a new fan that's sweeping the nation wasting food fortunately most of us have enough food to eat
because there are entire industries working hard to get food to our tables however the downside to
this success is that there is a lot of opportunity for waste sink your teeth into the top 10 insane
restaurant food waste facts it is a sin to waste food by the numbers a lot of people do and a lot
of people are sorry the united states is a big country with more than 300 million
people so it's not surprising that there is a considerable amount of food being wasted
every day however many people might not be aware of the numbers when it comes to food waste so
here's one to help put it in perspective in 2017 as much as 103 million tons of food was wasted
this amount of waste adds up to about a pound of food for every person every day whoa that's a lot
the waste occurs all along the supply chain from the farms to individual households and
every stop in between this amount of food waste isn't cheap either because it adds up
to around 160 billion dollars a year or fifteen hundred dollars for an average family of four
so it isn't just a problem of wasted food but have wasted money as well the us has more food waste
than any other country and most of the wasted food ends up in landfills with the rest of the trash
this food waste amounts to almost a quarter of the solid waste found in landfills looks matter those
are shiny lemons in our modern world appearances have become very important and apparently this
is just as true of the fruits and vegetables we buy at our local supermarkets according to food
experts we as shoppers are very particular about the shape and color of the produce we purchase
if the produce doesn't meet our high and very subjective standards those carrots potatoes
and eggplants are often rejected it's a bit irrational to reject fruits and vegetables
purely on aesthetic grounds as tempting as this might be the customer's always right that's what
everybody likes about us a bruised apple or a banana with a black mark is just as delicious and
just as nutritious as the more pristine produce we covet unfortunately advertisements that display
only perfect produce and the stores themselves that flaunt the best items and try to hide the
less than perfect ones have contributed to this problem a great deal because shoppers don't want
the misshapen produce stores don't want it either but there are outlets for this misfit produce
organizations like imperfect foods and hungry harvest are trying to put a dent in the food waste
problem so they will accept the imperfect foods and encourage shoppers to buy them environmental
impact it's here at the landfill millions of pounds of food rotting in landfills across america
is unquestionably a waste of food money and other resources but it is even worse than you thought
all of that rotting food releases large amounts of methane gas into the atmosphere and methane
gas is more damaging to the environment than the pollution cars emit how bad is it according to
one study messane is between 28 and 36 times more damaging than the carbon monoxide put out by cars
what are we doing landfills represent the third largest polluter of industrial messing
with food waste and landfills accounting for almost 10 percent of the total greenhouse gas
emissions around the world in recent years some efforts have been made to combat the emissions
caused by food waste in landfills these growing efforts include organics recycling compositing as
well as anaerobic digestion anaerobic digestion is a biological process using microorganisms to
break down biomass in this case it can be used to break down some of the food waste
these efforts can only have so much impact on the problem in the long run the only way to cut the
emissions is to drastically cut the amount of food waste being dumped into landfills waste at home
we're wasting somewhere between 15 and 25 of the food that we're buying food waste happens
in many places but one of the insane food waste facts is that the biggest percentage of waste
happens right in our homes one estimate puts the amount of food waste in u.s homes about 76 million
pounds every year as much as 50 percent of all the food waste is by consumers unsurprisingly
the bulk of the wasted food is made up of fresh fruits and vegetables because many of these are
highly perishable the next biggest category of wasted items is dairy and then meat and seafood
that was three years ago we gotta throw it the most common reason that food is thrown out is
that it has spoiled the most common scenario behind this is that someone bought fresh food but
failed to consume it before the expiration date or before it actually started to spoil however
some people often throw away food unnecessarily because the food hasn't started to go bad when
they throw it out failing to store food properly contributes greatly to food spoiling prematurely
but buying too much food at once is also a problem that can be fixed with a little foresight
better meal planning and more attention to proper food storage could help reduce wastage quite a bit
once people are aware of the problem farming food waste that's also a really weird math problem
farms are of course where most of our food is produced but we might not expect them to also be
a major source of food waste as well unfortunately about 20 billion pounds of fresh produce is wasted
on american farms every year all of this waste doesn't come cheap because farming accounts for 50
of the land and 80 percent of the water used in the country one of the major reasons food is often
wasted on farms is that they usually plant more than they need based on demand it sounds strange
but it's a rational decision intended to guard against possible losses because of weather pests
and disease crap won't survive the night this can lead to crops that are too big and the food
that isn't harvested and transported becomes food waste market conditions can also cause food waste
because of the price the farmers can sell their produce for doesn't cover the cost of the harvests
and transportation the farmers sometimes make a business decision to let the food go to waste
the government has programs that purchase some of the excess produce from farmers so it can
be donated to people in need instead of wasted these are worthwhile programs however it can be an
expensive and inefficient process that is not a real solution to food waste on farms
waste not want not the amount of food being wasted is a complete fiasco our modern society is now a
