Saving food more efficient than increasing food production

 HUMANS waste 1.3 billion tons of food each year. On average of one-third of food for human consumption gets lost or wasted, which, if we were to scoop a cup of rice would be like throwing out more than 5 tablespoons before we even put the rice on our plate.
This inevitably means that also one-third of the resources used in food production are used in vain, points out a study by The Swedish Institute for Food and Biotechnology (SIK), and one-third of the greenhouse gas emissions caused by food production are in vain. That's not the worst of it, says the report on Global Food Losses and Food Waste. Losses worldwide in fruits & vegetables and roots & tubers are even higher and range from 40 to 55 per cent.
The reportcommissioned by the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations (FAO) said food is wasted both in high- and medium-income countries and in low-income countries. The study results show that per capita food waste by consumers in Europe and North America is 95 to 115 kg/year, whilst this figure in Sub- Saharan Africa and South & Southeast Asia is only 6 to 11 kg/year.

Ample food, yet starvation exists
Although in many of the countries, sufficient food would be available, almost a billion people are starving and a further billion have insufficient food supplies. This is because, on average, a third of the produce is lost on its way from the field to the plate. In some emerging countries, such as India, as much as three-quarters of produced foodstuffs never reach the consumer. One of the reasons is insufficient packaging, which means that products are not adequately protected from the weather or from pests.
Without packaging, many foodstuffs perish more quickly and cannot be stored and shipped over long distances. Most everyday food that enriches our diet, such as dairy products, vegetables and fruit, would not be available in the quantities and quality we are accustomed to. In regions of high humidity, even a simple ingredient like salt needs adequate packaging to remain usable.

Packaging in developing countries
Another FAO-sponsored study, "Investing into Appropriate Packaging Technology in Developing Countries", assessed packaging and packaging technologies in developing countries.
Dr Nerlita M. Manalili, an advisor to the FAO and lead author of the packaging study, said developing countries have very limited packaging solutions to meet international market requirements, and the size of the domestic packaging industry is often too small to support the requirements of the agriculture and food sectors.
"Even basic and simple packaging for transport of commodities is very limited, so you can expect that there is lot of food wastes and also commodities to rot or be destroyed even before farmers can bring them to traders," Dr Manalili told Ringier.
"Manufacturers in these countries are also forced to rely on packaging material imports or, if they cannot afford to import, on packaging materials that really don't meet the standards of their target markets," she added.

Making the most of ethnic appeal
Use of indigenous materials and cultural 'trademarks' in packaging is suggested by the report especially for fruit and vegetable products. Whilst admitting that "the relative lack of sufficient strength and durability of indigenous materials limit their potentials as raw materials for packaging, their innovative use in combination with other materials aided by research and technological advancement is an area in which it is worth investing," the research said.
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