Food Waste

Food waste is a vast problem in our society. Every day perfectly good food is thrown out, and everyone can do something to stop this waste. According to the European Commission, an estimated 88 million tonnes of edible food is thrown out (Food Waste). There are many solutions to food waste and some are already put in place but nothing cannot be accomplished without cooperation.

Climate Change is a big buzzword today. What you may not know is that food waste contributes to global warming. Food waste alone contributes 8% to the Global Green House Emissions (Food Waste). If you support global warming then you should begin to pay more attention to your daily routine and how much food you and your family wastes. Reducing food waste also resolves other big problems in our world today like world hunger and landfill usage (Food Waste). 


Governments all around the world today are supporting the reduction of food waste. In Italy, the government is promoting ways to reduce food waste and giving more feasible options to business owners. The Italian government has made it a lot easier for businesses to record the food that they give away as donations (Italy). This new law introduced only requires the businesses to fill out one form every month, instead of it being complicated with many hurdles like before (Italy). Another way of promoting the decline of food waste is promoting the “family bag” which, in Italy, is not usual because they usually call taking home leftover food from restaurants the “doggy bag” (Italy). Many governments, including Italy’s, have also put money aside to begin research on reducing food waste and beginning government-funded ad campaigns (Italy).


Another way that you can reduce food waste is becoming a more conscientious buyer and planner. Meaning that you should plan meals and grocery lists before you go to the supermarket (9 Tips). This is to prevent you from over-buying perishable food that may go bad because you never used it or ate it. You can also prevent spoilage in your household by looking at the “use by” dates on product packaging. These dates tell you for how long the perishable food item is going to last till it becomes rotten. Knowing the difference between “use by” and “best before” dates can help prevent fruitless waste too. The “use by” date is only used on perishable food which can get bad or rotten when the date of that food arrives, whereas the “best before” date is only used on non-perishable foods which when the date arrives will only cause the product to lose some flavor and maybe color but will not become bad at that date (9 Tips).

Food waste around the world is an important problem that is being tackled. Tackling this problem in the right ways will help the economy grow and allow the climate and world hunger to get better. Even though it might seem that governments are tackling food waste problems but what they do cannot be done without your cooperation because at the end of the day it’s always the people who waste the food. If everyone works together with their local governments’ and create pragmatic solutions, food waste can be eradicated.

Works Cited

"9 Tips for Reducing Food Waste and Becoming a #ZeroHunger Hero." Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. FAO, n.d. Web. 23 Mar. 2020.

"Food Waste." Food Safety - European Commission. Europe, 16 Dec. 2019. Web. 23 Mar. 2020.

"Italy Adopts New Law to Slash Food Waste.” BBC.com. British Broadcasting Company., 3 Aug. 2016. Web. 23 Mar. 2020.