March 12, 2016

Food Waste: How Low Can it Go?

26 minutes

This week, the Food Chain delves deep into food waste: a global problem of epic proportions that is costing one in every three of the world's calories. In January 2016, France became the very first country to ban supermarkets from destroying or throwing away unsold food. It was all thanks to the vision of one man: Arash Derambarsh. He tells Manuela Saragosa how he did it and why the rest of the world should follow suit. But, when it comes to waste: who is the main culprit along the food chain? And what can be done to turn the tide?

We speak to Kenyan vegetable producers on the challenge of coping with last minute order changes from Supermarkets and review a high-tech solution from South Korea that has seen food waste drop by up to 40%. We ask food giant Nestle what the role of big business should be and a start-up entrepreneur tells us why food waste is a “modern day gold rush”. And what about you and me? Is an attitude problem amongst consumers the biggest hurdle to overcome? We explore consumer psychology from ‘ugly vegetables'’ to convincing the French to use 'doggy bags'.

Image: Leftover food, Credit: Thinkstock

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