How much food we waste and how can we avoid it?

What are food waste? According to FAO, the United Nations Nations Organization for Food and Agriculture, this expression refers to the discard of edible foods in the stages of retail and consumption, mainly in developed countries. This food waste is not only a lost opportunity to improve Food securitybut has a high cost to the environment.

From the UN they assure that, while the number of people affected by hunger increases, globally approximately 13% of the food produced between harvest and retail sale.

To this is added the fact that around 19% of the total food production is wasted in homes, restoration and retail trade.

Every day, households waste more than 1,000 million meals, the equivalent of 1.3 daily meals for each hungry person in the world.

Why is it important to reduce the amount of food waste?

The UN response is simple and direct: in that loss all the resources that were used for its production – such as water, land, energy, labor and capital – are missing. In addition, the elimination of this meal generates greenhouse gas emissions, which contributes to climate change.

In addition, waste may have negative repercussions on food safety and food availability, and contribute to increase the cost of food.

In Argentina, according to said Rubén OlmedoConicet researcher, to the CTYS UNEMA agency, there is a food production that could supply 400 million people, when we are 45 million.

Particularly in the city of Buenos Aires, he added Ariel Vicentealso Conicet researcher, Buenos Aires consumers discard an average of 8.4 kilograms of food per year in their homes, which is equivalent to 2.9 kilograms per inhabitant.

“In many cases, waste occur due to problems such as not having a planning in purchases or not knowing how to use food at domestic level.”the agronomist added.

Tips to avoid food waste

Cecilia AlessandriNutritionist of Group L, offered a series of recommendations that can be performed in any home or family to avoid or reduce food waste:

• Plan in advance what will be the meals that we are going to prepare and consume.
• If you know that you will not be, you will buy what is necessary to have a week of stock in your cupboard and in your refrigerator or in your freezer. If you are very meticulous, maybe you can extend it to 15 days.
• Have a lot of family awareness about food care and buy based on weekly planning. To help you you can adhere to the refrigerator a menu type schedule, to make the most of the acquired vegetables.
• With the purchase of the same vegetable you can make different preparations. For example, eggplants serve you for a pickle, for lasagna, for milanesas, sauteed and more.
• Calculate each portion being realistic. Many times it tends to cook for others, with the feeling that we lack food, when it is quite the opposite.
• Resort to mise in Place (gastronomic term that translates into collecting and tuning the ingredients in appropriate containers). All that is already organized and semi-preparation means that you can eat in a healthier way and avoid waste.
• That all the inhabitants of the house are part of the decisions regarding the elaboration and consumption of food of each day. Being all responsible for that meal, food waste is prevented and reduced.