Research Paper on Global Food Waste

Introduction

Food waste is emerging as one of the most challenging issues facing the world today. This is because, whereas the world is struggling to provide healthy and affordable food for everyone, a significant portion of the food produced is lost as food waste. Put into monetary perspective, the food waste translates to an estimated annual loss of over $1.2 trillion, a phenomenon that depicts a kind of market inefficiency that does not occur in any other industry in the world today. To gain more insights into this matter, the current paper compares the state of food waste in Chinese and UK restaurants.

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Literature Review

The broad concept of food wastage has seen an increasing political and public concern over the past few decades. This section reviews the available literature regarding the present state of food waste and the impacts associated with the broad concept.

The Food Waste Problem

According to Heikkila et al. (2016), food is wasted across all the types of food consumed all over the world, and an all the key stages of the food supply chain. A survey report developed by Gustavsson (2011), for instance, indicated that approximately 32% of the total amount of food produced across the world in 2010 was wasted. Typically, all estimations related to food wastage are based on weight. This form of estimation assures that wastes from all the different types of food can be assessed from a common parameter (Melikoglu, Lin & Webb, 2013). As such, a ton of meat waste is the same as a ton of grain, which is equivalent to a ton of fruit waste. Converting the 32%, which represents the total amount of food wasted across the world annually as per Porpino, Wansink, and Cheek (2015) report, into a quantifiable weight unit means that 1.3 billion tonnes of food is wasted every year.

This annual food wastage represents about 24% of the total food calories produced annually across the globe. Similarly, a research conducted by Leal Filho (2016) in regard to food wastage revealed that nearly 25% of all the food calories meant for human consumption is wasted annually. These research findings, therefore, give the impression that approximately 1 in every 4 calories meant for human consumption is never actually consumed (Wrap.org.uk., 2018). In a world characterized by volatile food prices, fluctuating levels of food production, social unrest and serious drought cases in some regions, these statistics do raise some serious concerns (Waldron, 2009). Interestingly, the most industrialised nations, including China, the United States, United Kingdom, Japan and South Korea tends to generate the highest amount of food waste as compared to the less industrialised countries in the world.

Consequences of Food Waste

Food waste presents a major problem in the modern world, and is associated with substantial environmental, social and economic costs. In terms of economic costs, food waste tends to catapult consumers' expense, while reducing the available income for for food producers (Gustavsson, 2011). Indeed, Facchini et al. (2017) opined that food waste causes a reduction on the economic wellbeing of the key players in the food supply chain, starting from farmers to the final consumers. According to a report released by Christ and Burritt (2017), food waste across the globe has a value cost of nearly $620 billion. The process of collecting, disposing and managing the wasted food is also expensive. The US, for instance, spends approximately $1.5 billion for every 32 million tonnes of food waste land-filled every year.

Environmentally, food waste produces toxic greenhouse gas, particularly methane, which has about 21 times the potential for causing global warming as compared to carbon dioxide (Waldron, 2009). Moreover, a significant portion of land, about 2, 000 hectares, is used as landfills every year to cater for the food waste. Such land would otherwise have been used in producing farm crops. Food waste is also associated with social consequences, particularly in regards to ethical practices. For instance, while between one-third and one-half of the total food produced annually across the globe ends up as food waste, nearly 850 million people across the globe go to bed without eating every night (Wentz, 2014).

Solution of Global Food Waste

Donate Excess Food

Facchini et al. (2017) encourages individuals and organizations to donate their excess and unsold food to food distribution institutions. Notably, supermarkets and food retail establishments, and food manufacturers should take the initiative to contact food distribution institutions in order to make arrangements for donation of food. For instance, excess or unsold food can be delivered to these institutions where they are later packed and given to needy households. Additionally, individuals can play an important part to help reduce wastage of food by donating food items that they do not intend to consume (Heikkila et al., 2016). For example, non-perishable food items can be dropped at collection points. Notably, offices and shopping malls could adopt a bank box strategically placed on their premises in order to provide a convenient collection and delivery point for individuals to donate their unwanted yet unexpired and unopened food items. Additionally, any leftovers from hotels and cafeteria that have not yet been served can be donated to food recovery organizations or charitable organizations

Change of Eating Habits

Changing eating habits seem to be the method that holds the most weight as compared to other available solutions. This is because by simply avoiding certain foods and consuming others, this can greatly help in cutting down on the amount of waste. According to Porpino, Wansink, and Cheek (2015), an important move in ensuring food security is achieved may include moving away from animal products, therefore improving food system efficiency especially in line with the amount of calories delivered. For instance, a shift to Vegetarian from standard diets would have the same effects as eliminating all consumer and retail level food losses (Derqui & Fernandez, 2017).

