Food Waste from Production, Distribution and Consumption

Food losses occur in connection with production, postharvest and processing stages along the food supply chain. Food losses at the end of the supply chain are rather called food waste which refers to retailers and consumer behaviour. Food waste has become more important during the last years, especially in connection with ethical and social considerations and with waste man-agement.

Although there had been some analyses of the proportion of food waste in municipal waste in some regions of Austria, no reliable data revealing information about the food waste for the whole country existed. In 2010, it was the first time that an analysis of municipal, bulky and commercial waste was done to measure the amount of food waste in the whole country. At the same time, some investigations into food waste as part of organic waste were carried out.
To obtain reliable data, the whole country was divided into five clusters. On the basis of sta-tistical information, each of the 2,358 municipalities of Austria was assigned to one of these five clusters.
During a period of six months, more than 1,360 samples were taken from the municipal waste all over the country, with a total weight of approximately 29,000 Kilograms, and analyzed. Fur-thermore, 1,236 containers of bulky and commercial waste with total weight of 3,950 tons and a volume of 22,750 m³ were assessed.
The proportion of food waste in the municipal waste in Austria amounts to 7.8 % of the mass or in total approximately 106,000 tons. This total weight also includes packaging. Without packaging, the total weight of food waste amounts to 96,000 tons.
The percentage of food waste in bulky and commercial waste totals between 1 and 2 % or 12,000 tons and 25,000 tons.
On the whole, the proportion of food waste in the municipal, bulky and commercial waste in Austria lies between 110,000 tons and 120,000 tons per year.
According to a study published by the FAO (Food and Agriculture Organization of the Unit-ed Nations), one third of the edible parts of food produced globally for human consumption is lost or wasted. In low income countries, food is mainly lost during the early and middle stages of the food supply chain and only little food is wasted at the consumer level. In medium and high income countries, food is wasted to a large extent, meaning that it is thrown away while it is still suitable for human consumption, as the analysis in Austria has proved.



Copyright: © Lehrstuhl für Abfallverwertungstechnik und Abfallwirtschaft der Montanuniversität Leoben
Quelle: Depotech 2012 (November 2012)
Seiten: 6
Preis: € 3,00
Autor: M. Merstallinger
Ing. Mag. Walter Hauer
 
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