Caroline: So when we talk about food waste, what exactly are we referring to?
Wayne: Essentially food waste is defined as the waste produced in the entire food production system. So it includes food wasted at the farm in the processing and packaging. During distribution, retail and then finally, I guess the real waste at a consumer and kitchen level.
CEVW: So what foods are wasted the most?
WH: So about 50 percent is wasted at a farm level. And if you’re looking at that, its mainly fruit, veg and grains that are the highest amount of waste.
CEVW: Why is it so high in the agricultural area?
WH: So, its often to do with out-of-spec, over-ripe, over-size - anything that doesn’t fit into the retailer's basket of goods that they’re wanting will be disposed of at the farm. Mainly due to pricing, so the farmers don’t get offered a good enough price to be it worth transporting the food off the farm. So it’s better to be just left.
CEVW: These so-called “ugly bananas” how are they disposed of?
WH: Well they’re often used to just compost on the farm. Um, but that’s obviously one of the opportunities that exists, is having a look at this ugly fruit and veg and see what we can do with it because it is still 100 percent nutritious and good food, it just doesn’t look like the perfect tomato that the consumer is expecting at a retail store.
CEVW: You said about 50 percent of all the food wasted happens on farms, but how much food is wasted overall in South Africa?
WH: In South Africa, we are looking at around 10 million tons of the 31 million tons produced annually. So, that is equivalent to 1650 elephants worth of food a year.
CEVW: But that just seems insane, when you think about how many people are actually starving – what is the best way to redirect all that food waste to those that need it?
WH: It's taking a business opportunity and connecting it with the farmer, so ultimately there needs to be an incentive for the farmer for that food to actually go into that system to become food for a population. We do see that internationally, the waste on farms are higher in first world countries due to more picky consumers, and also another thing in that is also the distance to market. So, in first world countries often there a big difference in where the farm is and where the consumer sits so there’s a lot of wastage just built into that system. There are obviously opportunities, In South Africa we certainly have not only hunger issues but we also have hidden hunger issues, or malnutrition. So, a lot of our population first will go hungry because they don’t have access to food, and secondly they effectively maybe getting food, but is it nutritionally good for
them?