Why People Always Waste Food in Daily Life - Term Paper Example

Food management Student’s Name: Instructor’s Name: Course Code: Date of Submission: Executive Summary Food wastage has been an issue in the global world. Among the reasons why there is food insecurity is due to wastage. However, there are also other factors which contribute to food scarcity like changes in climate or global warming. In some places food is sustainable while in other places food is not sustainable. There are various factors which contribute to this difference. Broadly, these factors can be classified into three which are people’s eating habits, lack of food storage knowledge and consumption patterns. People’s eating habits discussed include picky eaters, obese eating and binge eating habits. Food storage problems leading to waste include expiry dates and quantity of storage. Patterns of consumption include diet changes and changes in societal cultures. Food wastage can be improved through standard eating habits, effective storage systems and standard consumption habits. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Table of Contents 3 Introduction 4 Main ways of Food Wastage 4 People’s eating habits 4 Lack of food storage knowledge 6 Patterns of consumption 8 Recommendations 10 Conclusion 10 References 11 Introduction Food wastage has been a subject of debate globally. There are many ways in which people waste food in their daily lives. To some extent food is wasted without people knowing that food is being wasted or sometimes people waste food intentionally (David & Kirstie 2012). Due to food waste by households, there has been food shortage globally leading to lack of balanced diet. There are some communities which are starving because they lack food whereas in other places food is being wasted. There is no even balance of food distribution. In addition, changes in climate have led to low food production. For instance there is global warming which has affected food production to meet the demands of the consumers (John et al 2013). Further, world population has kept on growing which implies that there is need to improve food production but on the contrary food is being wasted and also the production has declined. In this regard, there is need to research on the ways in which food should be managed so that the growing population should be sustained. In this report therefore, it aims to disclose why people waste food in their daily life. The main ways in which food is wasted in daily life include people’s eating habits, lack of food storage knowledge and people’s patterns of consumption. The above points will be discussed in detail in this report. Main ways of Food Wastage People’s eating habits There are many ways in which people waste food in their daily lives. Some consumers have eating habits which they don’t even understand if it wastes food while others understand that their eating habits waste food. Some of the ways in which eating habits waste food include picky eating, obesity eating, extravagant eating and unbalanced eating habits. To start with there are those who waste food through picky eating. Picky eating is where people eat food without nay regular intervals. They consume a lot of food without any scheduled plans. In most cases picky eating is found in children (John et al 2013). This is one way of wasting food because without eating schedule, it is hard to make eating budget. The budget for food cannot be achieved because there is no clear guideline for eating. For instance if a household tries to draft a budget for one week and there are picky eaters in that household, the budget could not sustain the family for that one week. This is food wastage because picky eaters do not eat as a result of being hungry but because there is food and they want to be independent. A good example of picky eaters is the children. Children would like to be independent in their eating and as a result, they waste the food. If the children are left to eat alone, they will eat with no regular intervals (John et al 2013). This will waste food as the children are not good eaters and in this regard food is being wasted. Picky eaters will be managed by designing regular intervals and help the children to develop good eating habits. Food is also wasted by obese eaters. It is claimed that obese eaters are wasters of food. This is because it is argued that the obese eaters take in more calorie than actually the body needs. Obese eaters do waste a lot of food as they take in food which does not add any value to the body and could be used by somebody else who is hungry. In most cases, it is the teenagers who are obese eaters as they need energy for growing. When an individual is suffering obese eating, the individual can take in as much food as two or three health eating person food (Marian 2006). In addition, obese eating does not take into consideration proper eating habits like balanced diet instead obese eaters do take foods which are rich in calorie. This eating habit leads to consumption of food one single diet for instance fats only and this leads to inadequate food to other people. Therefore, obese eating wastes food which could have been consumed by other needy people. Moreover, food can be wasted through gluttonous eating. This is the habit of eating when an individual takes in excess food than the body requires. In some cultures, people do eat a lot of food which is excess in the body and therefore does not add any nutrients to the body (Marian 2006). In some instances, an individual takes in a lot of fats and proteins and forgoes other important dietary meals. This is a waste of single diet food because it does not add value to the body. Therefore, gluttonous eating is one way of wasting food in the daily life and should be discouraged. A glutton can consume food which can be taken in four days at a go thus food wastage. Furthermore, food can also be wasted through binge eating. This is the kind of eating excess food just