Waste Of Food Waste

Everyday, throughout the world, restaurants throw away large amounts of uneaten food. Public Health laws prevent them from re-serving or reusing this food, and, for similar reasons, they cannot simply give it away to hungry people. We opted to review this as our messy situation due to the impact that this has on people and the environment.

INOVA Fairfax Medical Campus is the system flagship location with 833 registered beds for adults and children and a nationally recognized neon-natal intensive care unit spanning many specialties and high acuity patients. Chef Dave (personal communication, October 8, 2014) averages of 1,445 patient meals are served per day. Patient meals, as well as four retail spaces and numerous caterings each day, leaves a lot of space for food waste, some necessary, but most of which can be controlled or donated if monitored properly. Currently, our TrimTrax Program shows that we are throwing away an average of 22 quarts of the food each day. I suspect that the number is much higher considering the wild swing in numbers reported For example, January cites 1,886 quarts and July and August both miss half of the numbers with 189 and 56 quarts respectively. To continue the company’s great track record of corporate social responsibility, we can implement a donation program with local food banks and low cost. According to European Commission, (2009) “Good corporate citizens command more respect than ever before, not least because the behavior of companies is more visible than it has been in the past”(Para. 8). Behavior

Over 1.9 million tonnes of food waste every year come from Australian commercial and industrial sectors. Between the food retail businesses (e.g. supermarkets, grocery stores, bakeries, butches etc.) and the hospitality industries (e.g. cafes, restaurants, take-away outlets, etc.) over 1,285,505 tonnes of food is wasted per

This paper will examine the problem of food waste in the United States. Firstly, this paper will describe what food waste is, and why food waste in the American society is an immense issue that needs to be addressed. In addition, it will address the consequences of food waste and the possible problems that this issue may bring in the future. Secondly, the paper will discuss three policy solutions that would help solve the problem of food waste in the United States: provide an enhanced tax deduction for corporations that choose to donate their food to the food banks, performing an extensive study that covers every single aspect of food waste in the current food system, and require every citizen to compost their food waste. Afterwards, it will analyze the pros and cons, and the hypothetical strengths and vulnerabilities of each policy solution. Lastly, this paper will discuss personal opinions on the issue of food waste.

Food Waste is a major issue in the United States. It takes up much needed room in landfills, it is a financial burden, and it contributes to the rise in hunger.

At present, much of the edible food of Australia is being needlessly thrown away. This problem should be controlled, due to the fact that is one of the most significant causes of environmental disasters. In addition, it may entail issues related to hunger in both wealthy and poor countries.

From farm to table getting our food and produce to the consumer is a tricky task. Even with all the planning millions of food ends up wasted a year. Many steps are already taken to reduce the amount of food being wasted but are they enough? In America alone 200 to 250 pounds is wasted per person per year! According the world resources institute “32 percent of the world’s food was never consumed in 2009”.

One in seven American households lack a proper amount of food to maintain a healthy lifestyle. United States waste 133 billion pounds of food yearly. In 2010, supermarkets and grocery stores in the US tossed out 43 billion pounds, or $46.7 billion worth of food. (Dvorsky) Even with so many people in need of food it is unbelievable the amount of food going to waste at markets and restaurants. Given how many people go hungry in the United States each year, it is clear that an immediate change is necessary. There are many reasons why grocery stores should be forced to donate there pre-expired food, mainly to help those people not getting enough food, to reduce the amount of waste going to landfills.

Food is simply too good to waste. And while the loss of some food is inevitable, the amount of food Americans waste everyday has reached an all time high, and still continues to grow. The process by which food is produced uses 10% of the national energy budget, 50% of U.S. land, and 80% of the freshwater in the United States. (Gunders, 2012). Yet, 40% or 133 billion pounds of the food grown in this country goes to waste every year (Buzby, 2014). Reducing food losses by just 15% would be enough to feed more than 25 million Americans every year, when one in six Americans lack a secure supply of food to their tables (Gunders, 2012). Schools are one of the largest contributors to plate waste. A study by Richard Cohen reveals that plate waste accounts

Envision the intriguing aromas and aspects of all the delectable, appetizing, and savory foods the world has to offer. Now imagine those foods being taken, scarcely eaten, and then banished to a life in the trash thereafter, where they cannot be consumed anymore. Now proceed to think about all of the resources, time, effort, and money that goes into producing food, it all would have been for nothing. Discarding edible food leads to billions of dollars of food lost, along with creating additional trash. Consumers can do simple things to create less food waste.

