Food Waste

Food Waste Blog

Food waste is one of the biggest problems that our world has to face today. One place where food is wasted is restaurant because a lot of people do not finish their lunch. U.S restaurants generate an estimated 22 to 33 billions pounds of food waste each year. But this is not the scariest, because around 821milion people do not have enough food to live an active, and healthy life (Food Print). I think it’s crazy to hear that when you know how much US waste, and don’t think it’s getting better because around 9million kids die from hunger every year.  For that we have different ideas or choices, the tree that i’m going to talk about are: family bag, give the food to the homeless, and finally self service.These are steps that restaurants can take to reduce waste


First of all “family bag” could reduce food waste and make family economise money, take this out.  The family bag is a good idea to reduce the amount of food waste, because generally when you are full you just leave your dishes and pay, and then the restaurant throws the food in the trash. If you combine with the other that do the same it makes a large amount of food instead, if everyone used a family bag if you use your family bag and put all the food that you didn’t eat in the bag, and you bring it home you can use it again for another meal, so you contribute to the world and it save you money and time, because you don’t have to buy food or to cook.


The second is to give food to homeless people only if the food is still edible, because we are civilized people. A lot of restaurants throw food away just because the food that they make looks ugly or because it’s not well presented, but if they didn’t throw this food away and gave it to homeless people that are hungry because they take out, they will reduce their food waste. And also they can give food that is not prepared, or their surplus food that is not opened to the homeless.
Last idea is self service. The self service is a little bit the solution to the main problems: the fact that customers left food on their plate,solution to the main problem of customers leaving food on their plates. Some restaurants make portions that are too large, so customers do not finish the food. Instead with self service, people will only take what they can eat because most people are aware of how much is healthy for them. According to Mark Eastwood, most people are very happy with self service.

As you can see there are many solutions to avoid food waste in restaurants and If more restaurants started to follow these steps, maybe we could reduce the 22 to 33 billion pounds of food wasted each year to a much lower number! We would be happier, thinner, and richer!





https://foodprint.org/issues/the-problem-of-food-waste/
https://www.mercycorps.org/blog/quick-facts-global-hunger
  https://possector.com/management/restaurant-food-waste-reduction
https://modernrestaurantmanagement.com/reasons-why-your-restaurant-needs-self-service-kiosks/

Food waste in restaurants

Food waste in restaurants

               If we put together all the food wasted by restaurants, we could recreate Mt Everest. U.S. restaurants alone waste about 22 Billion pounds of food each year (The Problem). Food is a limited resource, so we can't just waste it like this. According to scientific studies, if we want to survive we will have to stop eating meat by 2050 (Wolchover). However, it is possible to reduce/eliminate food waste. restaurants could do these three things to limit food waste: donate their leftover food, let customers take food by themselves (Self-service), and encourage customers to take leftovers home.

                   First of all, donating food can reduce the number of people who can't have a proper meal, or survive. "Almost 821 million people in the world - one in nine - do not have access to enough food (Why are so). Each year, 2 billion people could be fed with all the food wasted annually, so why don't restaurants just donate their leftovers (Huber)? Restaurants can also profit from doing so. They could cut down the cost of food waste disposal. It would also be good for the staff's morale since they would be doing something good. Donating food directly helps people in need, and there would be fewer food landfills, which pollute the air. It can also help achieve their environmental target (Why donate ?). Some restaurants are starting to donate food and governments are starting to pass laws that help them do so. Hopefully, more and more restaurants will give away their leftovers.

Secondly, all restaurants should have self-service. Serving yourself isn't the most glamorous thing, but in these times, it is more important to save the planet. If you just ask for something in a restaurant, you do not know the quantity, and there are chances that you won't be able to finish. On the other hand, if you serve yourself, you will have exactly what you want. You will have the perfect quantity of food, and the food you like.

It is better for the customers since they won't have to wait for their order. It is also better for restaurants since they won't have to pay for waiters. There won't be any need for them, after all, people will be serving themselves (The Top Benefits).

