FOOD90033 Sustainable Food: Policy and Practice Semester 2, 2020 Assignment 2 – Essay or Policy Brief Assignment length: 3,500 words (+/-10%) The reference list is not included in the word count....

FOOD WASTE
Table of Contents
Introduction    3
Causes of Food Waste in Australia    3
Implications of Food Waste    4
Need for Reduction of Food Waste    5
Methods to Reduce Food Wastage in Australia    5
Managing Food Waste in Australia    7
Initiatives Taken by Australian Government to Reduce Food Waste    7
State and Territory Governments    9
Local Governments    9
Private Sector and Not-for-Profit Organisations    10
Recommendations    10
Conclusion    11
References    12
Introduction
Food wastage has now turned out to be an international phenomenon and has been affecting both developed and developing countries in different ways. Food wastage can simply be defined as the deliberate wastage of food fit for the consumption of human beings. While most of the population in developing nations starve for food and go to their beds hungry, developed nations like Australia have developed an unnecessary problem of food wastage. It is estimated that Australians consumers waste 3.1 million tonnes of perfectly edible food every year and therefore, making food waste a serious concern for the Australian authorities (Australian Government, 2020). It has further been mentioned by the Australian Government (2020), that food wastes costs nearly $20 billion each year to the Australian economy. In addition to this, another 2.2 million tonnes of food are being disposed by the industrial and commercial sector. It has been estimated that Australians discard 20% of their food they buy.
Causes of Food Waste in Australia
Major causes of food waste in Australia have been identified as the changing behaviour of the consumers and a lack of communication in the supply chain. It has been observed that food waste in Australia occurs predominantly at the level of retailers and consumers. It has been estimated that 20% to 40% of the fruits and vegetables are rejected before they reach the shelves of the supermarkets in Australia. This is only because of the unrealistic expectations of the consumers about how the food should look on the shelves of the Australian supermarkets (Devin & Richards, 2018). Fulfilling the aesthetic expectations of the consumers can be thought of as one of the major reasons of wastage of food by the retailers before they are displayed for selling in supermarkets.
Improper labelling of food can also be thought of as a major reason of food wastage. Confusions regarding the dates of selling and use by date labelling by brands and supermarkets selling foods and vegetables discard the perfectly usable and edible food way before it actually becomes unfit for consumption. In addition to this, large quantities of cooked and uncooked edible food are thrown away by consumers just because it has been left for too long in their fridge and freezers (Schanes, Dobernig & Gözet, 2018). Eating establishments have also been found following similar practices. Moreover, people do not finish their meals and have a tendency to throw their left-over meals directly into their kitchen dustbins. Households are biggest contributors of food wastage in Australia.
Poor storage facilities also act as a contributing factor to the wastage of food on a large scale. Storing the food items in the right temperature and other standardised conditions at times becomes very difficult and therefore, making it harder to preserve the food. Apart from this, changing lifestyle and household size of the consumers also act as contributing factors to the wastage of food. People nowadays are busy enough to leave their meals midway so that they focus on other tasks leaving the left-over food to be thrown into the dustbins. Considering the industrial and the commercial wastage of food, most of the food in restaurants and cafes are being wasted due to overbuying, over production and spoilage (Chan & Schapper, 2010). Overbuying can be considered as an inadequate forecasting of consumer demands by these restaurants as they tend to buy large quantities of food at one time.
Preparation techniques used by these restaurants have also been a contributing factor towards the wastage of food. Storing food inadequately leads to spoilage and spillage of food and therefore, rendering the food to be unfit for consumption. It can be inferred that wastage of food is a part of the entire food chain, where farmers, retailers, food industries, caterers and the consumers all have been wasting food. It has often been observed that people buy too much food making it difficult for them to consume it. They are unable to plan the right amount of food they want to buy, cook or eat leading to the wastage of food on a large scale. Considering the farmers, they produce too much food making it difficult for the consumption of these food items at a single point. Lack of communication in the supply chain is another major reason for food wastage occurring in Australia.
Implications of Food Waste
Food waste has been directly impacting the society and the environment and has been contributing significantly to climatic changes. Wastage of food has also been affecting the economic capital and the resources available for the production of food. Wastage of food has also been increasing global food insecurity. Some of the implication of food waste have been discussed in detail as below:
Environmental and Climatic Impact
The wasted food, when dumped into landfills for the purpose of decomposition emits methane gas, which traps heat in the atmosphere. Apart from this, land biodiversity around these landfills is also impacted adversely. Moreover, producing these food resources requires a lot of water, and the water usage in food production of Australia is considerably high, which further turns out to be a wastage.
Food Insecurity
Although Australia is a rich, wealthy and full industrialised nation, food insecurity in Australia seems to prevalent as 65,000 people in need of food relief who go unassisted each month. Australians have been struggling to meet the increasing food demand owing to the fact that food in huge quantities is being wasted in Australia (Reutter, Lant & Lane, 2017). Another reason of food insecurity in Australia is the lack of financial resources particularly among aboriginal and indigenous communities. Geographical isolation is also a reason behind the limited food access.
Need for Reduction of Food Waste
Food waste can be categorised into different categories such as the food, which never left the farms, food, which was spoiled in transportation or was lost during transportation, the food, which was wasted as it was not visually appealing so as to be kept on the shelves of supermarkets in Australia. Food is also being wasted from the hospitality sector and Australian households (Morone et al., 2019). Therefore, a strong need is being felt for reduction of food waste. Moreover, to make the economy stronger, it is mandatory to come up with measures that can help to reduce the wastage of food. Food wastes have been costing the Australian economy nearly $20 billion each year. Australians have been wasting food around 7.3 million tonnes every year and therefore, creating an alarming situation calling for a need of food conservation. Food waste has also been accounting for 5 % of Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions.
Methods to Reduce Food Wastage in Australia
In order to solve the problem of food wastage in Australia it is necessary to take measure both at the consumer end as well as at the producer end. Organised food management practices can be deployed to reduce food wastage in the farms, supermarkets, commercial establishments and at household. Reduce Reuse Recycle scheme can be applied in food wastes and the sources of food waste must be reduced (Ali et al., 2019). Some of the...