food waste reduction

Syllable breakdown

Dictionary meaning

the set of practices, policies, technologies, and cultural changes aimed at reducing the quantity of food that is lost or discarded at any stage of the supply chain from production through consumption, addressing what is estimated by the Food and Agriculture Organization to amount to approximately one third of all food produced globally; food waste occurs at different points for different reasons: at the farm level due to cosmetic standards, overproduction, and harvest losses; in transit due to poor refrigeration and handling; at retail due to overstocking and date labelling confusion; and at the consumer level due to over-purchasing, poor storage, and confusion between best-before and use-by dates; food waste is not only an economic and moral problem given global hunger but a significant contributor to greenhouse gas emissions, as decomposing organic matter in landfills generates methane, a potent climate-forcing gas