket, Intermarché

To cut down on the food wastage from 'ugly' produce, Intermarché has thought of a brilliant method. Giving these ugly produce their own aisles and labels in the supermarket, these produce that were supposed to be thrown away now gets a second chance to be consumed.

On first look, maybe the ugly produce were not that attractive and it would still be difficult for consumers to accept it. However, Intermarché came up with an ingenious plan by repackaging these food (as seen in the video). What a great idea!! This not only helps to increase awareness on food wastage, but it also encourages consumers to buy the 'ugly' produce which are sold at lower prices. Win-win situation!

In addition, before the ugly produce even reaches the supermarket, an organization called Imperfect Produce in the US would buy the rejected, cosmetically-challenged goods from farmers and distributors before selling them to consumers. Here's an interview with Ben Simon, the chief executive officer of Imperfect Produce.

Let's take a closer took at these produce:

"These Pink Lady apples were rejected because they're smaller than the required minimum diameter of 2 inches."

"Vibrant as they are, these carrots were deemed too crooked for grocery stores."

"These heads of cauliflower were rejected because of ever-so-slight splitting between the knobs on the head."

These are just some but not all of the produce that are rejected by supermarket standards. Bet you can't even tell the difference between a rejected one and one that can be sold in the supermarket huh? These produce are still edible and they taste the same despite their lacking in the appearance department.

Activities like these really make me feel like trying 'ugly' produce now... Does that even make sense?! The supermarkets in Singapore should definitely take a leaf out of the French supermarket book. Imagine the amount of food waste that we would be able to cut down! Not to forget, start-ups such as Imperfect Produce. I believe that slowly but surely, we would be able to take baby steps in cutting down our food wastage at the consumer level. :)

References: 
http://www.techinsider.io/ugly-fruits-and-vegetables-reject-your-unreasonable-beauty-standards-2015-8
http://www.onearth.org/earthwire/imperfect-produce-food-waste

from waste to art

While reading up about food wastage, I came across this project "One Third" by fine art photographer Klaus Pichler. I thought it was kind of interesting? The pictures were really beautiful.. albeit odd and strange-looking, but it leaves us thinking about what happens to all the food that we waste - dumped and rotting in the bins, yet we are oblivious to it. I think the fact that Pichler took the effort to use the bathroom of his studio apartment (just to improve his credibility!) for this project was really commendable. I mean, imagine looking at rotting food for 9 months, and worse still, the smells!?!!

Some details about this project: it was titled "One Third" because one third of the world's food goes to waste. It portrays the relationship between individual wastage of food and globalized food production. In addition, he inserts his own gathered data of the food's history such as it's carbon and water footprint as the photo caption.

Sort: Strawberries 'Elsanta' * Place of production: San Giovanni Lupatoto, Verona, Italy

Cultivation method: Foil green house * Time of harvest: June - October

Transporting distance: 741 km * Means of transportation: Truck

Carbon footprint (total) per kg: 0,35 kg * Water requirement (total) per kg: 348 l

Price: 7,96 € / kg

Sort: Chicken * Place of production: Behamberg, Austria

Production method: Farm * Time of production: All- season

Transporting distance: 183 km * Means of transportation: Truck

Carbon footprint (total) per kg: 3,54 kg * Water requirement (total) per kg: 1551 l

Price: 3,69 € / kg 

Sort: Whole meal bread * Place of production: Vienna, Austria

Production method: Factory production * Time of production: All- season

Transporting distance: around 120 km (cereals) * Means of transportation: Truck

Carbon footprint (total) per kg: 0,79 kg * Water requirement (total) per kg: 1608 l

Price: 3,55 € / kg

Sort: ALMO - Beef Place of production: Fladnitz an der Teichalm, Austria

Production method: Animal Farm * Time of production: All- season

Transporting distance: 124 km * Means of transportation: Truck

Carbon footprint (total) per kg: 13,33 kg * Water requirement (total) per kg: 5640 l

Price: 15,99 € / kg

You can view the rest of his work here. GO GO GO. It's quite fascinating!

References:
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. (2014) Visualizing waste: Klaus Pichler's gorgeous rotting food. [Online] July 2014. Available from: http://proof.nationalgeographic.com/2014/07/16/visualizing-waste-klaus-pichlers-gorgeous-rotting-food/ [Accessed: 27/8/2015]

water foodprint

Hi guys! 

It's the second post and today I'm going to touch on how food wastage also means water wastage. Water scarcity is an equally important environmental concern. Worldwide, 1.1 billion people have no access to water and 2.7 billion of people find water scarce for at least one month of the year. It is crucial to therefore minimise food wastage as much as possible, so as not to contribute to unnecessary water wastage.

So according to a UN report, the amount of water wasted when the food produced are not eaten is equivalent to the entire annual flow of the Volga river! 

As we all know, water is not a finite resource and is actually more important than food. The lack of water kills you faster than the lack of food! People often take food for granted, and hence are unaware of the amount of water that goes into food production and transportation. (read: importance of water - if you're interested). 

In California,

One gallon of water (=3.78541178 liters) is needed to grow a single almond nut!!!!! 

Shocking, isn't it? That's equivalent to using 10% of California's water supply just for these tiny nuts. When you eat a handful of almonds. about 23 almonds, that would mean that 87 liters of water is required for its production. 

