Food Waste
In the educational documentary “The Big Waste”, four chefs were split into two teams. They were assigned the task of creating a high quality meal for one hundred people using only what was considered garbage from bakeries, grocery stores, meat processors, and farms. In the process of gathering the food waste, the chefs were shocked by how picky Americans had become about food. The show shed some light on how much food was wasted in America, not only on a personal level, but on a national level as well. The amount of food waste generated was mind blowing, and not only that, but the food that was considered waste was astonishing because most of it is completely edible.
On the chefs journey to find edible garbage they discussed food waste with all types of food handlers. Some of the most outstanding numbers came from the restaurant industries. Restaurants are a huge industry in America and their contribution to the nation’s food waste should not go unnoticed. It is estimated that 27 million tons of food is thrown away every year by restaurants (The Big Waste).
When a local Pizza Hut store manager was asked what he thought about food waste he responded, “The amount of our food waste is just a reflection of how discriminative we are when it comes to using quality products for our customers”. This type of reasoning seems questionable when we know how much food is actually wasted annually by restaurants.
The Essay on Food Waste 2
FOOD WASTE Fresh vegetables, ready-to-cook meals, and cheap meat is what a modern consumer’s supposed grocery list comprises of! Dump it all into your fridge full of deals, discount offers and feel happy. This is how the shop keeper gets a loyal customer. At the end o the story, it’s the food industry’s creed that the customer is always right….. If food became it s own pungent country, it would be ...
Later in an interview with the same manager, he revealed that the corporation that runs his store and 7,600 others in America expects that 1.5% of food that is received at each store will be wasted. 1.5% of the food seems reasonable, however when you consider the 7,599 other stores that are wasting 1.5% of their food, the numbers add up quickly. For example, the local Pizza Hut store wasted 13.89 pounds of cheese last week, which the manager says is a low number. If every store wastes 14 pounds of cheese a week that’s 2,700 tons of cheese per year total.
Food waste similar to this from other corporate owned stores is also common. Stores like Casey’s General Store also contribute substantially to America’s annual food waste. When an employee at Casey’s was asked what they thought was the most careless waste of food in their store they explained that to run their sandwich counter they are sent enormous containers of peppers and sauces. Often these containers are opened and a majority of the food inside goes unused before the use-by-date; which is 3 months if the contents are refrigerated. They explained that some stores don’t have this problem, but their particular store did. If the corporation would just allow stores to purchase smaller containers, then they would not have such a large amount of waste.
Wasting so much food like this is not only bad for corporate businesses, but it adds to the crazy amounts of food waste going on each year in America. Corporations need to come up with solutions to these problems. They might consider teaching employees to stop wasting food carelessly, and start offering incentives for stores that have lower amounts of food waste.
Managers at stores justify wasting food by saying that they are concerned with quality for the customer; however, they are not aware of how their food waste impacts the amount of food wasted totally. Corporations need to mandate seminars that teach the importance of reducing food waste, and offer information on how it can be avoided.
The Essay on Should the government institute a fat tax on fatty foods in stores and restaurants?
It is no doubt that the world has over the last decade an alarming increase in the number of overweight people. Such have been closely attributed to the increase in the rate of intake of high fat and low nutrition foods and beverages. The American nation in particular has declared its highly increasing incidences of obesity among its citizens to be an epidemic. Statistical evidence has revealed ...
While talking to some of the employees and managers at local restaurants they all said that a lot of the food that was wasted was because it was expired. Fresh products like mushrooms and tomatoes had to be thrown out because they were not used in time. When the managers were asked if these products were canned or sealed in bags if that would reduce the amount wasted they said yes. They explained that some products already did come processed and sealed. They explained that those products were never wasted, unless they were dropped or left open, which was rare. It seems that if products that can be canned, or processed and sealed, that the amount of food wasted by restaurants would decrease significantly.
According to Jonathan Bloom, author of Waste Not, Want Not: Hunger and Food Waste in America, “In all, 15 percent of American households are “food insecure,” meaning they did not have the resources to obtain adequate nutrition and lead a healthy lifestyle.” With this in mind, it does not make sense that corporations that own restaurants should be allowed to waste so much of America’s food. As many Americans go hungry, restaurants all around the country are wasting food. These restaurants, their owners, and employees need to be aware of their impact on the food supply.
James Bloom also wrote the book American Wasteland where he brought up a valid point, “If we, as a culture, valued our food more, it would yield less unused food…and our hunger.” (Bloom 57).
He is talking about everyone as a whole learning to value our food. Corporations are responsible for so much food waste that maybe they should be responsible for leading America in a different direction.
The restaurants in America need education, prevention strategies, and incentives. Corporations need to be educated on how much food they waste. Corporations need to establish strategies that prevent so much food waste. Restaurants need incentives to help encourage reducing food waste. Most of all, Restaurants need to be aware of how they can stop wasting so much of the needed food in America.
Works Cited
* Bloom, Jonathan. American Wasteland: How America Throws Away Nearly Half of Its Food (and What We Can Do about It).
The Essay on Food Waste in America
40% of the food America produces is wasted.1 Have you ever thought of how much food you waste a day? The average American wastes about 250 pounds of food every year.2 That’s about $600 dollars worth of food.3 Imagine what you could do with $600.00. No one notices what is in the back of their fridge or what goes into their trash can. Before you say that you don’t do that, think back to a moment ...
Cambridge, MA: Da Capo, 2010. Print.
* Bloom, Jonathan. “Waste Not, Want Not: Hunger and Food Waste in America.” Spotlight on Poverty. Web. 02 Mar. 2012. <http://www.spotlightonpoverty.org/users/spotlight_on_poverty/documents/Bloom_Spotlight_05092011.pdf>.
* Lesslie, Dave R. “Food Waste.” Personal interview. 19 Feb. 2012.
* Pizza Hut, Spencer. “How Much Food Does Your Store Waste.” Personal interview. 08 Feb. 2012.
* The Big Waste. Dir. Somebody7100. YouTube. YouTube, 13 Jan. 2012. Web. 05 Mar. 2012. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSsn-7FHFfo>.
