- Forty percent of American food goes uneaten and is thrown away each year, which could feed over 25 million people if just 15% was salvaged. - The majority of food waste comes from consumers, which averages 20 pounds of food wasted per person each month costing $65 billion annually. - Many consumers lack knowledge of food label dates and indicators of spoilage, contributing to unnecessary food waste. Donating extra food to organizations could help reduce waste.

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Food Wastage
Danielle Fedeler
Cornerstone

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According to ​Wasted​, by Dana Gunders, forty percent of American food goes uneaten
and is thrown away. She also says that if fifteen percent of that wasted food is salvaged, it could
feed more than twenty­five million every year. As a child, phrases like “Take only what you can
eat”, and “Once it’s on your plate you have to eat it”, are constantly being said by parents and
other adults. After being drilled multiple different times as a child, an adult should be able to
understand that food wastage is not right. Would it not make more sense to donate the leftover
food to a food bank or other food organization? Some people may say that food donation causes
food borne diseases to spread, or lack of freshness in the food. Taking the necessary precautions
and having educated people, issues such as food borne diseases would not happen. If consumers,
restaurants, and college dining centers would donate the leftover food locally to either a food
bank or other food organizations, food wastage would minimize substantially.
Considering the amount of wasted food, a majority of that number comes from the
consumer level (Neff, 2016). The food wasted at the consumer level averages to twenty pounds
of food per person every month, which cost America sixty­five billion dollars a year (Gunders,
2012). The availability of cheap food, and lack of knowledge on food labels is said to be one of
the problems of food wastage (Gunders, 2012). According to the the survey ​Wasted Food: U.S.
Consumer Survey​, by Roni Neff, fifty­six percent of the surveyed people claimed they only
discard ten percent of their purchase food. Ten percent may not seem like a lot, but when every
consumer discards ten percent, the wasted food adds up quickly. The ​Wasted Food: U.S.
Consumer Survey​ also asked “how to decide when milk should be thrown out”. Seventy­two
percent said the “use their senses” option was a good indicator, while thirty­nine percent chose
the “use by” date option. The “sell date” option was chosen by twenty­two percent and eighteen

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percent chose the “opened for too long” option, along with twelve percent choosing the “stored
too long” option. Out of the people who took the survey, twenty­nine percent said food waste
could be avoided, but more than half of these people use their own judgement to throw out milk
and other food. As a whole, the lack of knowledge of food labels is a major issue. Consumers
need to learn to read labels properly. Before the consumer goes grocery shopping, the labels of
the previously bought groceries should be checked, and if the “sell date” or “use date” is close
and the consumer knows the item will not be used in time, it should be donated to a local food
organization.
Preventing food waste seems simply right? Forty­two percent of the people surveyed
(Neff, 2016) claim that in the past year they have either seen or heard information regarding food
waste. When asked about their knowledge on reducing wasted food, twenty­four percent
claimed they were “very knowledgeable”, and thirty­eight percent claimed they were “fairly
knowledgeable”. This survey shows that age has an impact on how knowledgeable one feels
about food wastage. The statistics show that thirty percent of older respondents claimed they
were “very knowledgeable” while only twenty­three percent of younger respondents claim they
were “very knowledgeable”. People are aware that food waste is happening and they believe that
consumers are not the head of the problem. Forty­three percent say it is “easy or very easy” to
avoid wasting food (Neff, 2016), yet consumers still waste forty percent (Gunders, 2012)?
Fifty­two percent of the surveyed people claim that wasting food bothers them, while only nine
percent claiming “it does not bother them” (Nuff, 2016), yet only sixteen percent want to seek
further information on reducing food waste? Forty­one percent of the people who claimed they
“composted” said that because they composted, wasting food does not bother them. Even though

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composting food is like recycling food, the food still goes uneaten. Consumers are the head of
the problem. This problem can be easily fixed by being aware of the food items bought and the
dates labeled on them. Donating to a local food organization would also solve this problem. The
food that is not going to be used by the labeled date, should be donated within a reasonable time
to a local food organization.
When given a list of options for restaurants to improve food wasting, seventy­three
percent voted that restaurants should donate the leftover food, followed by smaller portions with
sixty­one percent, and providing smaller salad bar plates with thirty percent (Neff, 2016). The
Panera Bread Company has been involved in helping local food organizations. This company is
an excellent example of how a restaurant could donate their food. Day­End Dough­Nation is just
one of Panera’s programs to help local food organizations. At the end of the day, whatever bread
is unsold goes to local food organizations. In 2014, Panera donated around one hundred million
dollars worth of unsold baked goods to food organizations (Shaich, 2015). Panera also does
several other things to help local food organizations, such as the Panera Cares Community
Breadbox program. With the help from the Panera Bread Foundation, the restaurant collects
money donated by their customers and gives half of the donation in cash to help provide
nutritious and quality worthy food and the other half is put towards producing Panera soup that
will be distributed at a food organization (Shaich, 2015). These small actions towards preventing
food waste and feeding the hunger are just the first steps towards solving this problem. With
proper food handling and storage, already made food could be donated as well. Places like
college campuses always cook in bulk, in order to have enough food. If at the end of the night,

