Food Waste Research Paper

The magnitude of food waste is a pressing problem, which causes harm to the economy and the environment. In the United States, nearly 40% of food gets thrown away. This is primarily due to the ignorance of the consumers and the distributors with regards to food waste. Consumers should be mindful about the amount and kind of food they purchase while distributors should be careful not to overstock the shelves (Food Waste: The Facts, n.d.). Consumers should be more mindful about throwing away food just because it is older than the sell by date. The sell by date actually has no correlation to freshness; it just lets the grocer know when to take it off the self. Use by dates, on the other hand, are a better indicator of freshness.(Woodruff, 2013).
Some grocery stores spread awareness to encourage the consumer to make smarter choices regarding their food consumption. This includes informing consumers about the validity and accuracy of expiration dates. Weis Markets, a grocery store based in Pennsylvania, is taking an initiative to inform their customers on food waste. It created a "food waste awareness month" where they informed the consumer on how to reduce their footprint when it comes to food waste. The brochure informed the customer on how to properly store their food, prepare it and understand sell-by dates (Biocycle World, 2015). This information is essential for buyers to know, since their shopping habits are contributing to the massive amounts of food waste in grocery stores. When the typical customer walks into the produce section, they tend to choose the fruit in the most pristine condition, overlooking the bruised, old and ugly. While most remain perfectly edible, consumers visually discriminate which leads to massive amounts of waste (Husted, n.d.). However this is understandable. Who would want to purchase a bruised apple or the chicken a day before the sell-by date when there are other options available? Therefore, methods like these should be secondary since it is unlikely that a consumer will willingly purchase the food they deem to be poor quality for the same price that they can purchase the newer and fresher food. Other ways grocery stores deal with food waste is through diverting the waste. For example, Publix, a large grocery store chain located in the South East United States, has worked with Waste Management, North Americas largest recycler. In 2013, Publix has managed to divert more than 10,800 tons of food waste away from the landfill and organic food to feed animals in zoos and sanctuaries. This amount increased to 19,000 tons