Blog 2 “Food Waste Wednesday”

A lack of data was a consistent theme across the food waste summit put on by by WasteMinz and NZ

Food Waste Champions 12.3 recently. It was very clear that Aotearoa is lacking good data to inform

decision making to reduce food loss and food waste across the whole food system.

Professor Sheila Skeaff (University of Otago) leads the Metrics and Management theme of Food

Waste Innovation Otago, which measures food waste, develops reduction strategies, applies

innovative technology and works to modify producer and consumer behaviour.

Sheila said that if we want to see change happen, we need a target, we need to measure and collect

data, and then we need to act to make a difference.

To collect good data, Sheila made the point that we need good definitions, so we are all talking

about the same thing. Last year the Ministry of the Environment came up with this definition of food

loss and food waste.

Food loss and waste is imported or domestically produced food and drink, including inedible parts,

which leave the food supply chain from the point that crops, and livestock are ready for harvest or

slaughter onwards to the point of consumption, to be recycled, recovered or disposed of in Aotearoa.

So, what is the difference between food loss and food waste. Food loss occurs between leaving the

farm, or grower and being processed. Food waste occurs from the point of wholesalers, retailers,

food preparation and marketing. Interestingly loss at the primary production, pre-harvest stage is

not included in the definition of food loss.

There are some big gaps in the data on food production and on food waste. One of the tricky parts

of understanding of food loss and waste in Aotearoa, is that although we produce about 30 million

tonnes of food every year, most of it is exported, so it is very difficult to track what happens to that

food.

The food waste innovation team will be releasing some New Zealand data on food loss and waste

soon, but Sheila did share the following:

% of food lost or wasted

World Between 30% - 40%

Australia About 25%

Aotearoa To be released soon

Shelia did make the point that per capita figures are much more useful to work with, especially when

working out what actions will make a difference.

Per capita food by weight lost or wasted per year

European Union 289kg

Australia 312kg – 70% of the food wasted is edible food e.g leftovers, bread crusts

Aotearoa To be released soon

Want to start gathering data on food waste in your household, workplace or school. Love Food, Hate

Waste have a handy data sheet to get you started on your waste audit Love Food Hate Waste

Don’t forget to weigh all the food that comes into your house for the week as well to get a better

understanding of how much food you waste.

Remember “Consider what the food was meant to be, not the waste it became”.