Lecture 18 - How does food get wasted?

• Bad food ends up in landfills as food waste
• When produce is ready to be harvested, it needs to be picked at the right time and temperature; these conditions can vary with the type of produce
• Once harvested, produce needs to remain cold
• This helps delay ripening and maximized edible lifespans
• As the packaged produce awaits pickup, it loses edibility over time, and farmers must decide what to do with the excess produce
• In this case, they can either sell it off for use as animal feed or arrange to have the produce given away as charitable goods
• They could also till the crops back into the soil, adding nutrients back into the soil
• Grocery stores and retailers just care about aesthetics

Overall, if produce is rejected before it reaches grocery stores, it ends up in landfills

• The last stage of the food supply chain is the point at which consumers buy food
• Confusion surrounding use of sell-by dates and expiration dates may contain also cause consumers to dispose of food too soon creating more unnecessary waste

For consumer-generated waste, one way to solve the problem is encouraging better habits like planning food purchases in advance based on pre-planned meals