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college dining centers and restaurants could store the leftover food properly than the next day it
could be delivered straight to a food organization and served that day.
Some may argue that donating already cooked meals and food are a reliable source for
foodborne diseases. There are seventy­six million cases of foodborne illnesses each year in the
U.S. alone (Finch, 2005). Emergency food programs, such as food banks, are at the heart of the
risk for attaining foodborne diseases (Finch, 2005). Also stated by Finch, the food that the
government donates, travels through many different hands and places before it arrives at the final
destination point. The freshness of the food may start to decline the longer the food is stored.
Other issues such as proper handling and storage of the food may arise. A majority of the
workers in food organizations are volunteers, therefore may not be necessarily knowledgeable on
proper food storage. With improper storage and handling, foodborne diseases start to occur.
Once the freshness of the food starts to perish, the diseases start to set in. Food organizations
tend to collect less perishable foods like canned goods, because of the longer shelf life
(Schneider, 2013). One way to prevent this is to have properly trained the workers on food
storage, or have a few educated people in charge of checking whether or not all the food is
properly stored. Another way is to prepare the food that is closer to the “use by” date. Some
food organizations use the food received to make ready­to­eat dishes and properly handle the
food before it is served to the community (Schneier, 2013). Restaurants and college dining
centers already have ready­to­eat meals prepared that go uneaten. If restaurants and college
dining centers focused on providing the local food organizations with the leftover food, then the
traveling part and being handled by many different hands could be avoided completely. Lessen
the time from when the food leaves the supplier to get to the destination, then the freshness of the

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food would not be an issue. With proper handling and storage foodborne diseases do not stand a
chance and therefore would not be a problem if the donation of food came locally.
Another argument that has come up is the effectiveness of food organizations. People
ask if food organizations are solving the problem of food poverty. The idea behind most food
organizations is to provide emergency relief to those in need, not to solve the problem of food
poverty (Riches, 2016). One in six Americans lack the necessary supply of food on their tables
everyday (Gunders, 2012). Without food organizations, these families would have no other way
of obtaining food, other than maybe applying for welfare. Some do not realize that some parents
are single parents or have to look after many children or other family members. Other things like
school, house mortgages and rent, car payment, utility bills and so many other things also rely on
money. For some people, to have a food organization to attend every now and then could be
saving them money that is used to help pay off debts. Food organizations play an important role
in our economy and that is feeding not only the poor, but others in need (Riches, 2013).
“Take only what you can eat”, and “once it’s on your plate you have to eat”, are just
some simple solutions to eliminating food waste. People are aware of the food waste, but not as
aware as one may think. The actions thought to be taken towards preventing food waste has not
been helping. Having been drilled multiple times as a child not to waste food, should have sunk
in but to most, it has not. Donating food is a simple solution to the food wastage problem.
Consumers can easily donate a canned good, but what about the ready­to­eat meals already
prepared. If consumers and restaurants donate locally food travel would decrease, the risk of
foodborne diseases decreases. The community would be feeding itself, if consumers and
restaurants were smart. All it takes is proper food handling and storage, and a local food

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organization to donate to. Together, a community can feed the poor. Remember that if fifteen
percent of that forty percent of food wasted is salvaged, it could feed up to twenty­five million
people a year. Think about the next time someone is about to waste food, can it be salvaged?

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Reference Page
Finch, C., & Daniel, E. (2005). Food safety knowledge and behavior of emergency food relief
organization workers: Effects of food safety training intervention. ​Journal of
Environmental Health​, ​67​(9), 30.
Gunders, D. (2012). Wasted: How America is losing up to 40 percent of its food from farm to
fork to landfill. ​Natural Resources Defense Council​.
Neff, R. A., Spiker, M. L., & Truant, P. L. (2015). Wasted Food: U.S. Consumers' Reported
Awareness, Attitudes, and Behaviors. ​Plos ONE​, ​10​(6), 1­16.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0127881
Riches, G. (2002). Food banks and food security: welfare reform, human rights and social policy.
Lessons from Canada?. ​Social Policy & Administration​, ​36​(6), 648­663.
Schaich, R. (2015, December 22). 2014 Responsibility Report. Retrieved March 29 2016
Schneider, F. (2013). The evolution of food donation with respect to waste prevention. ​Waste
Management​, ​33​(3), 755­763.