By Aliyu Ibrahim
Do you know that the food on your table take very long journey from farm after harvest to store, from store to processing plants then to market? During this journey often food is lost or wasted at every stage, and fresh foods such as fruits, vegetables, dairy and meat are particularly vulnerable. Some people used food waste and food loss interchangeably but these terms dont mean the same thing.
Food lost refers to the loss of food in an earlier stage of food production such as harvest, storage and transportation. While, Food waste refers to the food items that are fit for human consumption but thrown away, especially at supermarkets, restaurants or by consumers.
Worldwide, food waste is a major concern, with tremendous financial, ethical and environmental costs. According to the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO): high- and low-income countries discard similar amounts of food 670 and 630 million tonnes, respectively but there is a major difference in where and how that loss occurs.
According to World Resources Institute, in low-income countries, most food lost occurs during the earlier stages of food production. In Sub-Saharan Africa, 83% of food is lost during production, handling/storage, processing, poor infrastructure, equipment limitations such as cold storage: but, only 5% is wasted by consumers; while in high income regions like North America and Oceania, only 32% of food is lost in earlier stages production, and 61 per cent is wasted by consumers. An average household generate 150kg of food waste per year.
