What is food waste and where does it come from?
It's of no surprise that we live in a world that is extremely wasteful. Unfortunately, the same remains true for the food and beverage industry. “According to a 2012 report by the Natural Resources Defense Council, nearly 40 percent of the American food supply goes to waste. Food producers and distributors tend to have considerably more inventory than they'll be able to sell for full price.”
But what exactly is food waste/loss and where the heck does it come from!?! Food Waste refers to the excess food intended for human consumption that was removed from the supply chain for various reasons.
Food loss specifically occurs at the production, post harvest, process and distribution stages of the supply chain. It encompasses food that spills, spoils, and gets lost or miss-placed or miss-labeled.
Food waste most commonly is seen at the retail and consumption stages of the supply chain. Food waste is referencing the final product (fit for human consumption) that for some reason doesn’t get consumed.
All together, a huge amount of perfectly delicious food isn’t eaten! As you can imagine this means wasting all the resources used for the ingredients in your favorite snacks, energy used in processing and shipping, and then all the packaging used to keep everything pretty and fresh. That's a whole lot of waste and not a lot of grubbin.
Cutting back on both food waste and loss are ways to work to achieve a sustainable food system. Now is your chance to give those delicious goodies a second chance, a second home… in your Martie cart AND your belly!
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