Food waste on menu of disasters
SUPERMARKETS are gearing up for the festive feeding frenzy, but experts say those who waste food over the holiday will be fuelling a disaster.
The annual cost of food waste is estimated at R61.5-billion — 2.1% of GDP.
Wastage of about 10 tons each year is equally split between agricultural production, postharvest handling and storage, processing and packaging, and distribution and consumption, says the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR).
While consumers — particularly the wealthier middle class — are only one part of a wider problem across the food chain, lifestyle changes at household level can make a difference.
Nicola Rijsdijk, a Cape Town editor and mother of two, does not let a scrap of food go to waste. “I am very aware of the process of getting food to the fridge. I think it is disrespectful to all the people involved in the production of food to waste it.
“I don’t adhere strictly to useby and sell-by dates and I have never got sick. It is more of a red tape issue than a food one.”
Rijsdijk uses slightly-off milk in scones, and bread turning stale for French toast. She grows her own herbs, which she cuts and mixes with olive oil if they’re about to go to seed, and marinades peppers losing crunch.
“I make my firelighters out of old tea bags, and freeze the peels from my carrots for soup stock.”
Another consumer said: “When you have family over at this time of year, you don’t want to look snoep [stingy], so you make more food than is necessary. You know lots will go to waste, but it is like a status thing. You don’t want to come across as the poor relative.”
Anton Nahman, who led the CSIR research, said “a substantial proportion” of discarded food was still edible. Even in the case of inedible food, “disposal to landfill or by incineration” sees the loss of valuable resources for other processes such as energy generation or composting.
Jane Battersby, a food systems expert at the African Centre for Cities at the University of Cape Town, said that in the global north there was a lot of waste at the retail and consumption ends. In the global south, more food was lost due to supply chain problems such as refrigeration and bad road infrastructure.
South Africa’s waste profile was a blend: “It varies considerably by class, with far more waste within the consumption phase by wealthier households.”
Informal traders had many approaches to reduce waste, “such as price adjustment and giving food to poor customers”.
Supermarket chains relied on a model of “economic efficiencies and guaranteed supply rather than environmental principles”, and this led to “a glut and therefore wastage”.
Woolworths gave food worth R485-million to charities last year, and Pick n Pay “almost 2 000 tons of food per year to FoodForward and similar charities”. Shoprite donated food worth R109-million through its We Fight Hunger programme.