Protect more, waste less

Up to 50% of all fruits, vegetables and root crops grown globally are never consumed (UN FAO, 2015). When food wastage occurs all the resources that were used to produce that food – including water, land, energy, labour and capital – also go to waste. This has a cascading effect, increasing instances of drought, deforestation, food insecurity and emissions (UN FAO, 2019). To address the challenge of food wastage, refrigeration through supply chains and the management of ethylene are critical. With both of these practices, more of what is grown can arrive in the hands of consumers, reducing pressure on food production resources globally.

UN FAO, (2015). Global initiative on food loss and waste reduction. [online] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, p.2. Available at: https://openknowledge.fao.org/server/api/core/bitstreams/57f76ed9-6f19-4872-98b4-6e1c3e796213/content [Accessed 1 Nov. 2024].

UN FAO, (2019). SOFA 2019 – The State of Food and Agriculture in the World. [online] Available at: https://www.fao.org/interactive/state-of-food-agriculture/2019/en/.

Firstly, it’s important to distinguish between food ‘waste’ and food ‘losses’. Food ‘losses’ – when considering the fresh produce industry – occur between post-harvest (i.e., picking) right up to retail. Therefore, if produce goes bad during transport to the destination market – for example, due to port delays, or the ship having to sail a longer distance, both scenarios that are increasingly common today – this is considered a food ‘loss’.

Food ‘waste’ however relates to retail, foodservice and the consumer. So, if cucumbers are rejected by a supermarket for being wonky, or a consumer throws out a punnet of raspberries because they’ve spoiled at home, this is all considered food ‘waste’.

Food loss and waste together (and not just fresh produce) accounts for up to 10% of total annual global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (UN Environment Programme, 2021). This puts it third on the list of biggest ‘emitters’, after China and the US (European commission, 2023). As a result, the emissions ’embedded’ in food that is never eaten is hugely significant, and plays a major role in anthropogenic (human-induced) climate change.

UN Environment Programme (2021). UNEP Food Waste Index Report 2021. [online] UNEP – UN Environment Programme. Available at: https://www.unep.org/resources/report/unep-food-waste-index-report-2021.

European Commission (2023). EDGAR – The Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research. [online] edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu. Available at: https://edgar.jrc.ec.europa.eu/report_2023.

Functional packaging comes in many different forms, and can be made from many different materials – it serves the purpose of keeping fresh produce free from contamination, protecting it from mechanical damage, and reducing dehydration. It can also help the produce look more appealing, make it easier to handle, and give space to share important information for the consumer.

A leading sustainability body, found that cucumbers in plastic packaging had wastage levels 50% lower than unwrapped cucumbers – when considering all the resources from growing, packing, shipping and retailing that cucumber, the wrapped one had much lower embedded CO2 emissions than the unwrapped one, even with the packaging factored in (Denkstatt, 2020). This illustrates the important role that packaging, and not just plastic packaging, plays in certain situations – fresh produce, especially given its short life and propensity to dehydrate, is one category where packaging is absolutely critical to preserving the life and reducing the potential for food waste.

Source: Denkstatt, 2020: Food packaging sustainability