14 DAY TRIAL // The news that despite several warnings concerning a potential food crisis our planet will soon face, almost half the food people buy on a regular basis ultimately gets thrown away is bound to cause quite a stir amongst environmental activists.
This is because sustainable development is not just about switching to greener energy sources, but also about not abusing whatever resources we have at our disposal.
According to a new report concerning shopping and eating habits in the United Kingdom, this country's residents throw away roughly seven million tons of food on a yearly basis.
To make matters even worse, most of this food is still very much edible and worth quite a lot of money.
The specialists who looked into this issue explain that, all things considered, the food items people in the UK buy and later on label as “trash” amounts to a whopping ₤10 billion (about €12.27 billion / $16.03 billion). Daily Mail quotes Dr. Tim Fox, the author of this report and the head of energy and environment at the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, who commented on UK's habit of throwing away perfectly good food as follows:
“Between 30 and 50 per cent of food bought from supermarkets is thrown away. It gets home from the shops, placed in the cupboard or fridge, and then up to half of that food goes in the bin.”
As far as Dr. Tim Fox is concerned, the habit of wasting food comes as a result of supermarkets' presenting people with various special offers that trick them into buying more food than they need and/or can eat.
“One of the problems is the way supermarkets retail. Consumers end up buying more produce than they need because of special offers. Many of these items have a limited shelf life, so they end up being thrown away,” this specialist argued.
Interestingly enough, the report states that more often than not fruits and vegetables are the ones that get thrown away.