From the farm to the household fridge, food waste remains a major issue across Australia’s food supply chain, new research suggests.
According to ANZ’s latest Food For Thought report, Australian households alone discard about 3.1 million tonnes of edible food annually, equivalent to $8 billion.
ANZ Head of Institutional Food, Beverage and Agribusiness, Gerry Karam says the problem is significant, affecting every stage of the food supply chain from production and processing to retail and consumption.
“The issue has far-reaching environmental, economic, and social implications, demanding urgent action and innovative solutions”, Karam believes.
At a farm level, various factors such as overproduction, market fluctuations, harvesting challenges and stringent quality standards lead to substantial losses. It is estimated that over 20% of vegetables produced in Australia – equivalent to around one million tonnes annually – never make it to market.
The problem extends beyond farms and into Australian households, where food waste is a pervasive issue, due to causes including over-purchasing, improper storage, and confusion over expiration dates.
“Another example is that Australians throw away nearly 1.3 billion slices of bread each year, which if stacked up, would create a tower over 1,000 kilometres high”, Karam says.
“According to the UN Food Waste Index Report, Australians waste an average of 102 kilograms of food per person each year, placing the country among the highest food wasters globally.”
Food waste has a wide range of impacts, including environmentally, such as from landfill methane production, economically, through the cost of wasted food, and arguably most importantly socially, when dealing with Australia’s own food insecurity issues.
It’s not all bad, though. Karam says that despite the challenges, there is a range of opportunities to reduce food waste, such as organisations who redistribute surplus food to charities, or through innovations in turning food waste into edible ingredients or renewable energy.
“Reducing food waste is not just an environmental imperative; it is also an economic opportunity that can drive positive change across the entire food supply chain,” he concludes.
What can households do? In a report released in 2023 by Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre (CRC) and Central Queensland University, lead researcher Dr Gamithri Karunasena says three key behaviours were found to be the most useful for helping households to reduce food waste and maximise the value of groceries. These were:
– Storing food correctly;
– Leaving one night a week to eat or repurpose leftovers; and
– Learning new cooking skills.
The report also found that households could save up to $2500 a year by reducing the amount of food they waste.
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