According to a report jointly issued by the Earth Science and Resources Research Department of China Academy of Sciences and the World Wide Fund for Nature, there are170,000 to180,000 tons of table food wasted by the catering industry in China, which is equivalent to the annual food consumption of 30 million to 50 million people.
The reason for the high food waste in big restaurants is that there are many friends and business parties. These two types of meals often pay more attention to "noodles" than "belly" when ordering food. In addition, this kind of party is often accompanied by a lot of drinks, which reduces the consumption of other foods and often leads to more serious food waste.
The report also shows that food waste in primary and secondary schools is also quite serious. The food waste of primary and middle school students in big cities is obviously higher than the average level of urban catering industry. Among all kinds of food supply methods, boxed lunch food is the most serious waste, with the waste amount as high as 216g per person per meal, accounting for about 1/3 of the food supply.
The disadvantages of food waste
Food waste will lead to economic losses. Every year, a lot of food is discarded all over the world, which could have been used for human consumption or animal feed. This not only wastes the labor achievements of farmers and food producers, but also wastes the money spent by consumers to buy these foods.
Secondly, food waste will have a negative impact on the environment. Producing food requires a lot of water resources, land and energy, and overproducing, transporting and discarding food will lead to the waste of these resources. At the same time, the decomposition of food residues in the natural environment will produce greenhouse gases such as methane, which will aggravate global climate change.
In addition, food waste will have a negative impact on the community. In poor areas, many people can't get enough food, and food waste will lead to rising prices and shortage of resources. In addition, food waste will also lead to instability in the food supply chain, because producers need to produce a large amount of food according to market demand, and market fluctuations may lead to overproduction or insufficiency.