Cereals contribute half of the overall losses and waste, followed by fruit and vegetables (19%), milk (14%) and meat (9%).
Oelofse, a principal researcher at the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research , was doing research for athat she led, which shows how in South Africa an estimated 10.3-million tonnes a year of edible food does not reach people’s stomachs.
Although she has sympathy with retailers, because a “bunch of crooked cucumbers don’t fit easily into a crate and this makes it difficult to transport”, Oelofse believes South Africa can do a lot more to improve its supply chain. Globally, food production must increase by 70% by 2050 to meet the demand. Yet nearly one third of all food produced for human consumption is lost or wasted each year.
The study shows how food waste in the consumption stage has soared from 5% in 2013 to 18% in 2021. According to the CSIR and the department of forestry, fisheries and the environment’sfor South Africa, on average each person in Johannesburg disposes of 12kg of food a year into the municipal bin, and in Ekurhuleni it is 8kg a person a year.
Retailers Shoprite, Woolworths and Pick n Pay are aligned to the United Nations sustainable development goals, specifically with goal 12.3, which aims to halve global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along the food chain by 2030.that it recognises the social, environmental, and economic effects of food loss and food waste in the regions where it operates.
Pick n Pay and Woolworths, too, are core signatories of the agreement, which was launched in September 2019 to drive a sustainable commitment from local food manufacturers, distributors and retailers to prevent and reduce food waste. To improve its forecasting and ordering capabilities in fresh fruit and vegetables, the group reviews its range seasonally, helping to reduce food waste year on year.
Organic waste from its stores and distribution centres are increasingly managed through on-site composters and off-site biodigesters, which provide a “clean and simple solution to managing organic and wet waste”.
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