Foro Global sobre Seguridad Alimentaria y Nutrición (Foro FSN)

Please find attached the European Economic and Social Committee's opinion on food waste, adopted on 20 March 2013.

Kind regards,

Annika Korzinek

Administrator

European Economic and Social Committee

NAT Section (Environment and Agriculture)

Dear Sir/Madam

Some comments from Sweden:

*We’d like to refer to our national study Censen et al 2012, available on www.smed.se – showing food waste data and methodology for 2010. We are doing quite a lot on food waste data and will hopefully in autumn publish a summary of all this work in English.

*I don’t fully agree with loss/ waste terms proposed. I know that FAO uses this terminology, many other refer to loss as something unnecessary being thrown away throughout the whole food chain.. Please have a look at the FUSION-project work with definitions. Contact Karin Östergren –[email protected] for more information on that topic.

Your other writings sounds reasonable to me.

All the best

Åsa Stenmarck

Climate and sustainable cities - Waste

India is vast country with diversified climatic zone and fertile land/soil spread over the entire country, with different river sources which can be used effeicently to grow different crops for food security and health security. India is blessed with natural resoures and minerasls to have sustainablitily in the feild of agriculture.Even today we get many natural herbs which have medicinal values for human beings and has good effeciency compared to allopathic medicines. 

Coming to the point, with all this advantages our government policies are unable to tap the potentiality of our natural resorces and get the benefit to the poor peasants cultivating their lands desperately. At the same time the loss incurred is to the tune of 50 to 60 % through poor crop management, post harvest management, price flacuation of agri commodities, poor transportation and airline facilities, poor storage facilities etc., all this has lead our country to make loss upto 60% on the produce we get from mother earth. Farmers here depend on mono cropping in large area which leads to glut in the market and inturn influence the rate in the market.Hort duration hybrids varieties of different crops also add up to this.Indian farmers gorw the crops and the sell thier produce at less remunerative price and sometime throw away the produce as they do not get the invested returns as they grow crops which are perishable due to lack of transportation facilities from one market to the other markets.The major causes for food loss are as follows in the Indian context

1.Lack of crop planing ( Selection of Crop, time of sowing, water management,Organic manure & Fertilizer management,  pest and diseases management etc.,)

2.Lack of Post Harvest technologies (lack of innovative harvesting machiniers and tools, lack of harvesting platforms and lack of transportation facilities)

3.Lack of cold storage chain link in order to increase the shelf life of the produce.

4.Lack of value addition to the produce grown by the farmers.

Farmers grow the crops and sell the same to the market at prevailing rate whether they get high returns or not. They should go for value addition to their produce through Dehydration & Food processing method.Farmers can also go sustainable agriculture like Integrated Farming System approach on their land (Agriculture Crop, Horticulture crop, Appiculture, Pisciculture,Dairy,Sheep&Goat,Poultry farming in their land) instead of monocropping in their land.

These are the some of the breif ideas which I would like to share the same with the organisation.

[email protected]

I wish to comment on postharvest losses on cereal grains;about a third of the grain harvested in a farm does not get to intended consumer.The grain is lost during harvesting,handling and storage. The major contributors to the loss are;

• Damage and consumption by field and storage pests that include insects,rodents and birds.
• Spoilage
• Spillage and
• Contamination
• The farmers and other grain handlers  need to be equipped with the basics post harvest handling techniques inorder to save a considerable quantity of grains increasing earning capacity of the farmers and traders.
• The grains should be harvested early as soon as they have reached the physiological maturity,incase of maize drying should be done first to attain a moisture of below 18% before shelling otherwise the sheller will crush the maize resulting into high level of broken grains.After shelling the maize should be dried to moisture 13.5% or below for safe storage.The grain should be treated with fumigants for the control of store pests before storing in bags or bulk. The storte where the grain is to be stored must be cleaned thoroughly by removing all cobwebs, debris and spillage from previous crop as they harbour insects and become a source of infestation and sustain rodents and other pests.
• Part of the preparation of the store should involve treatment with a recommended pestcide.Every care must be taken to reach the hidden points and crevices as these are areas that act as breeding ground and hideout for pests.
• One should also make sure that the store is water proof and that the walls and floor are intact and able to carry the weight of the grain. The store should be secured against larger pest such as rodents and pilferes.
• If the grain is kept in bags,then the choice of the bags is important. for grains in transit,polypropylene bags could be used,however the period of storage must be very short. For safe and prolonged storage,jute or sisal bags should be used.These bags allow free circulation of air and dispensation of generated heat and are easy to fumigate.

Hello,

Maersk Line together with Institute of Applied Economics and Health Research has looked into Indian banana trade and food waste issues have come up as part of the research.

I would like to share some of the key findings with you:

The proportion of Indian fruits and vegetables estimated to go to waste in India due to the absence of an effective cold chain is 20 – 30%. This amount is equivalent to the total annual consumption of fruit and vegetables in Great Britain

Most food waste in the supply chain comes directly or indirectly from poor temperature control

The main cause of waste in the domestic market is due to a combination of low quality bananas from the farmer, insufficient sorting schemes at the packing stations, insufficient packing technologies, problems and lack of capacity in inland transport and storage

Waste in export (bananas) is lower than in the domestic trade due to efforts made with harvesting, sorting, packing and transport

Even if the domestic market prices in periods are higher than the prices in the export markets, the waste in the domestic markets is so significant that the export is still more profitable

Reduction of the overall waste by improving the cold chain infrastructure is a key to sustainable Indian banana trade

Please find the link to the summary of the case we have put together on: Unlocking the potential of the Indian banana trade. In case of interest of the background report, please let me know.

