Rethink food waste - why should we care?

Think about some of the major problems of the world. Climate change, overpopulation and depleting natural resources. Do you know what all of these have in common? The answer is food waste. It is bad for the environment, society - and for business.

State of food waste in the world

As per the FAO, more than ? of the global food production is wasted every year. This means the total food wasted annually is around 1.3 billion Metric Tons.? In a recently published article by CNN Business, the estimate of food waste has been revised to nearly 2.5 billion Metric Tons. This implies that as much as 40% of the total food produced goes unconsumed every year.?

Here’s a breakdown:

1. 1.2 billion Metric Tons - lost in farms
2. 931 million Metric Tons - wasted by retailers and consumers
3. The rest is lost in storage, transportation, manufacturing and processing

Food waste is a massive problem globally. We pay a high environmental price for this inefficiency, and it needs to stop.?

State of food waste in India

India is a country of contrasts. A common misconception is that we are experts at utilizing resources to the last ounce. Unfortunately, that's far from the truth when it relates to food waste.? While developed countries have large volumes of post-consumer waste, India observes high pre-consumer wastage in the production and distribution of food.

When it comes to post-consumer food waste, households in India generate 50 kg per capita per year as per the Food Waste Index Report 2021 (published by UNEP). This leads to a total of 69 million Metric Tons a year just from household food waste.

Due to the inefficiency of our food systems and the supply chain, a total of 40% of the gross food production is wasted yearly.

Food waste and climate change

There is a heavy price to pay for all this food waste. The economic price is borne by the consumers while the environmental price is borne by the nation as a whole.? It is astonishing how little attention has been given to this problem.? This inefficiency, coupled with overpopulation, is exerting huge pressure on our already scarce natural resources.

If we continue to go at our current pace, we will run out of food in about 28 years. Moreover, food waste contributes to other environmental issues like climate change and global warming. Food waste creates greenhouse gases when dumped in landfills or sent for incineration. This accounts for 10% of the total yearly emissions.?

Wastelink: Diverting food away from waste

At Wastelink, we rethink food waste. We are committed to our mission of solving the food waste problem by diverting good food back into the food chain before it becomes waste.

We collect food by-products, surplus ingredients and production rejects from food producers and convert them into high nutrition ingredients for animal feed. As a direct outcome of our food to feed process, we prevent wastage of resources and help food producers mitigate their costs.? We buy most food surplus and rejects and take care of their logistics too— ensuring our food partners never have to worry about managing food waste.?

Our upcycled feed products are good for the environment, business and contribute to improved animal health and farmer income! Head over to wastelink.co and follow us on our social media handles to learn more!