Lo spreco alimentare: cause, impatti e proposte

Food waste is defined in different ways by institutions and within the specialized literature. There is not, in fact, any standardized definition of the phenomenon, or any homogeneous and comparable data. Taking account of all of the phases of the food supply chain, the BCFN proposes to distinguish between: - Food losses, meaning the losses that occur upstream of the food supply chain, mainly during the sowing, cultivation, harvesting, processing, preserving, and first agricultural transformation stages; - Food Waste, meaning the waste that takes place during industrial processing, distribution, and final consumption. In an analysis carried out in 2011 by FAO, annual global food waste is estimated to be about 1.3 billion tons, equivalent to about a third of the total food production intended for human consumption. According to another piece of research (Smil, 2010), if, along the food supply chain, we take account not only of losses and waste, but also the conversion of food production into animal feed, we find that only 43% of the caloric equivalent of the products cultivated for food purposes worldwide is directly consumed by humans. According to the USDA (2007), in the United States a total of 30% of the food intended for human consumption is wasted each year, primarily in the home and in restaurants and food service establishments. According to Eurostat data (2006), the quantity of food wasted annually in Europe is 89 million tons, equivalent to 180 kg per capita, but this figure does not take account of the losses during the production and harvesting stages. Looking only at waste in the home, and using various national data sources (which are not always entirely comparable), we find that the amount wasted per person per year is: 110 kg in Great Britain, 109 in the United States, 108 in Italy, 99 in France, 82 in Germany and 72 in Sweden. There are numerous causes of losses and waste, and they are differentiated according to the various stages of the food supply chain. In developing countries, the most significant losses are concentrated at the first part of the food supply chain, primarily due to limits in the cultivation, harvesting, and preserving techniques, or due to a lack of adequate transportation and storage infrastructures. In industrialized countries, the largest proportion of waste occurs at the final stages of the food supply chain (household consumption and restaurants and food service establishments, in particular). However, even in these countries, the losses recorded at the agricultural stage are not negligible (due to sizing and esthetic standards, product quality regulations, production surpluses, or economic factors). For example, in Italy in 2009, 17.7 million tons of agricultural produce was left in the fields, representing 3.25% of total production (Segrè and Falasconi, 2011). In agriculture, it appears on a first analysis that the food losses are attributable to climatic and environmental factors, and disease and parasites. The significant differences found within this stage between developing and developed countries may be attributed to the available technology and infrastructures, agricultural expertise and the techniques used for land preparation, sowing, cultivation, harvesting, processing, and storage. In developed countries, and sometimes also in developing countries, regulatory and economic factors play a part. However, there is undoubtedly still a long way to go in understanding the causes of the losses at the initial part of the food supply chains. During the stages of first processing of the agricultural product and semi-finished goods, the main causes of waste that can be identified are technical malfunctions and inefficiencies in the production processes - generally referred to as “production waste.” During distribution and sales (both wholesale and retail), there are many causes of waste, including inappropriate ordering and incorrect forecasting of demand. Waste in the home arises due to the difficulties consumers have with correctly interpreting food labeling; the preparation of over-generous portions (both in restaurants and in the home); mistakes made at the purchase planning stage (often induced by special offers); and foods not being preserved appropriately. Food losses and waste have negative environmental and economic impacts and their existence raises questions for society. In order to estimate the environmental impact of a wasted food, it is necessary to consider its entire “life cycle” (or in other words, work through all the stages of the food supply chain), calculating the indicators commonly used, such as the carbon footprint (CO2 equivalent), the ecological footprint (m2 equivalent), and the water footprint (m3 of virtual water). The data gathered in Italy has demonstrated that the fruits and vegetables thrown away at sales outlets alone account for the consumption of more than 73 million m3 of water (water footprint) in a year, as well as the use of environmental resources equal to almost 400 million square meters equivalent (ecological footprint) and the emission into the atmosphere of more than 8 million kg of carbon dioxide equivalent (carbon footprint). In Great Britain, food waste is responsible for the emission of 25.7 million tons of CO2 equivalent per year: 78% of this emission is attributable to waste that could be “always avoidable,” while 22% relates to waste that is “sometimes avoidable;” the water footprint of the food wasted in the home amounts to 284 liters per person per day. In the United States, it is estimated that the emissions during the production, processing, packaging, distribution, and disposal stages of the food not consumed amount to approximately 112.9 million tons of CO2 equivalent per year (Venkat, 2011). In Italy, the estimated values of food waste are €10 billion per year for the losses occurring in agriculture, €1.2 billion for industrial waste, and €1.5 billion for losses concentrated in the distribution stage, for a total of around €12.7 billion (Segrè and Falasconi, 2011). In Great Britain, food wasted each year at the household level amounts to £18 billion, whereas in the United States, the waste at the consumption stage alone is equivalent to $124.1 billion (around 63% of the total), costing a family of four about $1,600 per year, on average (WRAP, 2008). Food waste is a phenomenon that raises serious questions from a social point of view. In fact, given the problem of malnutrition that is afflicting around one billion people worldwide, the increase in food waste, even in the form of excessive nutrition (contributing to the increase in the obesity epidemic in Western countries), appears extremely unacceptable. The FAO points out that the quantity of food that ends up in the garbage in industrialized countries (222 million tons) matches the food production available in Sub-Saharan Africa (230 million tons). The lack of awareness of the scale of the waste that each person produces, its environmental impact, and its economic value certainly do not assist with tackling this problem. Given the scale reached by the food waste phenomenon, and above all the scope of its impacts, the BCFN has identified seven recommendations that it wishes to bring to the attention of governments and political institutions: 1) Common definitions and metrics. Assigning a standardized meaning to the terms “food losses” and “food waste,” and harmonizing the collection of statistical data at an international level. 2) Understanding the causes. Understanding in greater detail why food waste occurs in the various food supply chains and better assessing its impacts. 3) Reducing in order to recover less. Investing first in reducing food losses and waste and then in their recovery. 4) (Re)use. Launching initiatives to recover the waste still not eliminated, by distribution to disadvantaged persons, use as animal feed or, as a last resort, for producing bioenergy. 5) A political priority. Managing the reduction of waste at an institutional level, and also ensuring that the adoption of standards does not introduce unjustified losses and waste along the food supply chain. 6) Cooperating to save. Developing supply chain agreements between farmers, producers, and distributors for more appropriate planning of food supply. 7) Information for education. Raising consumer awareness of the waste and teaching consumers how to purchase, preserve, prepare, and ultimately dispose of food on a more sustainable basis.