Food waste bill hits $36.6b each year, consumers throw out 150kg each

Speaking at the Ag Institute Australia - SA Division meeting, EFWA chief executive officer Steve Lapidge said one-third of all food produced globally was either lost or wasted each year, adding up to $36.6 billion.

Loss is counted as happening prior to the supermarket, such as on-farm or through processing, while waste is counted at the supermarket, or after with consumers.

"That doesn't include the social cost when one in five goes hungry or the environmental costs where globally 10pc of greenhouse gas emissions are from food waste," he said.

Dr Lapidge said the goal to reduce food waste and loss was a global one, with the United Nations setting a goal to halve food waste and reduce loss.

But Australia had set an even more ambitious goal, to halve all food loss and food waste by 2030, which included both the 70 per cent edible and also inedible waste, such as bones and hides.

Australia has also included primary production in its calculations, when most countries did not - nationally, an estimated 150,000 tonnes is lost each year in primary production.

Australia produces enough food to feed 75 million people - almost triple the population - but an estimated one-fifth of people go hungry.

Dr Lapidge said Australians waste 7.6 million tonnes each year, with this contributing 3.5pc of the nation's total GHG emissions.

He said the positive news was there was an appetite for change.

"People are motivated to change - 76 per cent want to reduce waste and 91pc of consumers want to buy from organisations that are taking steps to minimise," he said.

"But the household figure is particularly huge in Australia.

"Even with cost of living, we are one of the cheapest countries in the world, per income, so they might not necessarily care about cost of food waste in fridge.

"We do find 150 kilograms of food per person is thrown out each year."

Dr Lapidge said there were five key ways Australia was tackling the problem, but the emphasis was on "finding the carrot for industry, not the stick".

"We're looking at ways to generate income, so they don't see it as a liability," he said.

Dr Lapidge said prevention was key, and it was important to measure the true cost of waste for companies, which was not just the price to take the waste away but also the cost of all resources that went into the food.

He said EFWA had several supply chain projects in place to reduce losses, and was also looking at packaging, which could be contentious when people wanted to reduce plastic but the food waste without packaging "could be a worse environmental outcome".

A campaign is also planned to kick off later this year with tools to help consumers reduce waste.

Redistribution was the next step, with EFWA working with the nation's four biggest food charities to find efficiencies in getting food where it was needed, as well as policy options, such as tax incentives for companies to donate rather than throw away surplus food.

Making new food products or ingredients is another key are of focus.

An example is a partnership between fruitgrower Montague and icecream company Peters to repurpose otherwise unsellable plums into Rescue Pops, which have the profits go to Foodbank.

Wine byproduct grapeseed extract was also commonly used in nutraceuticals but, until recently, had been imported from China.

Agricultural inputs have also been considered, such as feeding ecowaste to animals - although this needs to be carefully managed.

The final option was finding new uses for waste, such as food waste fibres being combined with wool offcuts to create cheaper insulation.

Dr Lapidge said they had achieved a considerable amount in the six years of the EFWA - formerly known as the Fight Food Waste CRC - with 36 completed projects and another 42 on the go, which are expected to save 9mt of food waste, combined.