to cope up with negative emotions. Binge eaters consume a lot of food at a high speed. Most of the binge eaters eat food until they are uncomfortably full (Michelle & Bruce 2009). They hide their behaviors until they are in a secret place where they think they are safe and they can eat without any criticism. The likely effect of binge eating is overweight and other health related problems. This is also another way in which food is wasted in the daily life because binge eating is not valuable to the body as it does not into consideration the balanced diet requirements therefore it wastes food. Finally, drunkorexia is another way in which food is wasted in the daily life. This is the eating habit in which an individual restricts himself or herself from eating because of certain conditions. For instance, female candidates can develop drunkorex behavior because they don’t want to add weight instead they want to loose (Michelle & Bruce 2009). This can lead to food wastage in that the food which was already scheduled to take the whole month or even three weeks can be wasted because the individual cannot consume the food. Therefore, restricting from taking some foods can lead to food wastage because after the restriction food goes a waste as it cannot be stored anymore. Lack of food storage knowledge It has been discovered that food can be wasted due to lack of knowledge on the storage systems and methods. Many of the storage food systems are not adequate to preserve food which can sustain the demands of the consumers. There are various ways in which lack of storage knowledge can lead to food wastage. Discussed below are some of the ways in which food is being wasted in daily life due to lack of storage knowledge (Michelle & Bruce 2009). To start with, lack of expiry date knowledge can be a source of food wastage. Expiry date is the date for which the product is meant to last for. Some households when they do their purchasing of food do not consider the dates of expiry for the products they are buying. If for instance the food was meant to last for one month to serve the household and the expiry date for the food is two weeks left for it to expire date, it implies that the food will go wrong before the consumption. In addition, many customers do not look at the expiry date of the food they are buying only to realize that the food they have bought has already expired. This means that the food is not fit for human consumption has to be disposed off (Shumaisa 2010). This is one way in which food has been wasted by many households. It is advisable that before buying any food, it is important to check on the expiry date to ascertain the usefulness of the product instead of buying food which has already expired. In addition, lack of skills on what quantity to stock is another factor which contributes to food wastage. Lack of proper understanding how much to consume will lead to food wastage because the food might be excess or in shortage (Shumaisa 2010). In most cases, households buy food in excess. Excess food can be wasted because if the household cannot afford to consume the whole it means that some food must be disposed off. This is food wastage because could the household bought food enough to be consumed by the family, the food could have not into waste. In this regard, lack of knowledge about how much to stock can lead to food wastage. On the same note, storing inadequate food can lead to restocking (Shumaisa 2010). For instance, when there is an occasion and the food in the store is not enough to serve the whole congregation and the food cannot be bought ready made, the chances are that the food can be a waste as another kind of food will be the next option. This is because the food will be disposed off and replaced with another menu leading to food wastage. Furthermore, lack of proper storage systems can lead to food wastage. There are some households especially in the rural areas which still apply traditional methods of preserving food. Some methods do not preserve food as expected (Terry & Jonathan 2006). For instance, it has been difficult to store foods like perishable foods and fresh fruits. The Agricultural sectors produce adequate food to sustain the growing population but because of poor storage systems, the foods go bad and cannot be consumed by human beings. In this effect, the food is wasted as a result of poor storage systems. Moreover, packaging of foods is another challenge that leads to food wastage. When food has been bought lets say for example by the household, the food needs to be stored (Terry & Jonathan 2006). But before the storage, the food should be packaged in special containers for storage. Food cannot be stored in fridges if it has not been properly packed. Due to lack of proper packaging systems, even if the food is stored in fridges it will go bad within a short period of time leading to its disposal thus food is wasted. On the same note, packaging helps to make transportation of the foods easier. When food is being transported from one place to another, it needs to be properly packed so that it is not damaged. The Agricultural produce is fresh and in good conditions when it is harvested (Terry & Jonathan 2006). During transportation if the produce is not properly packed, there might be damages on the ways and the food will be spoilt thus cannot be consumed. This leads to food wastage because the wasted food is disposed off. Therefore, packaging should be given priority when the food is being stored because without good packaging the food will be damaged when storing and also when it is being transported. Patterns of consumption On the other hand, food is wasted as a result of changing patterns of food consumption. Many consumers have changed their patterns for consuming the various foods. When the consumption pattern changes, the food which was stored in the store becomes useless and the impact is that it becomes a waste (Paul 2003). One way in which the consumption pattern