Finally, customers should be encouraged to take leftovers home. There are already doggy bags today, but a lot of restaurants do not offer them, but they should. Another possible solution is to make customers pay if they don't take it home. Maybe some people don't like doggy bags; but governments are funding research for new ways of packaging food, so in some yeats, we will see new ways to bring food home that people will hopefully like ("Why donate?"). 

In conclusion, there are a lot of ways to reduce food waste, like donating food, bringing leftovers home, self-service and more. Restaurants have a lot of options to choose from to not waste food, and, hopefully, they will try to do something. People are starting to understand the problem that food waste is, and even governments are funding research to neutralize it, so hopefully, we'll see the amount of food wasted decrease.

Works cited :



“Why Donate Surplus Food?”. Foodwise.com.au.  Do Something!. N.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2020.

Huber, Chris. “World’s Food Waste Could Feed 2 Billion People”. Worldvision.org. World Vision, Inc. 23 Nov. 2017. Web. 23 Feb. 2020.

Wolchover, Natalie. “Will People Really Be Forced to Stop Eating Meat?”. Livescience.com. Future US, Inc. 29 Aug. 2012. Web. 23 Feb. 2020. 

“The Problem of Food Waste”. Foodprint.org. GRACE Communications Foundation. N.d. Web. 12 Mar. 2020.

“The Top Benefits of Self-Service Kiosks in the Food Industry”. Ordermate.com.au. OrderMate. 9 May 2018. Web. 23 Feb. 2020.

“Why Are So Many People In The World Hungry?”. Worldvision.com.au. World Vision Australia. N.d. Web. 23 Feb. 2020.

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.

To Eat or Not To Eat Bugs, That is the Question

There are approximately ten quintillion individual bugs alive on the planet. (Numbers) Yes, quintillion (that’s eighteen zeros!) These bugs don’t take nearly as much space to farm as cattle, don’t require as many acres of land to feed them with, and are really healthy. So, why not just switch to eating insects? They’re actually good for you, they could keep up with the increasing demand for more food by the growing population, and are better for the environment.

Firstly, they’re packed with proteins, fibers, healthy fats, vitamins, essential minerals, iron, and nutrients. Of course nutrients tend to differ with different species of insects, age, and how they’re prepared, but many types of bugs are still very rich in nutrients. For instance, grasshoppers contain just as many nutrients as beef with less fat, and mealworms can be a great substitute for fish. (Boboltz) Other bugs, such as red ants, yield about 14 grams of protein for every 3.5 ounces. (Gardner) 

Why does this matter? Well, because protein and nutrients are fundamental to life. They improve our weight loss, increase muscle mass, and increase strength. Out muscles, bones, and skin all rely on proteins to grow and repair themselves. Insects are also a great source of iron. (Gardner) Iron and protein combined together forms hemoglobins, which are required to move oxygen to our blood cells. 

Insects aren’t just good for you due to health reasons, but also because they could help feed the entire world. Think of it, you’ll never have to worry about being left hungry again, cause there’s plenty of insects to go around! Since protein is essential to human survival, it’d make sense if we started using all of our land and resources on bug farms to help cater to the growing— and hungry— population. We can get just as much protein out of insects as we could from livestock, and they take less space to grow and farm. So, with the same amount of land we can get double the amount of food we previously could grow. It’s estimated that by 2050, the world’s population sill grow to be around 9.7 billion people, which is 2 billion more than what we’ve already got to deal with.

Already, one out of seven people are hungry. If we go on like this, we won’t be able to feed everyone on planet Earth. (Dicke) It’s already a huge challenge to feed our population now, so this is why bugs are a better food source as it’ll still be able to fulfil our needs and we’ll have plenty of it to go around.

