Food waste scandal: The average consumer throws away the equivalent of an entire McDonald’s Big Mac EVERY DAY — and rich people are the worst offenders
- Much-cited UN figures suggested that, in 2005, a third of all food was wasted
- However, experts say this did not consider the impact of consumer behaviour
- The team set out to explore the relationship between wealth and food waste
- They found waste begins to rise when more than £5.17 is spent a day per person
The average consumer throws away the equivalent of an entire McDonald’s Big Mac in wasted food every day — and rich people are the worst offenders, a study found.
This research is the first to investigate how consumer wealth impacts food waste — and it suggests that households may be wasting twice as much food as was thought.
The Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations estimated that, in 2005, a third of all food available for human consumption was wasted.
This figure has since endured as a reference for the extent of global food waste.
However, experts said, the UN calculation does not factor in consumer behaviour, instead considering food supply alone in determining the extent of food waste.
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The average consumer throws away the equivalent of an entire McDonald’s Big Mac in wasted food every day — and rich people are the worst offenders, a study found
Economist Monika van den Bos Verma and colleagues from Wageningen University & Research in the Netherlands set out to quantify the relationship between food waste and the affluence of consumers.
Using a human metabolism model and data from the Food and Agriculture Organisation, the World Bank and the World Health Organisation, they created an international dataset that provides estimates of both global and national food waste.
The researchers found that once consumer affluence reaches a daily spending threshold of around £5.17 ($6.70) per head, food waste starts to rise.
At first, waste levels increase rapidly above this threshold with rising wealth, but subsequently at much slower rates with higher levels of affluence.
Dr Verma and colleagues have also found that the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s estimates of food waste are likely too low.
While the United Nation body estimated food waste to stand at around 214 Kcal/day per capita in 2015, the team’s model places such at around 527 Kcal/day per capita.
This, as a reference, is more than the caloric value of a McDonald’s Big Mac.
‘Energy requirement and consumer affluence data shows that consumers waste more than twice as much food as is commonly believed,’ Dr Verma said.
‘It provides a new globally comparable base against which one can measure progress on the international food waste target.’
The finding, she added, also ‘suggests a threshold level of consumer affluence around which to launch intervention policies to prevent food waste from becoming a big problem.’
This would include both efforts to reduce high food waste levels in more affluent countries, but also to prevent waste levels from rising to similar levels in lower–middle income countries where household wealth is on the rise.
This research is the first to investigate how consumer wealth impacts food waste — and it suggests that households may be wasting twice as much food as was thought
The team caution that their work relies on the accuracy of the data sourced from the Food and Agriculture Organisation, which may not always be complete.
For example, surveys in low-income countries do not always include food produced through subsistence farming.
In addition, the researchers noted that there may be other consumer attributes beyond wealth that contribute to food wastage.
The full findings of the study were published in the journal PLOS ONE.
HOW MUCH FOOD DOES THE WORLD WASTE EACH YEAR?
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, about 2.9 trillion pounds (or a third of the food in the world) is lost or wasted every year.
Fruits, vegetables, roots, and tubers make up the most-wasted foods.
In industrialized countries, this all amounts to $680 billion in food. In developing countries, it’s $310 billion.
The average waste per capita in Europe and North America is 95-115 kg, or 209-254 lb, ever year.
The food lost or wasted in Latin America each year is enough to feed 300 million people. In Europe, it could feed 200 million people, and in Africa, it could feed 300 million people.
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