Recycle Food Waste

Unavoidable food waste should be recycled or treated where possible. Notably, food waste should be separated from non-food waste items like disposables in order to help support successful recycling of food waste. Moreover, these disposables could interfere with process of recycling. Separation of food waste should be carried out at the source because it would be inefficient to do the separation once it has been mixed with waste (Siu, 2009). In most cases the food waste that is recycled is homogenous emanating from food manufacturers like grains/yeast from beer brewing, bread waste and soya beans that are separated at the generation point and sold to available recyclers in order to be converted into animal feeds.

Galanakis (2015) argued that premises such as shopping malls, hotels and schools should separate their food waste and use on-site treatment systems for food waste, converting them into compost for purposes of landscaping. Other than the aforementioned treatment system, there are systems that can remove moisture from food waste through heating and dehydration. Leal Filho (2016) further noted that there is no biological process for decomposing food waste involved while the volume and weight of food waste is reduced by these systems. The final output is dewatered food waste and may lead to pest or odor issues once it becomes wet. As such, it would be unsuitable for landscaping.

Case Study - Food Waste in Chinese and UK Restaurants

Table 1.1: Comparing food waste in Chinese and UK restaurants

Source: (Worldwatch.org., 2018; Wrap.org.uk., 2018)

As table 1.1 depicts, the UK restaurants dispose off about 1.47 million tonnes of total waste annually, out of which 41% or approximately 0.6 million tonnes is comprised of food waste. It, therefore, means that nearly 22 tonnes of food meant for human consumption is wasted per every eatery in the country. As such, about half a kilo of food fit for consumption is wasted for every meal eaten out in a restaurant in the UK. Sadly, two-third of the total food wasted in the restaurants is avoidable, and most of it, according to Wentz (2014), is collected from the customers' plates. Only one-third of the total food waste generated by restaurants in the UK is unavoidable, and the bulk of it is disposed off during the preparation process. Notably, food waste costs the British restaurateurs over $647 million every year.

On the other hand, Chinese restaurateurs dispose off about 93 million tonnes in total waste annually, out of which 44%, representing about 41 million tonnes is made of waste food. Similar to the situation in the UK, the majority of the food waste in China originate from the customers' plate. Indeed, a survey conducted by Chou and Fang (2013) revealed that nearly 22% of the food ordered during away-from-home meals ends up being wasted. According to Worldwatch.org. (2018), approximately 63% of the total food wasted in Chinese restaurants is actually avoidable, whereas only 15 million tonnes, or about 37% of the total food waste is unavoidable. Chou and Fang (2013) noted that most of the food waste in China restaurants is found in mid to high-end service restaurants. Together, the two restaurant segments contribute about 82% of the total food waste associated with Chinese restaurants. Collectively, Melikoglu, Lin, and Webb (2013) estimated that the total food waste in Chinese restaurants costs the country over $45,000 million per year. This data gives the impression that the British and Chinese restaurateurs are serving excessive portions to their customers.

Conclusion and Recommendation

Undoubtedly, the discussion presented in this paper gives the impression that saying the current state of food waste has become one of the biggest challenges facing the world today is not an exaggeration. This is because the available statistic indicates that food waste is associated with serious environmental, social and economic costs. Notably, the discussion reveals that between one-third and one-half of the total food produced annually across the globe is never consumed. Meanwhile, nearly 850 million people across the globe go to bed without eating every night. This phenomenon, therefore, calls for the adoption of appropriate measures that can aid in mitigating the food waste problem. In particular, this document recommends that people should change their eating behaviour and ensure that they order only what they can eat without leaving any leftovers.

References

Journals

Chou, S., & Fang, C. (2013). Exploring surplus-based menu analysis in Chinese-style fast food restaurants. International Journal Of Hospitality Management, 33, 263-272.

Christ, K., & Burritt, R. (2017). Material flow cost accounting for food waste in the restaurant industry. British Food Journal, 119(3), 600-612.

Derqui, B., & Fernandez, V. (2017). The opportunity of tracking food waste in school canteens: Guidelines for self-assessment. Waste Management, 69, 431-444.

Facchini, E., Iacovidou, E., Gronow, J., & Voulvoulis, N. (2017). Food flows in the UK: the potential of surplus food redistribution to reduce waste. Journal Of The Air & Waste Management Association.

Heikkila, L., Reinikainen, A., Katajajuuri, J., Silvennoinen, K., & Hartikainen, H. (2016). Elements affecting food waste in the food service sector. Waste Management, 56, 446-453.

Melikoglu,...