Food waste! It’s a regrettable problem

See important section on ‘rates’ below...
'You can pay for most of your Personal Chef expense when using this service
which reduces or eliminates expensive home ‘Food Waste’’
Read this compelling assessment a little lower on this page...

Food waste! It’s a regrettable problem
(Essay by Chef Gilles of PrivateChefService.ca)

More than $31 billion worth of food is wasted every year in Canada and when energy, water and other resource costs are factored in the true cost could be up to more than three times that much nearing $100 billion.

Millions of kilograms of food go to waste every year in Canadian homes, restaurants and grocery stores.

Among the areas tracked, food is wasted in many ways every day. Among them:

Individuals waste some $14.6 billion worth of food every year, about 47 per cent of the total. This mainly consists of food items that Canadians buy with the intention of using in their homes, but never do, so it ends up eventually in a landfill or composted.
Food manufacturing and processing is responsible for as much as one-fifth of the food wasted across the country.
Ten per cent of food waste happens on a farm, before even entering the broader system.
Retailers waste another 10 per cent
Restaurants and hotels waste a further nine per cent
The rest is wasted at processing facilities such as food terminals, or during transportation

Here are our statistics for Canadian consumers and our grocery bill:

30,115,490 is the Canadian population (14 years and older)
$14.6 billion is the individual waste of food in Canada (2014) or 47% of total national waste
31 billion is the national food waste total each year

This equates to the following dollar amounts of wasted food per household:

$484.80 is the dollar amount of food wasted per person per year
$1,939.20 on average is the dollar amount of wasted food per year for a family of 4

Also noted is that food waste in the travel sector is particularly inexcusable and accountable for up to five kilograms per person, per day.

Waste like that costs everyone, not just the person who bought the food and the person who made it. Estimates of what is called "avoidable" food waste can increase the cost of food by 10 per cent or more.

‘Consumers are busy picking off deals, while retailers and suppliers are busy picking off each other’

I for one am taking a step to assist at fixing the problem.

"I invite you to stop eating with your eyes."

Chef Gilles

The numbers below were not invented out of thin air.
Unfortunately, they are the cold hard facts !

Here is a compelling argument on affordability of services from a Personal Chef
(Based on a family of 4)

$14.6 billion is the individual waste of food in Canada (2014) or 47% of total national waste of 31 billion

This equates to the following dollar amounts of wasted food per household:

$484.80 is the dollar amount of food wasted per person per year
$1,939.20 on average is the dollar amount of wasted food for a family of 4
$161.60 is the dollar amount of food wasted by a family of 4 each month

The cost for the services of a Private Chef at home:

+ $560.00 is the amount required for a full time home Personal Chef service
- $161.60 is the dollar amount of food wasted by a family of 4 each month
$398.40 is the net amount for the service of a Personal Chef at home per month

This equates to only $99.60 per week
for your Personal Chef at home preparing your meals

Note: the applicable taxes are to be added.
The groceries are paid separately using the purchase slips from suppliers and grocery stores.

Hiring a Private Chef at home may prove to be an excellent decision
that fits your busy lifestyle in line with the desire to achieve the goals
of eating better meals, from a greater variety of foods
giving you more leisure time and reducing home food waste.

Contact Chef Gilles today!

506-531-CHEF (2433)

or via e-mail: executivechefgilles@gmail.com

Food waste in America

Getting food from the farm to our fork eats up 10 percent of the total U.S. energy budget, uses 50 percent of U.S. land, and swallows 80 percent of all freshwater consumed in the United States.

Yet, 40 percent of food in the United States today goes uneaten.

This not only means that Americans are throwing out the equivalent of $165 billion each year, but also that the uneaten food ends up rotting in landfills as the single largest component of U.S. municipal solid waste where it accounts for a large portion of U.S. methane emissions.

Reducing food losses by just 15 percent would be enough food to feed more than 25 million Americans every year at a time when one in six Americans lack a secure supply of food to their tables.

Food losses in households

American families throw out approximately 25 percent of the food and beverages they buy. The cost estimate for the average family of four is $1,365 to $2,275 US annually.

Consumer food waste also has serious implications for wasted energy.

In the United Kingdom, about two-thirds of household waste is due to food spoilage from not being used in time, whereas the other one-third is caused by people cooking or serving too much.

However this ratio is unknown for the United States. At the retail and end-consumer stages of the supply chain, perishables make up the majority of food losses due to the high volume of consumption and the food’s tendency to spoil.

In terms of total mass, fresh fruits and vegetables account for the largest losses, followed closely by dairy, and meat/poultry/fish.

A few solutions to food waste

Again, data of this nature for losses from farm to retail are not available. Research is lacking in the United States, but anecdotal evidence suggests that drivers for household losses include:

Lack of awareness and under valuing of foods.

Cheap, available food has created behaviors that do not place high value on utilizing what is purchased. As a result, the issue of wasted food is simply not on the radar of many Americans, even those who consider themselves environment or cost conscious.

Confusion over label dates. (See details on eliminating the confusion) Click here

Label dates on food are generally not regulated and do not indicate food safety.

Multiple dates, inconsistent usage, and lack of education around date labels cause consumers to discard food prematurely.

In the U.K., an estimated 20 percent of avoidable food waste in households is discarded because of date labeling confusion.

Spoilage.

Food spoils in homes due to improper or suboptimal storage, poor visibility in refrigerators, partially used ingredients, and misjudged food needs.

Impulse and bulk purchases.

Store promotions leading to bulk purchases or purchases of unusual products often result in consumers buying foods outside their typical meal planning, which then gets discarded.

Poor planning.

Lack of meal planning and shopping lists, inaccurate estimates of meal preparation, and impromptu restaurant meals can lead to purchased food spoiling before being used.

Over-preparation.

Cooking portions have increased over time and large portions can lead to uneaten leftovers. In fact, the surface area of the average dinner plate expanded by 36 percent between 1960 and 2007.

Simply switching to a smaller plate could mean eating fewer calories, bringing with it important health benefits as well as potential waste reduction.

Household waste is not inevitable, nor has it always been common.

A study conducted in 1987 found that people over 65, many of whom lived through either the Great Depression or World War II, wasted half as much food as other age groups.76 Similarly, developing countries do not waste nearly the same amount of food at the consumer level as do Europeans or Americans. As mentioned above, the average American consumer discards 10 times as much as the average Southeast Asian. There are many steps consumers can take to make their food budget go further and reduce their household waste.