With best,

Kaisa

Kaisa Tikk

Advisor

Environment & CSR

Maersk Line

Dear CFS/HLPE,

We are a group of FAO interns participating in the challenge Thought for Food (http://tffchallenge.com). The purpose of this challenge is to inspire and mobilize  young professionals around innovative ideas to ensure that everyone in the world has access to adequate, safe, and nutritious food in the future.  

Our group has focused the issues of food losses and waste as a means of addressing the problem of food production and consumption, from Seed to Feed (http://tffchallenge.com/team/seed-to-feed). We believe that informed choices can contribute to improve the food supply chain by assisting consumers in purchasing only what will be used. For this reason, we are designing a mobile application, SmartBasket, that concretely connects consumers to information on sanitary food practices (independent of expiration dates), food travel distance as it impacts spoilage time and other crucial information to making sure all food purchased is consumed rather than wasted.

We have been reading with great enthusiasm the many contributions made to the HLPE Open E-Consultation on Food Losses and Waste in the Context of Sustainable Food Systems. We understand that this consultation is part of a larger elaboration process that will contribute to the publication of a CFS report that will be presented to the Plenary in 2014.

We hold the current work of the CFS and the HLPE in high regard, we believe that these upcoming events are great opportunities to be seized. We would like to know if there is an expert in your group that would be willing to meet with us and help us gain insight from your experience, as it pertains to technical aspects of food spoilage as a driver of consumer waste.

Sincere regards,

Seed to Feed Team

Joana Borrero

BeeGeok Cham

Céline Dumas

Chamim Foroughi

Amanda Hickey

Dear Participants,

Pls find hereunder the link to a slightly dated study on losses in the dairy sector which was done in 2003/4.

As a result of the study and awareness raising around the high levels of losses being incurred, significant investments (public and private) were made in reducing these losses hence increasing household nutrition and income opportunities for mainly smallholder farm families.

http://www.fao.org/ag/againfo/themes/en/dairy/pfl/home.html

Dear leader of the Project Team,

I would like to give my opinion and my suggestion about this topic.

10. What other policies and relevant technology option are available for minimisation, better resource accountability and management

Aquaculture Effluent: How to natural treatment

Dillution system of waste treatment will impact  Eutrophicatn in coastal and river area.

The impact of dillution system are  eutrophication of the water surrounding coastal and rivers areas. Fish excretion and fecal wastes combine with nutrients released from the breakdown of excess feed to raise nutrient levels well above normal, creating alga blooms. In Indonesia contaminated waste generated from industries, sewage, agriculture, aquaculture, etc. Once the resulting algal blooms die, they settle to the bottom where their decomposition depletes the oxygen. Before they die, however, there is the possibility that algal toxins are produced, the example is red tides. Although any species of phytoplankton can benefit from an increased nutrient supply, certain mplesspecies are noxious or even toxic to other marine organisms and to humans. The spines of some diatoms  can irritate the gills of fish, causemple is exang decreased production or even death8. More importantly, blooms ("red tides") of certain species such as Chattonella marina often produce biological toxins that can kill other organisms. Neurotoxins produced by several algal species can be concentrated in filter-feeding bivalves such as mussels and oysters, creating a serious health risk to people consuming contaminated shellfish.

Intensive Farming system   depend on a diet of artificial feed in pellet form. This feed is broadcast onto the surface of the water, and is consumed by the fish as it settles through the water column. Because not all the feed is eaten, a great deal of feed can reach the bottom where it is eaten by the benthos or decomposed by microorganisms. This alteration of the natural food web structure can significantly impact the local environment.The waste could be minimalization with natural management, like Moringa olifeira seed, Sargassum plagyophyllum, shellfish, ,polyculture with trophic level system, probiotic, etc

Dr. Nurul Istiqomah

From: Indonesia

I am a student studying sustainability and psychology and have recently written an essay on food waste in developed countries. Here are some ideas for long term reduction of food waste at an individual/retailor level.

Education

In order to bring long term change in how food is discarded (and consumed), educating the future generation is critical. Knowledge of food waste issues and how each and every individual can make a difference will bring change.

Encouragement

In psychology, the concept of self-efficacy is known to have an impact on whether people will take action or just give up. It is the notion of whether one CAN do something about an issue. So encouraging and making people think they can reduce food waste may make a difference.

Reconsidering the law for best-by/use-by/display-until dates

Much food is thrown away just because the display-until-date has passed even it is completely safe to eat. I have seen vast amounts of food in the dumpster of supermarkets in my area (Exeter, UK). (Note that not all discarded food is due to the passed date.) If food safety regulations were slightly looser, this may be prevented. This clearly has its concerns, nevertheless, how the dates are set should be reconsidered.

Monitoring

How much food waste is generated must be monitored more closely. This is a difficult thing to do in households, but if laws were made to monitor food loss/waste generated from factories and supermarkets, they will strive to reduce food waste. Major supermarkets in my area frequently try to cover up how much unsold food they are discarding (which is an unacceptable about…daily) by deliberately opening the packaging and mixing everything up.

Also by monitoring, the trend of food waste reduction would be clear, which can lead to encourage mentioned above.