Exaggerated Reporting

bigpond news item " half of all food thrown out " i am not thrown any food out so that must mean someone on here is throwing out all there food ???

Harvey Norman is having a Massive Computer Clearance. Not many people want massive computers these days, no wonder he has too many. :)

Tile place near Browns Plains is having a "Giant Sale". Anyone want to buy a giant?

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Originally Posted by richard4u2

bigpond news item " half of all food thrown out " i am not thrown any food out so that must mean someone on here is throwing out all there food ???

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That headline is actually accurate if you read the article. Your quote states half of "all food", not half of everyone's individual food items or purchases.

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Originally Posted by abc news

A new study has found that a staggering 50 per cent of the world's food goes to waste.

The UK-based Institution of Mechanical Engineers, which carried out the study, says the waste is caused by poor storage, strict sell-by dates, bulk offers, and consumer fussiness.

The report says half of the food purchased in Europe and the US is thrown away after it is bought.

Does the figure surprise you? How much food do you waste? Have your say

The Institution's engineering director Dr Colin Brown says the issue of food wastage is increasingly important as the planet's population heads towards a predicted 9.5 billion people.

"Somewhere between 30 and up to 50 per cent of all food is wasted between it being grown, being harvested, transported and eventually us eating it – in that whole process coming up to half of it doesn’t actually get eaten," he said.

He says a more efficient food production and distribution system would provide enough food for the planet's growing population.

"It's a very positive report from that point of view," he said.

"The population is only going to increase by another 3 billion or so people and if we could have 100 per cent efficiency in the way that we are creating food now, we would have enough food for all of those people.

"So it is positive in saying if we can solve these problems, then the world is large enough to feed these people."

He says the wastage is "an economic as much as an engineering issue."

"There are some engineering things we can do straight away. If you have a little allotment yourself and you grow crops, everything tends to crop at the same time. You get a glut of stuff and you wonder what on earth to do with it all. Commercial farmers are no different in that everything tends to come to ripeness at the same time. And so a lot of the waste comes from the fact that prices drop or it is easier for them to leave things in the field."

He says that means much of the world's food never even reaches a delivery truck, let along somebody’s stomach.

"In developing countries part of the issue is that the infrastructure isn't there," he said.

"The railways aren't there, the chilling equipment to dry this stuff [isn't there], a lot of stuff goes rotten because it is hot and wet.

"So you’ve got to look at the way that we've got the engineering in place to capture this food. We do have techniques for canning food and we have techniques for preserving food. It would mean a lot of it would not get wasted in the way that it does now."

The report says the issue of water is what Dr Brown calls a "pinch point".

"We already use twice as much water for our agriculture as we use for all of our other human uses and so if we carry on using more in this way, we are going to run out of what is essentially drinking water," he said.

"You can't put a lot of salt water onto crops. It needs to be relatively good, pure water, and it is hugely wasteful. And unfortunately one of the realities is that the more meat that we eat, and meat is becoming more popular around the world as a food, the more water we have to put on for the same number of people.

"If you’ve got a real pinch on water, the last thing you want to do is try to raise cattle using water."

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I have seen studies in other parts of the world which come up with about the same numbers.

Just because you do not throw out any food [ever???] does not mean two people don't throw out more than half the food they buy to offset your personal statistic.

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Originally Posted by isuzurover

I have seen studies in other parts of the world which come up with about the same numbers.

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I do not know anyone who throws out or wastes that much food. Not an individual. Corporations, perhaps, multinationals, perhaps. I would like to read some of those studies you have seen, if you don't mind, Bob

? do you really think distribution and shops have a zero waste/loss/spoilage system guys?


Having not lived permanently in Oz for many years now, I find it amusing to see the high proportion of people in Oz that must watch the news daily. In all seriousness, what in the news actually changes the way you act or work or live? maybe it can change the way your dress the following day, but that's about it! I really don;t need to waste my time seeing images of natural disasters, serious crimes and the like. Turn the thing off and do something useful with your life! plant a herb garden, fix the kids broken toys, cook the wife dinner, go for a run... all of these will do something positive in your life whereas the news is typically downbeat, negative and depressing with some fluff piece added at the end to put a smile on your face for 2 seconds after depressing you for 23 minutes between ads.

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Originally Posted by bob10

I do not know anyone who throws out or wastes that much food. Not an individual. Corporations, perhaps, multinationals, perhaps. I would like to read some of those studies you have seen, if you don't mind, Bob

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These studies are done on a country-wide basis, so statements like "I do not know anyone who throws out or wastes that much food." do not carry any weight statistically - unless you personally know more than 50% of the people and food outlets in Australia?

I first heard the statistic of 50% loss presented by an Australian packaging company at a conference. I don't have a reference, sorry. The statement was something like "only 50% of the food sold in supermarkets in Australia is consumed"

Some other literature:

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Total and per capita value of food loss in the United States
Author(s): Buzby, JC (Buzby, Jean C.)1,2; Hyman, J (Hyman, Jeffrey)1,2
Source: FOOD POLICY Volume: 37 Issue: 5 Pages: 561-570 Published: OCT 2012
Times Cited: 0 (from Web of Science)
Cited References: 52 [ view related records ] Citation MapCitation Map
Abstract: There are few peer-reviewed or major published studies that estimate the total amount of food loss in developed countries and even fewer attempt to estimate the monetary value. We compiled estimates of the amount and value of food loss for more than 200 individual foods in the United States using the US Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service's Loss-Adjusted Food Availability data and then aggregated these values to estimate the total value of food loss and the value by food group. The results indicate that in 2008, the estimated total value of food loss at the retail and consumer levels in the United States as purchased at retail prices was $165.6 billion. The top three food groups in terms of the value of food loss at these levels are: meat, poultry, and fish (41%); vegetables (17%); and dairy products (14%). Looking more closely at the estimates for the consumer level, this level of loss translates into almost 124 kg (273 lb) of food lost from human consumption, per capita, in 2008 at an estimated retail price of $390/capita/year. Food loss represents a significant share of household food expenditures: our estimates suggest that the annual value of food loss is almost 10% of the average amount spent on food per consumer in 2008 and over 1% of the average disposable income. This consumer level loss translates into over.3 kg (0.7 lb) of food per capita per day valued at $1.07/day. Our estimates of the total value of food loss in the United States and loss estimates by food group are useful in that they can generate awareness of the issue among the food industry members, governments, and consumers. Potential large-scale approaches and economic incentives to mitigate food loss in developed countries are also discussed. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Accession Number: WOS:000308787100008

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Food losses in six Swedish retail stores: Wastage of fruit and vegetables in relation to quantities delivered
Author(s): Eriksson, M (Eriksson, Mattias)1; Strid, I (Strid, Ingrid)1; Hansson, PA (Hansson, Per-Anders)1
Source: RESOURCES CONSERVATION AND RECYCLING Volume: 68 Pages: 14-20 DOI: 10.1016/j.resconrec.2012.08.001 Published: NOV 2012
Times Cited: 0 (from Web of Science)
Cited References: 20 [ view related records ] Citation MapCitation Map
Abstract: To prevent retail food wastage, better understanding of waste patterns is necessary. Flows of fruit and vegetables at six Swedish retail stores were analysed in this study, both by analysing recorded data and by performing physical measurements. Total wasted fresh fruits and vegetables were 4.3% of delivered quantity. The largest category was pre-store waste (goods rejected at delivery; 3.01%), followed by recorded in-store waste (0.99%) and unrecorded in-store waste (0.3%). A positive correlation between unrecorded in-store waste and total waste was found, indicating that a thorough recording of waste could be an effective way to reduce retail waste of fresh fruits and vegetables. The praxis allowing large amounts of reclamations of delivered goods was recognised as the main reason for waste, since pre-store waste contributed with the majority of the waste flow. Initiatives to reduce fresh fruit and vegetable waste in the studied retail chain thus need to focus on the pre-store waste to be efficient. (c) 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Accession Number: WOS:000311007900002

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The Value of Retail- and Consumer-Level Fruit and Vegetable Losses in the United States
Author(s): Buzby, JC (Buzby, Jean C.)1; Hyman, J (Hyman, Jeffrey)1; Stewart, H (Stewart, Hayden)1; Wells, HF (Wells, Hodan F.)1
Source: JOURNAL OF CONSUMER AFFAIRS Volume: 45 Issue: 3 Special Issue: SI Pages: 492-515 DOI: 10.1111/j.1745-6606.2011.01214.x Published: FAL 2011
Times Cited: 3 (from Web of Science)
Cited References: 44 [ view related records ] Citation MapCitation Map
Abstract: Food loss at the retail and consumer levels in the United States includes 14.8 billion pounds of fruit and 23.4 billion pounds of vegetables, valued at $15.1 billion and $27.7 billion, respectively, in 2008 retail market prices. The total value of these losses is $42.8 billion per year, or roughly $141 per capita. To most efficiently reduce the annual food loss, it may be beneficial to focus efforts on the four fruits (fresh apples, grapes, peaches and strawberries) and four vegetables (fresh and canned tomatoes and fresh and frozen potatoes) that have the greatest amount of loss.

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Food losses in food service institutions - Examples from Sweden
Author(s): Engstrom, R (Engstrom, R); Carlsson-Kanyama, A (Carlsson-Kanyama, A)
Source: FOOD POLICY Volume: 29 Issue: 3 Pages: 203-213 DOI: 10.1016/j.floodpol.2004.03.004 Published: JUN 2004
Times Cited: 18 (from Web of Science)
Cited References: 21 [ view related records ] Citation MapCitation Map
Abstract: Lowering food losses is a potential measure to overcome hunger and reduce the ecological side effects from the food system. However, few observations of food losses have been reported in the literature during recent years. We studied food losses in four food service institutions in Stockholm, Sweden. The results show that about one-fifth of the food is lost. Plate waste is the single largest source of loss, at 11-13% of the amount of food served. Losses in food service institutions can be of significant economic value, and arable land equivalent to 1.5% of the area under cultivation in Sweden may be used to produce food eventually lost in food service institutions. The results indicate that the economic and environmental consequences of current levels of food losses may be substantial. More research is needed in order to better estimate levels, devise prevention strategies and identify policy implications. (C) 2004 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Accession Number: WOS:000223520100001

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The dumpster divers or free- gons [sp] do all right from the supermarket throw outs.

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Originally Posted by EchiDna

the news is typically downbeat, negative and depressing with some fluff piece added at the end to put a smile on your face for 2 seconds after depressing you for 23 minutes between ads.

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Does the news you watch have ads in the middle of it? :D:D:D

That must be annoying! :D:D:D

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Originally Posted by isuzurover

These studies are done on a country-wide basis, so statements like "I do not know anyone who throws out or wastes that much food." do not carry any weight statistically - unless you personally know more than 50% of the people and food outlets in Australia?

I first heard the statistic of 50% loss presented by an Australian packaging company at a conference. I don't have a reference, sorry. The statement was something like "only 50% of the food sold in supermarkets in Australia is consumed"

Some other literature:

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Dear, oh dear, you must be very naive, just what these conferences want, Bob