Food Quality & Safety
  • Home
  • About
    Us
    • Food Quality & Safety‘s Mission
    • Contact Us
    • Authors
    • Manage Subscription
    • Advertise
    • Magazine Archive
    • Copyright
    • Privacy Policy
  • On the
    Farm
  • Safety & Sanitation
    • Environmental Monitoring
    • Hygiene
    • Pest Control
    • Clean In Place
    • Allergens
    • Sanitizing
    • Training
  • Quality
    • Authenticity
    • Textures & Flavors
    • Labeling
    • Shelf Life
    • Outsourcing
    • Auditing/Validation
    • Supplier Programs
  • Testing
    • Seafood
    • Dairy
    • Hormones/Antibiotics
    • Produce
    • Ingredients
    • Beverages
    • Meat & Poultry
    • Animal Food
  • In the
    Lab
    • Lab Software
    • Pathogen Control
    • Physical Properties
    • Contaminants
    • Measurement
    • Sampling
  • Manufacturing & Distribution
    • Information Technology
    • Plant Design
    • Foreign Object Control
    • Temperature/Humidity
    • Packaging
    • Transportation
    • Tracking & Traceability
  • Food Service & Retail
    • Cleaning & Sanitizing
    • Stock Management
    • Hygiene
    • Food Preparation
    • Allergens
    • Education
    • Temperature Monitoring
  • Regulatory
    • FSMA
    • Guidelines & Regulations
    • Recalls
  • Resources
    • Whitepaper
    • Webinars
    • Video
    • Events
    • Food Library
    • Jobs
  • FQ&S
    Award
  • Search

How the Industry Is Tackling Food Waste

September 25, 2019 • By Ted Agres

  • Tweet
Print-Friendly Version

For years, the U.S. and other countries, along with numerous multinational and private organizations, have been seeking ways to reduce food loss and waste. Despite this, world hunger continues to increase with population growth. In the U.S., up to 40 percent of the food supply goes uneaten, equivalent to an average of 400 pounds of food per person per year and costing an average household of four about $1,800 annually.

You Might Also Like
  • Plans for an Efficient Commercial Kitchen
  • Containing Food Waste Through Food Storage
  • How to Reduce Waste in Restaurants, Grocery Stores
Explore This Issue
October/November 2019
Also By This Author
  • Blockchain to the Rescue: Eliminating Global Food Fraud
ad goes here:advert-1
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

This wasteful activity consumes more than $218 billion, or 1.3 percent of the gross domestic product, in futile growing, processing, transportation, and disposal costs. Where does the uneaten food go? EPA estimates that food accounts for 22 percent of all landfill waste.

Internationally, the situation isn’t much better. About one-third of all global food production is either lost or wasted annually, at an estimated price tag of $940 billion, according to the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations.

Despite decades of international conferences, scientific meetings, and the issuance of countless reports, the problem of food loss and waste remains seemingly intractable. However, the food industry can play a leading, if not major, role in addressing the problem throughout the food distribution chain, from growing and production, to processing, and to retail and food services, according to a recent report from the Government Accountability Office.

ad goes here:advert-2
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

Many proposed solutions involve new technologies. Among these are novel packaging materials and plant environmental management to better inhibit spoilage of produce and meat. Others involve creation of digital apps using blockchain or the Internet of Things (IoT) so food manufacturers and consumers can trace products throughout the distribution chain.

“By using open technologies, like IBM Cloud, blockchain, IoT, and visual recognition, [software] developers are creating solutions to generate better insights about where waste happens, how to track it, and how to share this data across supply chains,” John Walicki, chief technology officer at IBM Cognitive Applications, tells Food Quality & Safety.

Other approaches are closer at hand and easier to implement. “Perhaps one of the simplest is to standardize food date labels across all supermarkets and retail stores. With millions of pounds of perfectly edible food filling landfills, a solution needs to be found,” says Darcy Simonis, vice president of the food and beverage division of ABB (formerly Asea Brown Bovari).

ad goes here:advert-3
ADVERTISEMENT
SCROLL TO CONTINUE

Confusing Food Labels

“Expiration,” “Use By,” “Sell By,” “Best Before,” “Best If Used By,” and “Enjoy By” are among the various phrases commonly printed on food labels, tending to blur the real date of when a food item is no longer safe to eat and should be discarded. Indeed, a 2007 survey published in the Journal of Food Protection found that fewer than half of consumers are able to distinguish among these various phrases. This confusion is responsible for about 20 percent of consumer food waste, according to ReFED, a multi-stakeholder network of business, nonprofit, foundation, and government leaders working to reduce U.S. food waste.