Lastly, farming bugs is better for the environment. The amount of food waste produced on Earth every year has already taken its toll on our environment. Raising livestock creates methane gas, which is a big contributor to global warming and climate change. (Gardner) The effect of methane is twenty-five times more harmful to our environment than carbon dioxide. However, farming insects only produces around 10 to 80 times less methane gas than cattle. (Kolb) 

And since we breathe the same air, this is an issue that should concern everyone.

In conclusion, not only will eating insects have great health benefits but it’s also a goof solution to beating world hunger and saving our Earth. May places on Earth already do eat bugs, and it’s even considered a delicacy in many places. By simply changing our everyday diets to include insects, we could slowly take a step to making the world a better place for all of us. 

Boboltz, Sara. “Here’s Why You Should Start Eating (More) Bugs.” Huffpost, Huffpost, 7 Dec. 2017, huffpost.com. 5 Mar. 2020

Dicke, Marcel. “Why not eat insects?” TED, TEDTalk, 1 Dec. 2010, youtube.com. 5 Mar. 2020

Gardner, Amy. “What Are The Most Important Pros and Cons Of Eating Insects?” Crickster, 16 Mar. 2019, eatcrickster.com. 5 Mar. 2020

Kolb, Benjamin. “Eating insects ‘could cut greenhouse gas emmissions’” SciDevNet, 17 Jan. 2010, scidev.net. 5 Mar. 2020.

“Number of Insects (Species and Individuals).” Smithsonian Institution, The Smithsonian, si.edu/spotlight. 5 Mar. 2020

food waste

 Food Waste

          In Europe, the amount of food people waste every year is beyond people's expectation. On average, they waste up to eight tons of food per year.  Although everyone knows in his heart that there are always a group of people who feel vexed by the lack of food every day in some remote mountain areas, no matter where the country is, there are still many people who have never thought about reducing the waste of food, and some people have never paid attention to this problem even if they did.  If you want to solve this problem now, I can give you three solutions. First, make a list before you shop. Second, make proper use of date labels. The third is to know your refrigerators.

     First of all ,making a list before you go shopping can reduce impulse consumption.Many people will say we do not have time to make a list.  You can take advantage of the weekend. If your family has children, you can tell them in advance and ask them if they have anything they want to eat.  And use the weekend time to plan the next week's meal, list the specific ingredients needed, and then strictly follow the ingredients to buy.

    Secondly, many people have formed the habit of throwing away food on the shelf life day. In fact, this practice is very wasteful. In fact, even the shelf life or the best eating period may not be correct.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Food Safety and Inspection Bureau said that, except for infant formula, food stored at home is safe and hygienic as long as it is properly handled, even if it has expired, unless there is obvious spoilage(nestle.com.cn ). They said spoiled food will have obviously abnormal taste and texture due to the action of spoilage bacteria.  If this happens to food, it should be thrown away.

    Finally, after you finish shopping, you need to determine which foods need to be put in the refrigerator, and you need to know what is the most suitable position to store in the refrigerator.  This can also help extend the shelf life of food. Whether it is used to store food or leftovers, the refrigerator can help you reduce waste. Put extra fruits and vegetables in the refrigerator to keep them fresh, and put seafood in the refrigerator to freeze. At the same time, you should pay attention to what foods have been stored in the refrigerator.  Perhaps you are always kind enough to leave a lot of leftovers. Unfortunately, those leftovers are always stuffed into the top of the refrigerator until they cannot be eaten. A clean refrigerator can let you know at a glance the situation of the food you keep, which you need to eat first, which ingredients you already have, and you don't need to buy any more.  Also, make sure to put the newly stored food in it so that you can eat the perishable but not yet perishable things first.﹝nestle.com.cn﹞

  According to WRAP, an analysis of 1200 websites of more than 700 companies in 17 countries shows that 99% of websites have positive return on investment in food losses and waste reduction programs.  Some websites even reported that for every pound or dollar invested, their rate of return reached 14 times. Food loss and waste are global concerns. Solving this problem will bring rich benefits to the environment, manufacturers, distributors and people.(halalqual.com )