This week marked the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, an initiative of the UN Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), in a bid to increase momentum on reducing the staggering amount of edible food wasted every day.
The FAO reports 14 per cent is lost between the farm gate and being sold, and another 17 per cent is wasted at the retail, food service, and household stages.
According to the World Resources Institute, globally, more than $1.8 trillion worth of food is wasted annually.
Stop Food Waste Australia (SFWA) COO Mark Barthel told Food & Drink Business that if global food loss and waste was a country, it would be the third-biggest emitter of greenhouse gases.
“The production of food that is lost or wasted requires a land mass greater in size than China,” Barthel said.
SFWA was established in 2020 and handed the unenviable task of coordinating actions to halve the country’s food waste – 7.8 million tonnes a year – by 2030.
It didn’t have a choice but to set a cracking pace of action, with its 2021-2025 Strategic Plan released as many initiatives were already underway.
Last year saw the launch of the voluntary Australian Food Pact, a construct shown to be highly effective in other countries, with signatories including Simplot Australia, Woolworths Group, Goodman Fielder and Coles Group four of the founding signatories, joined by Mars Australia, Mondelēz Australia, ARECO Pacific, McCain Foods, and Sodexo.
Earlier this year, in the most comprehensive study of its kind, the Fight Food Waste CRC released the findings of its research into household behaviour around food waste – critical to designing effective interventions to reduce household food waste. It found we throw out $19.3 billion worth of food a year, more than half the annual $36.6 billion worth of food wasted from farm to fork in the Australian economy.
SFWA has also started rolling out sector action plans, which provide targeted insights and interventions for food waste ‘hotspots’. The plans are co-designed to address food waste in collaboration with those most able to affect direct change and tackle the root cause(s) of food waste and to support action to reduce food waste in the value chain.
The cold chain and food relief have been two of the first plans completed.
National food relief agency Foodbank Australia supports more than one million people per month through a network of 2950 frontline charities and 2890 schools across the country.
Foodbank Australia CEO Brianna Casey is the first to praise Australian food and beverage companies for the level of support they show the agency and others like it, but also points out there are initiatives such as a national food waste tax that would increase food relief volumes and reduce food loss.
Every year in Australia, we produce enough food to feed 75 million people, we waste 7.8 billion tonnes of food, one in six of us is living with food insecurity, 1.2 million children went hungry, and the whole disaster costs the economy around $20 billion.
It doesn’t need to be said but indulge me.
There is no room in any one area of trying to reduce our food waste crisis that does not involve collaboration. Companies and brands can compete on the supermarket shelf, but they must stand together to combat this untenable situation.
Founder and CEO of tech start-up and social enterprise Yume, Katy Barfield, has been a food waste champion, with Yume’s technology changing the face of clearance and donation processes – or lack thereof – for food and beverage manufacturers and retailers.
To date, Yume has redistributed four million kilograms of surplus food to other businesses and charities.
Barfield says industry collaboration is key to solving the 3.2 million tonnes of food waste produced in the commercial sector every year.
“A whole industry approach is essential to significantly moving the dial on our food waste problem. With initiatives such as Stop Food Waste Australia’s Australian Food Pact, businesses have the tools they need to drive the industry forward, together,” Barfield said.
Barfield hopes to see an industry where all food manufacturers and buyers interested in sustainable procurement prioritise the transition to climate smart infrastructure and technologies.
“The industry is moving in the right direction in its attitude and action on food waste. Businesses increasingly understand that sustainable practice isn’t just good for the environment, it’s good for business,” she said.
One of the most exciting things Food & Drink Business reports on is innovation in this field of food waste.
Dr Anneline Padayachee has called for reframing how we see food waste to something of value and we can see that gaining momentum through companies like TUI Foods and Ovavo. Both are shining examples of manufacturing innovation, upcycling process grade fruit or produce that would otherwise have ended up as landfill into value-added income streams of premium nutritional powders for global markets eager to buy Australian ingredients.
There is so much to do. The numbers can seem insurmountable. So this year, on this day, let’s take a moment to draw a deep breath and ensure the momentum we’ve seen in the last two years is increased and those in the arena are well resourced and supported in this most important battle.
