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Tackling Food Waste: What's the Big Deal?

Food waste is a huge problem world-wide, with around 1/3 of all food produced going uneaten. Here in the UK, the average household throws away £700 of food every year. Although the introduction of food waste bins means less and less food waste is ending up in landfill, but the food that still isn't disposed of properly rots and releases methane, a harmful greenhouse gas. However, it isn't just the food that's wasted in the home that's an issue.

Often, with environmental issues, large companies try and shift the blame onto individuals so they feel guilty and focus on individual change, without realising that the people causing the most problems are not us. Food waste is no different in this issue. When all we see is the only food waste we create, it’s easy to feel guilty and think that waste in the home is the only problem. With supermarket's being the most popular choice for food shopping in the UK, it's unsurprising that these shops are causing massive amounts of food waste.

Before food even reaches supermarket shelves, massive amounts are wasted as produce is expected to reach certain quality standards before it even leaves farms. With supermarkets failing to be transparent about food waste figures it is difficult to know the exact amounts of food rejected by supermarkets, but if supermarkets are trying to hide this information, it shows it is even more of an issue because clearly figures are not improving. It's more common for wonky veg to appear on supermarket shelves nowadays, but there needs to be more options for buying imperfect produce rather than just a token box of mushrooms or strawberries every so often. 

Not only does the food that get's wasted caused problems, but it is also a huge waste of money and resources that goes into making the 1.3 billions tonnes of food that is wasted every year. If a third of food is wasted, this means that a third of the emissions caused by the production of these foods (in areas such as growing, packaging, and transportation) have also been wasted. Until major steps to reducing food waste are taken in every part of the food production chain, food waste will continue to be a huge environmental issue worldwide.

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