Whose duty?

Personally, I believe that the problem of food waste should be tackled through influencing consumer's choices. Furthermore,  an article by Williams et al. (2011)also states that food wasted by consumers and at food institutions has a higher accumulated environmental impact than food wasted in the distribution chain, and is therefore even more important to reduce. There is plenty of avoidable food waste in households as well, this is attributed to their shopping and dining habits. Williams et al. (2011) defined avoidable waste as food that was still edible at some point before disposable.

Thus I believe more policies and campaigns should be developed to target the consumers and their purchase habits or food preparation habits. To educate them on the impacts of their choices and wider impact of food waste on the environment and community.

Shockingly, the paper concluded that about two thirds of the food waste came from storage and one third from meals. Fruit, vegetables and dairy products dominated the wastage coming from storage. About one third of the total food waste consists of prepared food: home-cooked food, heated semi-prepared food or cold mixed food, such as salads. This shows how ill-informed the general public is about the notion of food waste. The paper also showed that households with a more lenient attitude towards wasting food, wasted more in connection with meals instead of storage. 


Image taken from https://digbyhall120.wordpress.com/category/zero-waste/


How storage causes food waste is that people tend to overstock on food when there are sales and discounts, especially in households that tend to buy all their groceries at one shot. Families end up not being able to finish the food and when its past the expiry date, they throw it away. This is a preventable problem.

Another reason the paper by  Williams et al. (2011) highlighted about over-purchasing is due to price. The prices for food bought in bulk tend to be cheaper per kg. Thus to enjoy cost-savings, consumers may tend to buy larger quantities than they can finish. This aspect may be more difficult to deal with as it involves the market mechanism and individual benefits for consumers and producers that produce in bulk.

Other studies show that consumers care much more about the household economy than the environment (Baker et al. 2009). However, I think it still boils down to beliefs and values. Is the environment worth that extra dollars for a smaller quantity of food? Are we willing to pay more, to sacrifice our benefits more for the environment? I think education would be the best tool to deal with this mindset change.


References: 

Baker, D., Fear, J., & Deniss, R. (2009). What a waste – an analysis of household expenditure on food. The Australia Institute. Retrieved October 15, 2015, from http://apo.org.au/research/what-waste-analysis-household-expenditure-food

Williams, H., Wikström, F., Otterbring, T., Löfgren, M., & Gustafsson, A. (2011). Reasons for household food waste with special attention to packaging. Journal of Cleaner Production, 24, 141-148. doi:10.1016/j.jclepro.2011.11.044