If you’re lucky enough to have a sustainable income then you’re probably guilty of food waste.

You know how it goes –  you and your good intentions buy a punnet of tomatoes or baby carrots as a healthy alternative to other snacks, then you put it in the fridge and forget about it until it starts to look or smell odd, at which point you throw it away.

Meanwhile, roughly 12 million South Africans go to bed hungry every night.

Before you roll your eyes and stop reading, this isn’t an “eat your vegetables because people are starving” lecture like the one your mom used to give you. Rather, it’s a few facts about the effects of food waste on our country and on your monthly income.

According to Professor Suzan Oeloftse, Principal Researcher in Waste for Development at the Centre for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR), about 30% of all food produced in South Africa is lost or wasted, reports HEALTH-E.

The Household Food Waste Study notes that the average annual cost of household food waste in South Africa is R21.7-million. Therefore, preventing food wastage will not only save money for households, but will have broader economic, social and environmental benefits.

The study further states that reducing food waste will address food and water security concerns and contribute to the development of more sustainable food systems.

Food wastage means that more and more food has to be produced, which in turn drives up food prices, making food less accessible to the poor and more expensive for the consumer more broadly.

Can you remember the last time you spent less than a grand on your weekly groceries?

To put things into perspective, the WWF released this breakdown of food wastage in SA last year:

In South Africa, 10 million tonnes of food go to waste every year. That’s a third the 31 million tonnes produced annually in South Africa.

Of this, fruits, vegetables and cereals account for 70% of the wastage and loss primarily throughout the food supply chain – from farm to fork.

The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research has valued this loss at R61,5 billion.

The energy wasted every year in South Africa for producing food that is not eaten is estimated as enough to power the City of Johannesburg for roughly 16 weeks.

The wasted embedded water would fill over 600 000 Olympic swimming pools – a massive waste for SA, the 30th driest country on the planet.

About 90% of waste in SA is disposed of to landfills, where the food-waste component leads to the production of methane gas and carbon dioxide.

Successfully cutting food loss and waste is a chance to turn around severe food insecurity felt by significant portions of the population.

Chew on those numbers for a second.

So what can you do? It starts at home by being more aware of what you’re buying, and what you’re going to use it for.

One easy way to cut back is to subscribe to a service like Daily Dish. They deliver fresh ingredients directly to your door, along with the recipes that you’ll need to create fresh home-cooked meals for yourself and/or your family.

The quality ingredients come pre-measured according to the recipe, which means that you don’t buy an entire bunch of carrots for a dish that only requires two, or a whole jar of mustard when you only need one spoon.

Pre-measured ingredients mean that nothing goes to waste. You have a cleaner fridge and you’re reducing wood waste.

The box is also recyclable – just hand it over to your Daily Dish delivery person when they next drop off your next order and they’ll take care of it for you.

While food waste isn’t often spoken about, it’s crazy to think how much we actually throw away, and reducing food waste is one of the easiest ways to practice environmental consciousness.

So be mindful of that shopping list, get a subscription to Daily Dish (you’ll score R250 off your first order – just saying), and eat the healthy snacks that you’re currently ignoring.

You’ll be happy that you did.

[sources:healthe&wwf]