There are billions of people struggling every day to have enough to eat, and billions of tons of food being tossed in the garbage, food waste is gaining increasing awareness as a serious environmental and economic issue. Research shows that about 60 million metric tons of food is wasted a year in the United States, with an estimated value of $162 billion. About 32 million tons of it end up in landfills, at a cost of about $1.5 billion a year to local government this economic crisis is worldwide! My research estimates that a third of all the food produced in the world is never consumed, and the total cost of that food waste could be as high as $400 billion a year. The food discarded by retailers and consumers in the most developed countries would be more than enough to feed all of the world’s hungry people, but it is not just those countries that have problems with food waste, it is also an issue in African countries like South Africa. The problem is expected to grow worse as the world’s population increases, unless actions are taken to reduce the waste. Food waste is not only a social cost, but it contributes to growing environmental problems like global warming, experts say, with the production of food consuming vast quantities of water, fertilizer and land. The fuel that is burned to process, refrigerate and transport it also adds to the environmental cost. Most food waste is thrown away in landfills, where it decomposes and emits methane, a potent greenhouse gas.

Household waste and the way Americans dispose of their trash is a huge source of food waste, if not the biggest. According to the article, Food waste within food supply chains: quantification and potential for change to 2050, American families throw out between 14 and 25 percent of the food and beverages they buy, costing the average family between $1,365 to $2,275 annually. A big factor of how America families are able to waste so much food is that food has become very cheap and readily available. Food costs less in the United States than nearly anywhere else in the world. As Brad Plumer said, “Most people reason, what's the big deal if some of it gets tossed?” They think there is no big harm in throwing away food because it was not that expensive, but in reality, it all just piles up. There is also a lot of confusion around expiration labels, with there being more than 10 different variations of expiration date phrasing. The different phrases tend to puzzle people and often prompt them to throw out food before its time. People think that "best if used by" means that food item cannot be eaten past that date or they will get sick. The same applies for "better if used by" and "sell by." People often just toss food out early and stay on the safe side. "Best if used by," usually applies mostly to non-perishable foods. The term describes product quality, where the product may not taste as good as it would if it were fresher but is still safe to eat or drink. The "use by" date

Roughly one-third of food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted globally, which amounts to about 1.3 billion tons per year. Food losses amount to roughly 680 billion US dollars in industrialized countries and 310 billion US dollars in developing countries wasted. Per capita waste by consumers is between 95-115 kg a year in Europe and North America, while consumers in sub-Saharan Africa, south and south-eastern Asia, each throw away only 6-11 kg a year. It is an excess in an age where almost a billion people go hungry. The decrease may be accidental or intentional but ultimately leads to less food available for all.

The previous data focuses on the food waste environmental impact based on the odor impact, greenhouse gas emission as methane and nitrogen, food waste effect on climate change, and food waste management. According to, Tsai et al., report the investigating the critical odorants of the emission from food waste composting plants and their human olfactory effect in general concentration ranges presented by olfactometric results. The article determine that the critical odorants were made by the analysis of multiple compounds in odor samples collected inside and outside the plants using gas chromatography–mass spectrometry (GC–MS) and gas detector tubes. The results of study indicated that six critical odorants were found in the fields consists of Ethylbenzene, Dimethylsulfide, Trimethylamine, p-cymene, ammonia, and acetic acid. The result found the Ethylbenzene, Dimenthylsulfide, Trimethylamine and p-cymene are lower amount on odorant criteria but high concentrate of gases emission. While ammonia is non-correlate on concentration, acetic acid is lower concentration but significant on odorant. Trimethylamine is the best critical odorant on the greenhouse gas emission. The study discussion didn’t study only indicated the specific olfactory effect patterns for the critical odorants emitted from food waste composting plants, but provided the practical information for the odor control engineering to judge the elimination priority. This article

The DC Central Kitchen is trying to solve the issue of food waste. Robert Egger founded this organization from past experiences of volunteering to help problems like hunger and homelessness. “DC Central Kitchen’s mission is to use food as a tool to strengthen bodies, empower minds, and build communities. DC Central Kitchen is committed to getting students excited about eating their vegetables.” They “transform 3,000 pounds of otherwise wasted food into 5,000 healthy meals.” The meals are cooked by chefs and not pre-packaged or canned goods and they distribute the food to 80 partner agencies that consist of homeless shelters, rehabilitation centers and afterschool programs. Last year they recovered 743,885 pounds of food from grocery stores