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