The fightback against food waste

More than 100 million tons of edible food are binned across the EU every year, and about 40 per cent of all the food produced in the US is never eaten. A million tons of food, worth more than €700 million, are thrown out each year in Ireland alone, and 1.3 billion tons of food are wasted around the world annually.

Some 300 million barrels of oil are used annually to generate the power needed to cultivate food that is never consumed, and a staggering 550 trillion litres of water are effectively poured down the drain because they are used to grow food that is never eaten.

About one in 10 Irish people suffers from food poverty, and there are more than one billion people starving in the world today. Broadly speaking, 2.5 million tons of food would be needed to feed everyone who is currently starving for just one day, which means that, with the food that is collectively thrown away each year, almost twice the number of people who are now starving could be given enough to eat.

Such simplistic sums do not solve the problem of world hunger, but they do illustrate a scale of waste that is completely indefensible. We are all complicit to some degree.

According to an expert panel of the UN Committee on World Food Security, waste is caused for different reasons in different parts of the world so no simple, global solutions exist. The key, it argues, lies at local level.

In rich countries such as this one, supermarkets, the catering sector and consumers are responsible for most wasted food. The French senate recognised this earlier this month by making it illegal for supermarkets to throw away or destroy food, a move that comes in the wake of a shopper-led campaign.

A similar – although as yet unsuccessful – campaign is being waged in the UK, with Jamie Oliver leading the charge. His last series of Channel 4's Friday Night Feast saw him convince Asda to trial what has become its Beautiful on the Inside range. For just over 12 months, the supermarket has been selling "ugly" produce at a 30 per cent reduction in selected stores.

Last week, again prompted by Oliver’s television show, the supermarket giant announced it was extending the trial further. It is to start selling “wonky vegetable boxes” with enough produce to feed a family of four for an entire week for just £3.50 across 128 of its outlets in the UK. The boxes will be made up of vegetables that are in season and will include ugly potatoes, carrots, peppers, cabbages and onions.

Asda has carried out customer research that shows 65 per cent of its customers are open to the notion of eating vegetables that are not aesthetically pleasing (whatever that means).

Wonky Irish veg

There have been similar developments in Ireland, too, although it has not attracted the same level of razzmatazz we have seen across the water. Tesco, for example is selling a range of "wonky" vegetables here.

It has imperfect mushrooms selling for €3.17 per kilogram, whereas a kilogram of similarly ugly onions costs 69 cent. A kilogram of wonky carrots, meanwhile, costs 99 cent. We compared these prices with “normal” mushrooms. A 433g box of closed-cup mushrooms cost €1.29, which works out at €2.98 per kilogram. A 750g bag of Tesco carrots from Ireland costs 59 cent, which works out at 79 cent per kilogram, and the “attractive” onions sold by Tesco cost the same price.

Now, the eagle-eyed among you will notice that in two out three of the instances above, the less attractive vegetables are selling for more than their cute cousins. Surely some mistake, we thought? We contacted Tesco to find out why its wonky veg cost more than its prettier cousin. We pointed out that the wonky veg should be substantially cheaper given that the alternative to selling it is, generally speaking, binning it. We were told that the 750g standard carrots “are currently reduced to a promotional price” and they will soon be dearer than wonky carrots again. She also said that, although the per-kilogram price of the standard mushrooms was dearer than the wonky ones, that was because we were comparing a bigger box.

Odd pricing aside, Tesco has been to the fore in trying to do something about our wastefulness in recent times. In July 2014 it was the first Irish retailer to commit to donating its surplus food to local charities and community groups through social partnership.

It was also first to take up FoodCloud, a simple way for retailers to deal with perishable food surpluses. This Trinity College Dublin start-up, which is little more than two years old, connects businesses that have too much food with charities in their communities that have too little.

As the trading day ends, shop manages can use the FoodCloud app to upload details of their surplus food and a time frame in which it can be collected. A text message is automatically sent to the most appropriate local charities, and the first charity to accept the offer can collect the food from the business.

First Tesco signed up, and more recently Aldi has got involved. It is a wonder all the retailers in the Republic are not taking part. Apart from the charitable benefits, it makes sense because it means companies save on the expense of food disposal.

"Everybody wins," says Niamh Kirwan of the nonprofit organisation. "We have seen a great sense of community grow up around the project and our ultimate goal is to work with every retailer in the State. We are still only young so it is going to take a while to get all of the retailers involved."

FoodCloud is also developing new ways to get food that would otherwise spoil to those who could use it. One pilot project involves a team of volunteers in a van going to retailers that have signed up and collecting the food, which they then deliver to charities.