Frank Yiannas, deputy FDA commissioner for food policy and response, recently published an open letter to the food industry. In it, he encouraged voluntary industry-wide efforts to clarify expiration labeling, noting that the agency has found that consumers often throw out food because they misunderstand product date labels or are unsure how to store perishable foods.

Hopefully, the food industry is poised to address the issue. In 2017, the Grocery Manufacturers Association and Food Marketing Institute brought together 25 consumer packaged goods and grocery retail companies to discuss how to “simplify and streamline” product date labels to reduce consumer confusion. The groups recommended using only two introductory phrases for product date labels: “Best If Used By” and “Use By.” “Best If Used By” would mean that the product may not taste or perform as expected after the specified date, but would be still safe to use or consume. “Use By” would apply to perishable products that should be consumed by the date on the package and discarded afterward.

Pages: 1 2 3 | Single Page

Filed Under: Food Service & Retail Tagged With: Food Quality, Food Safety, food wasteIssue: October/November 2019

You Might Also Like:
  • Plans for an Efficient Commercial Kitchen
  • Containing Food Waste Through Food Storage
  • How to Reduce Waste in Restaurants, Grocery Stores
  • 5 Essential Tips for Effective Sanitation

About Ted Agres

Ted Agres is an award-winning writer who covers food safety regulatory and legislative issues from the nation’s capital in the Washington Report column. He has 40 years of experience in reporting on issues such as health policy, medical technology, and pharmaceutical development. He holds an MBA from Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor’s degree from the University of Chicago. He enjoys playing the piano, amateur radio, and paintball. He lives in Laurel, MD. Reach him at tedagres@yahoo.com.

View more by this author»

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Current Issue

October/November 2019

  • Issue Articles »
  • Current Issue PDF »
  • Subscribe »
  • Follow Us:

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • LinkedIn

Food Quality & Safety Blog  

Managing Change as a Food Safety Professional

… [Read More]

Previous posts »

Paid Partner Content

Avoiding Overwhelming Product Recall Costs

Innovative food safety inspection systems are being developed in Germany. Learn more about the latest technologies from Bizerba and benefit from our free guidelines ensuring consistent food production safety.

  • Recall News
  • Industry News
    • Cay Thi Queentrees Food USA Recalls Poultry Products
    • Padrino Foods, LLC Recalls Beef Tamales
    • Simmons Prepared Foods, Inc. Recalls Poultry Products
    • Rastelli Bros., Inc. Recalls Meat Products
    View more »
    • Researchers Uncover Science Behind Using UV Light to Disarm Pathogens
    • In Memoriam: Daniel Y. C. Fung, PhD
    • E. coli Illness Linked to Romaine Lettuce Expands
    • Salmonella Outbreak and Ground Beef Recall Stir Transparency Debate
    • FDA Extends Deadline for Supply-Chain Approval
    View more »

Polls

How interested is your company in cannabis testing for its food/beverage products?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...
  • Polls Archive

Whitepapers

  • Food Authenticity Testing with Agilent 6546 LC/Q-TOF and MassHunter Classifier

View More Whitepapers »

On-Demand Webinars

  • Reduce Non-Recyclable Materials
  • Why a Food Safety Culture Is Critical to Your Business

View More Webinars »

Food Quality & Safety (formerly Food Quality) is the established authority in delivering strategic and tactical approaches necessary for quality assurance, safety, and security in the food and beverage industry.

Advertise / Targeted list rental/3rd Party emails / Subscribe / Contact Us / Privacy Policy / Terms of Use

ASBPE Award Winner

Copyright © 2000–2019 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., a Wiley Company. All rights reserved. ISSN 2399-1399

Wiley

This site uses cookies: Find out more.