However when you take a step back and look at the bigger picture, this amount of water is insignificant when food production is concerned. Up to 200-1000 gallons of water is utilized to grow only nine daily servings of fruits and vegetables recommended by the USDA (for the 2000 calorie per day American diet). Meat or any dairy products, which can easily double that number, have yet to be included into the staggering amount of water needed.

(from the book Food Industry Wastes: Assessment and Recuperation of Commodities)

Linking back to the main point, the water footprint of food wastage is so much more than just 23 gallons of water for producing a handful of almonds. Bottom line is, stop wasting food~ 

In an article, The Center for Science in the Public Interest (CSPI) mentioned a few key points. They are an organisation which provides consumers with current, useful information about health and well-being.

• demand for water (for irrigation, drinking purposes etc) can outstrip supply, resulting in water shortages 
• farms growing feed grains, cotton, raising livestock are using up groundwater and surface water permanently
• producing meat requires huge amounts of water. to produce 1 pound of animal protein, an average 1,000 gallons of water needed
• irrigating feed crops and raising livestock consume over half of all freshwater. in contrast, domestic uses of water only use less than one-tenth as much water as agriculture
• overall rate at which water is removed exceeds the rate of replenishment by as much as 21 billion gallons daily 

Based on these points, it truly reflects the fact that water is limited and will run out one day. Of course, what I'm trying to bring across is not to stop people from eating what they want, but to be more aware of how much they are eating (or in this case - wasting). Yes, you can go ahead and order that beef if you like, but the important thing is to enjoy and finish it, and not let it go to waste!

I'm going to end off with a few more pictures to show you how much "hidden water" is actually used in the production of food. Hopefully the next time you're eating, you'll be more conscious of finishing what you have on the plate :-)

References:

ALISSA WALKER. (2015) Seriously, stop demonizing almonds. [Online] Available from: http://gizmodo.com/seriously-stop-demonizing-almonds-1696065939 [Accessed: 22/8/2015]

CENTER FOR SCIENCE IN THE PUBLIC INTEREST. (n.d) More and cleaner water. [Online] Available from: http://www.cspinet.org/EatingGreen/pdf/arguments4.pdf [Accessed: 22/8/2015]

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC. (2015) How reducing food waste could ease climate change. [Online] Available from: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2015/01/150122-food-waste-climate-change-hunger/ [Accessed: 22/8/2015]

WATER SUPPLIES DEPARTMENT. (n.d) What is virtual water? [Online] Available from: http://www.waterconservation.hk/en/virtual.html [Accessed: 22/8/2015]

WORLD WILDLIFE FUND. (n.d) Water scarcity. [Online] Available from: http://www.worldwildlife.org/threats/water-scarcity [Accessed: 22/8/2015]

introduction

Deng deng deng deng!!!

Hi guys. I've decided to touch on the topic on food wastage as an environmental issue after much thought. You know, usually when environmental issues are discussed, problems such as global warming, climate change, deforestation etc comes to mind first. However, being a glutton (heh), I somehow think about food first and.....

I decided to research and learn more about food wastage and its consequences pertaining to the environment. Other than going into our stomachs, a huge amount of it actually heads to dustbins, incinerators and finally landfills. Food can thus be one of the key components in contributing to the several environmental problems that the world is facing today.

So, here's a mini introduction on food wastage (in the US):

(https://youtu.be/EwVuz0UJl2A)

In case the lazy you just decided to skip watching the video, here are a few key points mentioned:

• We produce 27% more food per person today as compared to 15 years ago.
• Half of the food produced in the US is wasted between the farm and the fork due to inefficiency.
• How is food wasted in the US:

Clearly, food wastage is a problem that cannot be ignored, especially in more affluent countries where people have greater spending power on food. This is probably due to the abundance of food available for them, and that majority of them are able to afford what they want to consume. Hence, the impacts of food wastage (especially the environmental aspect) do not concern them as they do not feel the consequences directly.

According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO),

• Every year, consumers in rich countries waste almost as much food (222 million tonnes) as the entire net food production of sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tonnes) 

(https://twitter.com/foodsecurityuk/status/601741119316176896)

!!!!!

That's like crashing 493,333 Boeing 747s full of food. Poof. :(

Both the production and supply, and the consumption of food can inevitably lead to food wastage. Reasons can include excess production and consumption (where supply exceeds demand), the food passing its expiry date, and the failing of quality and aesthetics standards. Not only is the food itself being wasted, the resources/hidden costs used to produce the food are also wasted - time, land, money, water.

In this post, I have briefly explained about food wastage, and the extent of it in the world. Food wastage occurs almost everywhere, and hence solving this problem would definitely not be easy. In the upcoming posts, I will expound more on how food wastage can directly harm our environment. After all, this is an environmental blog :D

Till then! (and in the meantime, try not to waste anymore food yeah)

References:
FOOD  AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS. (n.d.) Food wastage: key facts and figures. [Online] Available from: http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/196402/icode/ [Accessed: 20/08/2015]

FOOD AND AGRICULTURE ORGANIZATION OF THE UNITED NATIONS. (2011) Global food losses and food waste. [Online] Available from: http://www.fao.org/docrep/014/mb060e/mb060e.pdf [Accessed: 20/08/2015]

UNITED NATIONS ENVIRONMENT PROGRAMME. (n.d.) Food waste facts. [Online] Available from: http://www.unep.org/wed/2013/quickfacts/ [Accessed: 20/08/2015]