Post by account_disabled on Feb 20, 2024 5:56:23 GMT -5
Have you ever thought about how much food is wasted daily in your home? In Mexico alone, 20 million tons are wasted annually. An amount that could be food for 7.3 million people. Alarming facts you didn't know about food waste, right? What is food loss and waste? According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations , better known as FAO , food loss refers to any food that is lost in the supply chain between the producer and the market. Due to pre-harvest problems, such as pests, or problems in harvesting, handling, storage, packaging or transportation. On the other hand, food waste refers to the disposal or alternative (non-food) use of foods that are safe and nutritious for human consumption. There are three ways food can be wasted: Merchants and consumers often discard foods that are close to or have passed their expiration date.
Fresh produce (vegetables and fruits) is often removed from the supply chain during sorting operations. There is great food waste, due to large portions of food offered in restaurants or not used in Ecuador Mobile Number List home kitchens. A practical guide to reducing food waste Faced with this situation, many organizations are paying interest to help companies and society avoid food waste and loss. That is why the Commission for Environmental Cooperation (CEC), an intergovernmental organization that supports the environmental agenda of Canada, the United States and Mexico, launched in recent days a practical guide and a technical report to measure waste and loss of foods in these places in America. This practical guide is called, Why and How to Quantify Food Loss and Waste. Which will be an easy-to-use tool so that companies can quantify the amount of food wasted from their activities to their production. The advantages of companies using this practical guide are the following: The guide has the ability to modify the organization's practices. Companies will reduce operating costs (acquisition, energy and labor). By using them you will contribute to mitigating the environmental impact.
Lower costs for waste collection and management. Commitment of companies: Toks Case One of the companies that began to use this practical guide is Restaurantes Toks, a company that as part of its social responsibility actions began a pilot stage in a restaurant in Guadalajara, but plans to extend it to more branches in the Mexican Republic. To begin this pilot, they measured the pre-consumption and post-consumption of food. After this measurement, the experts designed and analyzed long and short-term tools such as: Sensitize staff. Reuse and prepare less food. Modify packaging and inform customers about existing portions. Donate surplus food to food banks. Equip restaurants for correct storage. In addition, in this place they measured food loss and waste; later by applying appropriate measures to avoid further wasting food. The result of this pilot test was that each branch would save around $330,000 pesos annually and reduce the generation of greenhouse gases (GHG) by 40 tons. 10 tips to prevent food waste This guide can also be used in our homes, which is why the CCA rescued some simple tips to follow to avoid food waste.