"Food Waste includes all edible parts of food produced for humans, but which is either disposed of or removed from the food chain for purposes other than human consumption, from the time when animals and plants are slaughtered or harvested."
Regjeringen, 2020

Food Waste and its Global Outcome

Food Waste is a global and national issue. It affects and is affected by nearly every human being. Still, this problem is not considered important enough by many people, institutions and states which results in the amount of Food Waste being extremely high. The count up provided by The World Counts shows the current amount of food wasted in tons since the beginning of 2022.

_{(The world counts, n.D.)}

The total number of Food Waste as shown can be broken down across as follows: Around 14 percent of food produced is lost between harvest and retail, while about 17 percent of total global food production is wasted (United Nations, n.d.). But it is not only during the farming stages where waste is generated. The big contributors are, above all, we. In fact, the household sector alone is responsible for more than half of the reported Food Waste (55 percent), followed by manufacturers (22 percent), retailers (15 percent) and many others (matvett, 2020).

But the world is not only dealing with huge amounts of waste. Food Waste also affects the worlds global warming quite extensively.

About a third of all food produced worldwide is lost or discarded. As seen in the infogram below, if Food Waste was a country, it would be the third largest emitter of greenhouse gases of the World after China and the USA. This indicates that the waste of food is not only an ethical and economic issue but it also has a huge effect on climate change and the earth’s limited natural resources (UNEP, n.d.).

_{(Richtie, 2020)}

Food Waste in Norway

Currently, the Norwegian food, beverages and tobacco industry is Norway’s second-largest industrial sector (growing since 19th century). Consequently, together with Norwegian households this has a huge impact and responsibility towards the national and global environment as well as economic and population. According to a survey report by matvett from 2020, about 78 kg of edible food were thrown away per Norwegian inhabitant in 2019 (matvett, 2020).

Therefore, the Norwegian government set up an agreement in 2017 on reducing Food Waste which was signed by five relevant ministries and 12 nation-wide industry organizations. The aim is to reduce Food Waste by 50 percent by 2030 and to align with the UN’s sustainability global goals. However, 453.650 tons of edible food were thrown away in Norway in 2020 (Regjeringen, 2020).

Bananas – the prime example

Bananas for example are valued for their flavor, nutritional value, and their constant availability throughout the year. However, according to Karlstad University, "bananas are some of the worst Food Waste culprits" as they are one of the biggest sources of Food Waste (Karlstad University, 2018).

As their ripening process is very visual, bananas are symbolic not only for the caducity of food but also for the society’s standards of food quality. Because people tend to buy and eat bananas without brown spots. Hence, knowledge about the banana’s ripening process and possibilities on how to use them in different stages of their ripening can have an important impact on their waste. Consumers can make a change by buying and eating ripe and not only perfectly looking bananas. Generally speaking, this can be transferred to all food groups (National Geographic, 2021).

Volda's Community and its Food Waste

We interviewed different food sectors in Volda on the topic and investigated how Food Waste is shaping up in such a small community and what actions are in place to deal with it from different viewpoints.

Geiranger Bakery

in Volda

The Geiranger Bakeri in Volda is one of many located around the Møre og Romsdal county. The popular bakery is a hotspot if you want great coffee, delicious pastries like Kanelbolle or bread and sandwiches (Geiranger Bakeri Volda, n.D.). Offering a variety of selection also means that at the end of a busy work day not everything gets sold and therefore will be wasted. But how much waste is there and how does that make the people directly working in that environment feel? We sat together with Vitor who is currently working at the bakery and asked him about the current Food Waste situation in the bakery, his task of disposing the leftovers, and personal opinion.

Supermarket

in Volda

"If people still see value in the food we call trash it is a good thing"
Supermarket Employee

Rema 1000, Kiwi or Coop Extra - they are all multinational grocery chains that can be found in Volda. What do they have in common? Offering a variety of thousand different products to their costumers on a daily basis (Rema 1000, n.D., Kiwi, n.D. & Coop Extra, n.D.). But providing unlimited amounts of products also results in enormous amounts of Food Waste due to various factors. How is this dealt with and what regulations are in place to counteract our throwaway society? We met and spoke with a supermarket employee in Volda to get answers. For the interview he kindly asked to remain anonymous.

Interviewer: Hi how are you? Thanks for meeting with us today. We are here to talk to you about Food Waste and what the situation is currently like in Volda.

Employee: Thanks for having me.

Interviewer: How long have you been working here at the supermarket?

Employee: I have been working here for approximately three years now.

Interviewer: Has anything changed in terms of shopping habits and food supplies since you started your work in this field of business?

Employee: A lot of people expect a big change but to be honest since I started working I have not noticed a significant difference in the amount of food wasted compared to now.

Interviewer: Have you in your position come across huge amounts of Food Waste?

Employee: A lot of people would assume but the answer to that question is not that easy. We are in contact with huge amounts of food everyday and get big deliveries but every item is registered. The food that soon expires will be set down in prices, sometimes by 60 percent [...] But with fruits and vegetables it is different. They need to be sold fresh otherwise customers will not buy them. That is also why we cannot price them down because most of the time they are already gone bad and then people will not buy them at all. That's why they are also the items that are thrown out the most [...]

Interviewer: You mentioned that you register every item to have a better overview and minimize Food Waste. What other regulations do you follow?

Employee: Firstly, we follow the regulations that were put in place by the government to reduce Food Waste and try to only order the amount that is calculated beforehand. If we order big quantities of one specific food group, we set down the price right in the beginning of selling the goods so that the food is actually sold.

Interviewer: Speaking of governmental regulations, in terms of Food Waste the Norwegian government set a new goal to cut the amount of food thrown away in half by the year 2030. Have you felt unique changes apart from the policies that are in place now?

Employee: Yes, me and my colleagues have heard of the 2030 goal and are aware of it. But there are not any new policies that we need to follow but at the end of the day we still want to meet the goal. We monitor everything that we throw away, thanks to our registration system and of course we also make sure that we only order the food we need.

Interviewer: We have talked a lot about Food Waste so far. Can you tell us how much food your supermarket location wastes per week?

Employee: I don't know how much food is wasted. I cannot tell you an exact number. The only way we monitor is economically. It tells us if we are in a deficit or surplus.

Interviewer: Can you maybe then tell us what food group is wasted the most? Our research showed us that bananas are quite up high on that list? Would you agree?

Employee: Yes, that is true. Bananas are quite common to be thrown away. However, according to the amount of kilos we sell each day, it is not a lot of waste though.

Interviewer: At what point are bananas defined as waste? We have heard that for example if they are not part of a bundle the are taken out of sale pretty fast. Is that true?

Employee: Generally speaking we check the goods daily throughout the day and only throw them away when we see that they gone bad. When it comes to bananas customers choose differently, some like them green, others ripe so we try to offer a variety. And we do try to sell the single bananas as well [...] If we throw the single bananas away it is more because they are not good enough anymore.

Interviewer: There is a lot of Food Waste that other people still consider as eatable. Therefore a lot of people go dumpster diving to recover the food that you will not allow to sell anymore. Are you aware of the so-called dumpster divers and do you have to do anything to prevent them?

Employee: We know about them and do not really have a problem with it. If people still see value in the food we call trash it is a good thing. However, we do not recommend it [...] I prefer it when people come directly to us or call and ask for help. I know for some it could be undignifiying but I will not say no just because I am in the position to help. We have to remember food is expensive, especially in Norway and if dumpster diving or whatever helps them survive then let it be that way.