throwaway culture with many products designed to be disposable this is profitable for manufacturers
and convenient for consumers but it uses a lot of resources and has the potential to create a lot of
unnecessary waste nowhere is this state of affairs more clear than when it comes to the problem of
food waste natural resources are not necessarily infinite so wasting food is tremendously wasteful
of the natural resources that are needed to produce all the food in the first place this
is about six tons of food waste every single day we take it for granted that supermarkets near us
will have what we want to buy whenever we want it the supply chain that prepares packages and
transports the food by rail and trucks uses a lot of labor and fuel large amounts of these
resources are wasted transporting food that will be thrown in the garbage in short order this is a
particular concern now as the u.s and much of the world is experiencing supply chain challenges for
a number of reasons wasting foods adds a large and unnecessary burden to the already strained
system we all rely on to eat so the more efficient it can become the better because there will be
less waste portions and purchasing just because something doesn't look perfect doesn't mean we
shouldn't eat it supply chains the restaurant industry and even farms play a role in food waste
while these are fairly high profile contributors to the problem there is a lesser offender but
still an important contributor to the food waste problem over the years portion sizes at home at
restaurants and institutions like schools have dramatically increased a lot of food has to be
ordered and purchased to create these larger portions but a significant percentage of these
larger portions end up being thrown out contributing to food waste when too much food
is bought in the first place it has to be stored for longer periods and some of it simply goes bad
before it can be used you're eating eight-year-old tomatoes we're still good for another week
some of the food waste also happens when people prepare or order food and simply don't finish
it so it goes into the garbage restaurants don't want to run out of food so they tend to regularly
over purchase food and consider a certain amount of food waste to be a cost of doing business
this might make sense from a business standpoint but clearly contributes to the overall food waste
problem serving bigger portions isn't the answer because many people will leave food on the plate
to be thrown out anyway so more salt has to be put into the amount of food purchased as well as
how much is prepared by households and restaurants restaurant waste you're going to eat all of that
serve a tremendous amount of food in the u.s with most americans eating several meals a week at fast
food chains and other kinds of establishments with all this food being transported prepared
and sold we have to assume that a lot of food will be wasted along the way this assumption is
correct because as much as 33 billion pounds of food is wasted by restaurants every year
no way according to some studies as much as 10 of the food purchased by restaurants is wasted
before it ever reaches their customers this seems like it could be an area of waste that should be
focused on if the restaurant industry is serious about improving its performance and saving money
most of the big chain restaurants tend to serve portions that are too big for many
customers to finish many customers leave the food behind to be thrown out instead of
taking it with them also inflexible supply chain procedures that overbuy rather than risk running
out of food further contributes to the problem according to one study as much as 55 of edible
leftovers are left at restaurants by customers so clearly they are part of the problem as well
however if the customers were served smaller portions there would be fewer leftovers to waste
so everyone has some work to do when it comes to trying to solve the problem of food waste
supply chain getting a box like this delivered on time to the right door is a logistical nightmare
the supply chain is a complex collection of processes and systems that includes everything
from warehouses to trucks and the computer systems that try to manage them with a sprawling and
complicated system like this it shouldn't be a surprise that there are a lot of opportunities
for food waste to occur all along the chain in theory the system exists to be efficient but
it doesn't always work the way we would like there is a lot of inefficiency in the system
which leads to insane food waste that we should work to correct why about 12 of fresh fruits and
vegetables that are cultivated are lost to waste either while being distributed or after they reach
stores as much as 9.5 of all seafood is lost during distribution or after it reaches the store
before it can be sold to customers this can never be a perfect system because things like fruit
vegetables and seafood can be highly perishable items that are subject to a certain amount of
wastage and loss no matter what measures are taken however re-sinking over production and
improving the storage and transportation aspects of the supply chain can help reduce food waste for
everyone government waste up to 40 percent of food is wasted in this country usually when we
hear about government waste it has to do with wasting money but this isn't always the case
through bureaucratic inefficiency all levels of government play a role due to one size fits all
regulations that can lead to unnecessary food waste new york city officials for example have
been criticized for destroying produce sold by street vendors because of a lack of government
paperwork sanitation workers throwing fruits and vegetables in the garbage is one of the insane
food waste facts that got new yorkers upset a case in point involved a street vendor in the bronx
named diana hernandez cruz the mother of four was working her produce stand on a street corner when
she was approached by nypd officers as well as other city officials the officials told ms cruz
she didn't have the proper permits and they confiscated her entire inventory pardon after
carton of fresh produce into garbage trucks even if you never thought about food waste it's easy
to see that throwing away fruits and vegetables is not a good look governments have to have the
authority to regulate the food industry but it seems like there was room for a compromise that
did not involve contributing unnecessarily to the problem of food waste order up more great videos
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