Food Waste

12.1 Food Waste

Introduction:

Food comprises a very significant component of our waste stream. In the United States, roughly one- third of all food is thrown away each year. This amounted to nearly 35 million tons in 2013. In this exercise, we will explore food waste data in depth.

DATA SETS:

Citation: Buzby, Jean C., Hodan F. Wells, and Jeffrey Hyman. The Estimated Amount, Value, and Calories of Postharvest Food Losses at the Retail and Consumer Levels in the United States, EIB-121, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service, February 2014.

To begin, we will look at estimated percent of food waste per capita by category. To do so, select “Per Capita Food Waste” from the drop-down menu. The data that are presented in the graph come from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and are for the year 2010.

Question

1. Which food product has the highest overall percent of waste?

Milk

Fish and seafood

Fresh fruit

Fresh vegetables

Correct!

Incorrect.

Question

2. Which food product(s) has the highest amount of waste at the retail level?

Grains

Milk

Fresh fruit

All of the above are equivalent in terms of percent waste and rank highest in this category.

Correct!

Partially correct.

Question

3. What portion of the fresh fruit purchased by consumers is actually consumed?

37%

75%

88%

There is not enough information on the graph to answer this question.

Correct!

Incorrect.

Question

4. Overall, if we wanted to minimize food waste, would it be more effective to direct efforts at targeting retailers or consumers?

Retailers, because even though their waste is roughly equivalent to that of consumers, they have more control over how much is wasted.

Retailers, because they are responsible for the majority of all waste.

Consumers, because they are responsible for the majority of all waste.

Consumers and retailers both waste about the same amount of food, so they should be targeted equally.

Correct!

Incorrect.

Question

5. Overfishing is a significant problem affecting our oceans. How much of the fish and seafood purchased by consumers is wasted?

25%

31%

39%

Correct!

Incorrect.

Question

6. Which commodities have the lowest percent of waste at the retail level?

Meat

Poultry

Meat and poultry

Processed vegetables

Correct!

Question

7. How much of the meat that is purchased by consumers goes to waste?

23%

27%

39%

Correct!

Incorrect.

Question

8. Next, we will examine food waste in terms of the caloric value of food. To do so, select “Total Calories Lost” from the drop-down menu. Which commodity has the greatest loss in calories due to waste?

Grains

Meat

Dairy

Poultry

Correct!

Incorrect.

Question

9. Assuming an average diet of 2,200 calories per day, how many people’s caloric requirement could be met from the amount of grain that is wasted annually? Keep in mind that we are focusing only on calories, and for this exercise will ignore other nutritional requirements. (Hint: Divide the amount of grain that goes to waste in a given year by 365 to get the daily amount. Then divide this number by the calories required of an average diet to get the number of people it could feed.)

Between 50 and 100 people could have their caloric requirement met by this amount of waste.

Roughly 17,000 people could have their caloric requirement met by this amount of waste.

Approximately 62,000 people could have their caloric requirement met by this amount of waste.

Slightly over 100,000 people could have their caloric requirement met by this amount of waste.

Correct!

Incorrect.

true

Question

10. Which of the following are valid reasons to be concerned about food waste?

The food that is wasted could potentially feed people.

A lot of water and energy go into growing food, so any waste represents a loss of those resources as well.

Food waste in landfills helps decompose trash and minimizes our overall waste stream.

Two of the above are correct.

Correct!

Chapter 12. Food Waste

12.1 Food Waste

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