The Causes Of Food Waste In Europe

760 Words4 Pages
Household waste is by far the largest contributor to food waste in Europe. This is the case for several reasons. Some of the main causes identified are the global trends of urbanisation, changes in diet, increasing globalisation of commerce and large-scale mass distribution (Katsarova, 2016). Urbanisation has resulted in the progressive extension of the supply chain, in order to satisfy the food requirements of people living in cities and towns. This increases the remoteness between places of production and those of final consumption, which leads to food having to be transported over large distances. The impact of this, is that food is less fresh when it arrives in the supermarkets and therefore is less fresh when consumers take it home. Due to the fact that people now often only shop once a week for groceries, this leads to high amounts of food waste.…show more content…
This is most evident in economies in transition, such as China, Brazil, Russia and India. It involved a shift from starchy diets to ones consisting more of meat, fish and fresh fruit and vegetables, all of which perish more quickly. Affluence encourages the idea of endless abundance, cutting down the need to savour and make use of every piece of food purchased. This became clear in Italy during the economic crisis in 2013, where 73% of Italians reduced their food waste due to the economic crisis. During this time they were more inclined to shop wisely, reduced the quantity of food purchased, increased their use of leftover products and paid more attention to expiry dates (Katsarova,

More about The Causes Of Food Waste In Europe

Open Document