You can't solve the food waste problem by overeating

If you believe that finishing an overloaded plate of food is ‘avoiding waste’, you might need to think again.

Researchers have found that 10% of available food is wasted by overconsumption, which in turn negatively impacts food security and the environment. When combined with the 9% of food that is left to spoil before being binned, that’s almost one-fifth of food that is being wasted in the home.

Scientists from Edinburgh examined 10 key stages in the global food system — including food consumption and the growing and harvesting of crops — to quantify the extent of losses.

Using data collected primarily by the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization, the team found that more food is lost from the system than was previously thought.

Food losses

Almost half of harvested crops — or 2.1 billion tonnes — are lost through overconsumption, consumer waste and inefficiencies in production processes.

Livestock production is the least efficient process, with losses of 78% or 840 million tonnes, the team found. Some 1.08 billion tonnes of harvested crops are used to produce 240 million tonnes of edible animal products, including meat, milk and eggs.

This stage alone accounts for 40% of all losses of harvested crops, researchers say.

Food security

Increased demand for some foods, particularly meat and dairy products, would decrease the efficiency of the food system and could make it difficult to feed the world’s expanding population in sustainable ways. Meeting this demand could cause environmental harm by increasing greenhouse gas emissions, depleting water supplies and causing loss of biodiversity, according to the researchers.

But the trend could be reversed in part by encouraging people to eat fewer animal products, reduce waste and not exceed their nutritional needs.

The study, which was published in the journal Agricultural Systems, was carried out in collaboration with Scotland’s Rural College, University of York, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology and the Centre for Australian Weather and Climate Research.