A label can tell you that the edible food you throw away every day contains the equivalent of a slice of bread, half a tin of mackerel and a teaspoonful of butter. Together, these make up almost ten per cent of our daily recommended carbohydrate, protein and fat intake.
Every year Norwegians throw away about 216,000 tonnes of edible food – enough to feed half a million people. The Norwegian ‘plukkanalyse’ sampling system shows that 31 per cent of edible food waste is made up of unfinished meals, while 22 per cent is fruit and vegetables.
Knowing exactly what we discard most of is the key to assessing the nutrient potential of the edible food we throw away. These data can help us to drive changes in behaviour.
What happens to all the edible food waste?
We find household edible food waste primarily in two types of containers – those for sorted food waste and household waste.
Each year we recycle about 210,000 tonnes of food waste and about 730,000 tonnes of household waste. A third of the food waste and one fifth of all household waste is edible food. The fraction of our food waste that we could in fact have eaten is called edible food waste.
What if our food was labelled like this?
Sorted food waste is sent to biogas facilities for conversion into biogas, which is a mixture of carbon dioxide and methane. The by-product, known as bioresidue, is commonly utilised as a fertiliser, and as such recycles the nutrients contained in the food waste. Household waste is sent to waste combustion facilities for energy recovery.
According to Norwegian waste management policy, combustion is the least beneficial method of resource utilisation following disposal and in the case of organic waste fractions, has been prohibited since 2009.
Ideally, all waste of edible food should be reduced to a minimum. Where such waste is unavoidable, we must make the best use of the nutrients contained in the resource, for example, by using it as animal feed or as a substrate for insect husbandry. However, current regulations in Norway prevent such applications from being implemented.
Consumers, including households, restaurants and the public sector, account for 45 per cent of Norway’s annual edible food waste, equivalent to 500,000 tonnes. The agricultural sector, including both arable crops and domestic animals, as well as the food industry (based on land-based foodstuffs), accounts for 20 per cent, while the retail sector, including grocery stores and wholesalers, account for 15 per cent.
But it isn’t enough simply to assess edible food waste at the various stages of the value chain. Understanding how and why this waste arises is equally important because only then can we reduce edible food waste and exploit the resource more effectively.
This is why it is essential to find out whether edible food waste consists of components such as fish, milk or plant-based products and whether it has been processed or been in contact with animal products.
Effective information flow
It is easier to trace edible food waste when it is derived from the foodstuffs industry and retail outlets. Good data quality and traceability within the sector make it easier to identify how and why edible food waste arises in the first place and enable us to prepare and implement preventive measures.
Uncontaminated and better-defined edible waste food streams make it easier to utilise such resources in applications such as animal feed, instead of using them as a source of energy.
Increasing the value of edible food waste at consumer level is particularly challenging because edible food is thrown away together with inedible components such as bones, fruit seeds and suchlike. We have weight data on food waste because it is weighed both on collection and during delivery to biogas and waste combustion facilities.
We also have access to composition data for each food category, such as fish and bread, obtained from the Norwegian ‘plukkanalyse’ system. These analyses are carried out manually, which may result in uncertainties in the data.
It is also an expensive process that is normally only infrequently carried out. For this reason, it is difficult to capture seasonal trends. In Norway, only two nationwide edible food waste analyses have been carried out, one in 2016 and the other in 2020.
In order to reduce edible food waste sourced from households, and ensure that the resource is utilised effectively, we should be prioritising a better system for generating and analysing the data, in combination with the development of innovative technological systems. As consumers, we can make a direct contribution by ceasing to throw away edible food that could otherwise feed 480,000 people annually.
So, finish off that sandwich! A small step can make a big difference.
References:
Statistics Norway. ‘Quantities of food and beverages sold per person per year, by food groups (kg) 2018’. From the internet, 6 Sept. 2024. Available at: https://www.ssb.no/en/statbank/table/13692.
European Food Safety Authority. ‘Dietary Reference Values for the EU’. From the internet, 6 Sept. 2024. Available at: https://multimedia.efsa.europa.eu/drvs/index.htm.
Lovdata (Norwegian legislation database). ‘Forskrift om gjenvinning og behandling av avfall’ (Statutory regulations governing the processing of waste). From the internet, 9 Sept. 2024. Available at: https://lovdata.no/dokument/SF/forskrift/2004-06-01-930/KAPITTEL_9#%C2%A79-4.
The International Platform of Insects for Food and Feed (IPIFF). IPIFF Guide on Good Hygiene Practices for European Union Producers of Insects as Food and Feed. 2024.
Stensgård A, et al. Kartleggingsrapport for matbransjen, undervisning- og omsorgsektoren og forbrukerleddet. (Assessment report for the foodstuffs industry, the education and care sectors, and the consumer sector) 2021.
Mattilsynet. Matvaretabellen 2023 (The Norwegian Food Safety Authority: Norwegian foodstuffs database containing information about energy and nutrient content). From the internet, 6 Sept. 2024. Available at: https://mattilsynet-xp7prod.enonic.cloud/_/attachment/inline/f74f6989-4e9a-4c2f-86af-57a2feaeadb2:6b4001ed9d2de7676deaf5403d419071b2eb7396/matvaretabellen-2023.xlsx.
Sirk Norge. Vår bransje gjør avfall om til nye råvarer (Our sector converts waste into new raw materials). From the internet, 9 Sept. 2024. Available at: https://sirknorge.no/om-bransjen.
This blog is sourced from #SINTEFblogg
