When most people hear the term “food waste” they assume it refers to food that has gone uneaten and subsequently been thrown away. While that is considered food waste, that is not the only way food is wasted. Here are some facts about the reality of food waste.

Where Does it Start?
The loss of, or miss use of, resources is the first stage of food loss. Many countries experience lack of water, reductions in land available for farming and dwindling finances to properly grow, harvest and distribute food before it goes bad. The food loss experienced in Latin America, Europe and Africa at this first stage could feed roughly 800,000,000 people. Improving the supply chain will go a long way in reducing these losses.

The Retail Effect
There is a massive amount of food waste in restaurants and grocery stores. If the fruits and vegetables aren’t pretty enough, they are tossed out. In fact, most grocery stores even throw out prepackaged and canned foods if the packaging becomes dented or damaged in some way. Sadly there is a large amount of produce that is left to rot in the field or thrown away before leaving the farm because of blemishes or malformations. Farmers have decided that it’s not worth the time and money to harvest food that is too “ugly” to be sold.

Know the Numbers
It’s so easy to say that food is being wasted, but it’s another issue to understand the numbers. Here are some facts:

• 70 billion —  The number of pounds of food wasted in America annually.
• 40% — The amount of food grown or produced in America that will not be eaten.
• 3.3 billion — The number of tons of CO2 equivalent of greenhouse gas released annually into the atmosphere.
• 33 million — The number of tons of food that end up in landfills annually.
• $165 billion — The dollar number equivalent of the amount of food thrown out annually by Americans.

The remaining question is, what can we do to reduce the waste? There are some practical steps regular people can take to help reduce food waste at home.

Serve smaller portions
When serving up dinner at home, serve and encourage smaller portions. This reduces the amount of uneaten food that is scraped off the plate and thrown away. This also increases the amount of food that can be saved and eaten later.

Plan to eat leftovers
Many people plan their weekly meals, but few actually plan to eat the leftovers. This leads to molded yuck that gets shoved to the back of the fridge and eventually thrown away.

Shop smarter
In the age of big box and warehouse stores, it’s becoming increasingly easy to over buy. Consumers feel as though buying in bulk is saving them money, but in reality money and food are both being wasted. Buying only what you will use within the timeframe of freshness will not only save money, but it will keep a lot of food from going in the bin.

These steps may seem small, but if everyone pitches in a little, the world will see a big difference.