Essay On Food Wastage

FIntroduction

Food waste or food loss is food that is disposed or lost uneaten. The causes of food waste or loss are various, and occur at the different stages of production, processing, retailing and consumption. One-third to one -half of the food produced globally is wasted. Loss and wastage take place at all stages of the food supply chain or value chain. In developing countries, most of loss takes place during production, while in developed countries most food is wasted at the consumption stage.

Difference between food loss and waste

Food loss: Food that gets spilled or spoilt before it reaches its final product or retail stage is called food loss. This may be due to negligence or in harvesting, storage, packing, transport, infrastructure,

Thus, the term “wastage” incorporate both food loss and food waste.” (FAO, 2013).

Why it is an important issue?

In the most recent years, food waste has become a complex matter of concern for scientists, consumers and activists. The reason it’s attracting eye are the economic, social and environmental problems associated with it. BFCN (Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition) defines food waste as the waste or food losses that take place during industrial processing, distribution and consumption. Realizing and stopping food waste has therefore been a concern among non-profit organizations and governments.

Before we discuss the causes, effects and solution to the problem of food wastage, we need to understand how this is affecting people in Pakistan.

Pakistan is a third world country where millions of people, every day, go to bed without having a dinner. Although we have a very rich land; there is plenty of water; optimal climate and weather for agriculture and the industrial sector is at its peak. Despite that our newspaper highlights are all about incidents where a mother sells her children because of hunger, and of children dying due to

This wastage is equivalent to thrice the volume of Lake Geneva. It is also affirmed that throwing out a kilogram of beef amounts to a waste of 50,000 liters of water used in the meat production process. Similarly, 1000 liters of water is wasted if one glass of milk is poured down the drain.

Increased carbon footprint and the acceleration of climate change

The food produced and then later goes to waste is estimated to be equivalent to 3.3 billion tons of greenhouse gas emission, accelerating the impacts of climate change. Research also has it that food waste is the third biggest emitter of green house gases.

The reason for this is the consideration for the energy wasted and the primary use of fossil fuels in food production including processing and cooking together with transportation to various consumer markets worldwide. What’s more, the methane gas produced at landfills by food thrown out as waste further aggravates climate change and global