Food waste is a huge concern especially in todays time.

The FAO report of 2013 indicates that the food waste globally is 1/3 of the total food produced for human consumption, about 1,6 billion tons a year.

But did you know that wasted food has some big effects on the environment?

When we waste food, indeed, we waste all the resources that go into producing and transporting the food, such as land, water and fuel use, without gaining any of the benefits of feeding people.

The further the food loss occurs along the supply chain, the more carbon intensive the loss and waste are. That’s because more resources have gone into producing the products. A tomato sauce that we can buy in the supermarket, for example, is exposed to the processing, transport, retail and packaging processes, apart from the land and water use and farming resources that are used for its creation. This tomato sauce production is more damaging than picking the tomato directly from the field and making from it your own sauce. This way, we waste the additional resources that have been accumulated along the supply chain.

And did you know that Decomposing the food waste produces methane, a strong greenhouse gas that contributes to global warming and exacerbates climate change?

The UN Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 aims to halve food waste at the retail and consumer level and to reduce food loss across supply chains. On this regard, food waste is categorized differently regarding were it occurs:

• Food “loss” occurs before the food reaches the consumer as a result of issues in the production, storage, processing, and distribution phases
• Food “waste” refers to food that is fit for consumption but consciously discarded at the retail or consumption phases.

In this web quest we are going to:

• Understand what is food waste and the difference between food loss and food waste
• Appreciate how much food is wasted in the home / school environment and why
• Understand the main reasons behind food loss and food waste
• Be aware of the effects that food waste has on the environment
• Get tips to save and restore food at home.