John Phipps: A Major Misconception About Food Waste

In a recent Top Producer column titled “Farmers don‘t understand city folk” this comment popped up, and got my attention.

“When city folk stop wasting 30-40% of the food that should be put on the table, then I'll listen to how they can't afford it.” I too had the vague number of 40% waste in my mind but decided to check. There are several estimates from government agencies, the food industry and organizations working to relieve hunger, but this chart shows a typical split of waste sources.

The overall 40% of production being wasted seems a consensus number, but that is not for home waste but all waste. As you can see, food waste at home is considerable, greater than all sources except manufacturing. Manufacturing waste can be bad production runs, unusable inventory, or simple overproduction, especially of highly processed foods like ready to eat meals. Zeroing in on just waste from homes, it is about a quarter of all waste, but again that means about 10% of the raw food supply.

While food waste numbers are shockingly high, the factors are largely influenced by consumer choices. Perfect looking produce is a big one. Large portions and buffets in restaurants are other examples.

Labels can be confusing. An expiration date is not the same as a “Use By” label, but consumers treat them pretty much the same. Unsurprisingly, waste is higher with perishable foods – produce, dairy, and meat account for about 2/3.

There are multiple efforts by various organization to reduce this sad statistic. It is not as simple as give it to the poor, either. Waste comes from multiple sources in multiple forms, and much like uneaten food cannot feasibly be redeemed. Regardless of the reasons, I could find no data supporting the idea that urban dwellers waste a higher percentage of food compared to rural dwellers.

City dwellers waste more in total because there are so many more of them. There are data showing waste increases with income, which seems logical. There are also large differences between nations, and while I have no idea what’s going on Down Under, Americans and Aussies seem to be the global leaders in per capita food waste.