Food Waste

Local Research

We wanted to look more locally for our research to see how much food waste being wasted. We interviewed Rochelle L'Italien, the Dietitian of UNH. She specialized in nutrition education and oversees many of the dining halls and what they provide.

We were also provided data for the food wasted in the dining halls.

Food Waste Laws in France

"“There was one food manufacturer that was not authorized to donate the sandwiches it made for a particular supermarket brand. But now, we get 30,000 sandwiches a month from them — sandwiches that used to be thrown away,” Jacques Bailet.

Below a video talks about supermakets waste laws and how it poses new challenges for French Charities.

Supermarket Waste Law Video

In July of 2015, France made it illegal for grocery stores to destroy edible products. In fact, stores may recieve a fine of the equivalent of $4000 U.S. Dollars. Instead of destroying the edible products, the grocery stores must donate the extra food to organizations such as charities. February of 2016 was when France become the first country in the world to prohibt supermarket from throwing away unused food. This law led to only 11% of food waste coming from supermarkets.

Although much of the food waste has been reduced through these laws mentioned above, even more laws are proposed to prevent further food waste in France. Laws such as a clarification on food expiration dates, promoting the already frowned upon doggy bags in resturants instead of leaving leftovers to be wasted, or tax incentives for farms that donate food to charities.

As you can see, France doesn't stop when it comes to food waste. This is one of the many reasons why they're a leader in food waste. Their work is never done and this is something that the United States should emulate if they wish to cut back on the food waste.

Societal Impacts of Food Waste Regulation
Despite all the progress already made in France, there are multiple viewpoints on the effeciency of the French food waste policy:

• Those to claim the regulations aren't strict enough.
• Those are do say that the regulations are effective due to the increase in food donation by grocery stores.

Beyond the grocery stores, there are a number of problems that have generated due to the changes in the food waste laws. One unintended problem was food banks, such as the Salvation army, running into logistical and technological problems due to the surplus of food they were recieving.

While some believe that policies have been a bit harmful, some may disagree and say that it has definitely changed the lifestyle for many in a positive way through how they buy less food or knowing how to read the expiration dates better.

However despite the laws helping in groceries stores, a huge problem rests on the consumers of the society. Consumers are a large source, and laws were mostly in place for the grocery stores. This problem applies to not just the French, but the United States as well. Thus we as consumers should be doing more to help with the reducation of food waste rather than just relying on the government.

Why does the United States waste more food? 
There are many reasons as to why the U.S. wastes food. We're going to cover some of the more common reasons also much of these reasons are related to the consumer side of food waste. One of the most common reasons is just failing to understand the dates on packages. Most people cannot tell the difference between the "Use-by," and "Sell-by," dates, thus leading to many products been thrown away.

Another big reason is the comsemtic standards of produce. Thing such as:

• Bruises
• Brown
• Wilt
• Oxidize
• Ding
• Discolor

Are all key to American shoppers. If a product was to have any of these qualities, a shopper is more likely to not buy that product despite it still being overall good to buy.

According to a study conducted by Brian Roe from Ohio State, 53% of the 500 participants were aware that there was a food waste problem. The study was broken into three main areas.

• Percieved Benefit: Which says that people belived that throwing away food after teh package date reduces the chance of foodborne illness
• Feelings of Guilt: Just as it implies, the guilt felt when someone throws away their products. 58% of the partipants knew that throwing out food was bad for the environment.
• Control: Which states that people don't have enough time to care about these kinds of problems.

What can we do to reduce food waste?

There are various methods and practices to preventing food waste and we've broken it up into three categories:

• Technology
• Food Policy
• Consumer Behavior

Technology: Technology can help in many ways. One of the more big examples is big companies that take the initiative to help reduce food waste. An example would be Amazon and their product Alexa. Alexa has an app called "Save the food," which allows someone to ask Alexa for advice on how to store food properly, or if something was ok to eat.

Another example is through awareness. While we all can raise awareness through the people around us or through social media, big named celebrities such as famous chef Anthony Bourdian, have been documentaries on how to stop food waste and how much of it has became a problem for us.