We perhaps know about the food waste and the number of about billion ton of food was wasted each year. It is a difficult problem to solve to every countries and area. For this wasting is not only from subjective reasons but also objective ones.
People all around the world are trying to change the situation of food waste, not much but at least reduce the number little by little. It’s not easy to carry out this matter for farmers or manufacturers for in producing and processing food they have to face to the unexpected lost of food as damage or not reach the consuming standard. Those products which don’t meet the requirement have to be rejected. However, it is possible to improve this especially as consumers. Our changing will make the improvement that could surprise us.
Let take a look at some suggestions from the food experts and we could make the thing to become different.
For farmers and manufacturers
Farmers and the manufacturers have a close connection to each other. They could keep contact closer to limit the unequal quantity of food that will be provided to the factory with the market demand, and to ensure the safely packing and transportation from the farms to the factory in order to reduce the damaging.
For the retailers
The retailers could support the farmers and the manufacturers by selling the imperfect outer products with lower price to avoid throwing them away. Besides, they could cooperate with the restaurants to consume the food the most efficiently.
They could also donate the food to other organizations for good purpose.
For the consumers
A significant amount of food was wasted during the consuming. For different reasons, foods are thrown away cooked or uncooked. And the consumers could decide or choose to reduce this wasting.
For the food in common, we shouldn’t stock too much for it’s hard to control the food consuming if we don’t have plan, and the food will be easy to be waste. We should also not to pay too much attention to the promoted program, for it will attract us to buy more than we need. Besides, there are some recommendations of the date that we should know to use the products as the best way:
- Use by day: applied to the fresh products as milk, fishes, meat…that are easy to be decayed. These products should be used max to the end of the date on the label. After that date, some products are still edible but some could cause problem to the consumers’ health. The products with label “use by day” must follow the storage instruction closely.
- Best before day: the “best before day” on the label means that the products are as best quality, after that they are still edible but the quality is reduced.
- Sell by day: this notice is mostly for the store than the consumer. The products are still safe to use after this date.
Generally, the date which is shown on the products’ label is for consumers’ information. The products could still be consumed after the date, but the manufacturers will not guarantee the quality. So as consumers, we have to check the product carefully, buy foods as we need as well as stored them rightly in order to use them as the best quality and avoid wasting.
To reduce wasting cooked food, we could plan our meals for a few days or a whole week. We should prepare the food suitably to our demand and learn to cook rightly. If eating out, let choose less food and finish the meal without leaving food on the plates.
If each one of us tried to treat the food rightly and reasonably, it could be sure that the food waste will reduce significantly.
