How Food Waste is Destroying the Environment

"over-commoditization" of food as a lifestyle accessory

"With countless cookery shows and ever more seductive advertisements, food has become a major part of the culture industry," he said. "This, along with the false economy of discount bulk buys, is part of why people are purchasing more than they can use.

"It's a peculiarly Western phenomenon," he added.

He agrees with Pichler that the problem is symptomatic of the West's culture of cheap disposable goods. His research found, perhaps unsurprisingly, that in Europe and North America, each consumer wastes between 95 and 115 kilograms of food a year, whilst only 6 to 11 kilograms of edible goods are discarded per person in Sub-Saharan Africa and South East Asia.

Sonesson contends that the problem boils down to basic economic logic. He says that, despite some recent commodity fluctuations, the price of food in industrialized nations continues to drop, so there's less incentive to think about what's in the fridge, or make an effort to avoid cooking more than we need.

"As a result, today we have less knowledge about cooking and food preparation ... My parents and grandparents knew how to make use of everything," he said.

What would it take to wind back the clock? Swannell thinks that it would only require a series of relatively small behavioral modifications:

"For instance, just taking five minutes to go through your store cupboard and fridge before making a shopping list can stop you wasting money buying ingredients you may already have.

"Or, when you get home with your shopping, transfer as much as you can straight into the freezer. If you have large packets of chicken pieces or fish, divide them up and freeze individual portions ... there's loads of simple, easy things like this that you can do."

But it's not just consumers who are at fault. Pichler says that supermarkets are guilty of discarding large quantities of food for seemingly frivolous reasons.

"There's a tendency for supermarkets to put pressure on food producers to supply them with 'perfect' products. This pressure is to blame for the common practice of goods being discarded and destroyed immediately after harvest because of minor imperfections," he said.

"Furthermore, it's not unusual for supermarket chains to purposely acquire a surplus of food, so shelves can remain fully stocked with perishable items -- pastries, meat, fruit and vegetables -- right until closing time," he said.

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