change leads to food wastage is when there is change in diet of the food. There are some circumstances which lead to change in consumer diet. For instance when there is prescription by a health professional to change the diet implies that the food which was already stocked goes into waste. For instance, when there is a prescription to change from eating junk foods to vegetarians, the junk foods which were in the store could not be consumed thus will be wasted. Therefore, changes in diet leads to changes in consumption patterns hence some foods will be wasted. Also changing from home made foods to store bought foods can lead to food wastage. Home made foods are the foods which are made at home while store bought foods can be bought from supermarkets and retail stores (Paul 2003). When the consuming patterns changes, many consumers will change their consumption behavior and abandon the home made foods. Changes to store bought foods means that the other types of foods will be ignored and abandoned. The stores of these kinds of foods will not sale thus the foods will be wasted. Therefore, changing to store made foods will abandon other food stores leading to food wastage. Consumer patterns can also lead to food wastage as a result of changing economic conditions. When the global economy is not favorable, the living standards of people become difficult. People will strain to get their foods and other social amenities (Paul 2003). Changes in economy can lead to changes in prices of foods which also lead to changes in consumer consumption behavior. When the prices of foods go up, the purchasing power of the consumers go down and when the prices of foods go down consumers buy in excess. Higher prices change the consumption patterns of the consumers by lowering the purchasing rate which implies that the stored food will not be sold before they expire. This leads to food wastage in the stores. On the other hand, low prices leads to high demand thus consumers buy foods in excess. Some of the food can expire before they are consumed leading to waste. Therefore changing consumer patterns through economic changes can lead to unstable purchasing of food which leads to wastage. Changes in the social life can lead to changes in consumer patterns. Social culture affects the way in which consumers live and how they take in their foods. Under social norms, there are some kinds of foods which could not be consumed by a certain social culture. For instance, Muslims do not take pork in their lifetime and if the market consists mostly Muslims, then that market cannot be a good place to sale pork. If for example Muslims manage to covert many Hindus into their culture, it implies that they will have to abandon taking some kinds of foods. This is because their religious beliefs change their consumption patterns and the end result is that the food which was in the stores will have to go bad due to lack of market thus food is being wasted (Paul 2003). On top of the above issues, changes in eating intervals will also lead to food wastage. The supply of food always depends on the consumption rate of the consumers. Let’s say if the household was taking four meals in a day and now change to three meals in a day, then there will be excess food in supply because the purchasing rate of the customers will go down. The food which was stored in the stores will go bad leading to food wastage. Recommendations Based on the above discussion, there are various ways in which food can be managed to sustain the growing number of people globally. Below are some of the recommendations which can be drawn from the above literature review. The first recommendation is that there sustainable eating habits. For instance there should be balanced eating habit whereby individuals eat food which adds value to the body. This will discourage eating habits which will waste food like picky eating and obese eating which are food wasting. There should better storage systems which prevent the food from going bad. Traditional storage systems should be discouraged as they will not store food for along time. Further, packaging should be efficient so as avoid damages to foods when transporting them. Foods should be packaged in tins to avoid contamination with other foods and other damages during transportation. In addition, there should be standard eating patterns among households to avoid changes in eating habits so that it will be easier to predict on the consumer demand. If for example it is three meals in a day, it will be easier to store food which can sustain the household the whole day. This will discourage from purchasing excess food. Conclusion Food management has been an issue in the global world. The demand for food is on the increase while the production is getting low due to climatic changes like global warming which has economic activities difficult. In this regard, there has been concern about how people consume their foods. In some economies food is being wasted while in some economies people are starving from lack of adequate food. Therefore, food has to be managed well so that the global population will be sustained. There are various ways in which food is being wasted in the daily life. These factors can be divided into three which are people’s eating diet, lack of food storage knowledge and pattern of consumption. People’s eating habits include picky eaters, obese eating and binge eating habits. Lack of food storage knowledge has also led to food wastage in the following ways; lack of expiry date consideration, excess food storage, lack of preservation methods and poor packing systems. Lack of proper storage systems lead to damages when the food is being transported and also contamination. Changes in consumption patterns also lead to food wastage in that it affects the buying behavior of the consumers which affects the sale of perishable foods from the stores leading to wastage. References David, G & Kirstie O 2012, Green Entrepreneurship: Building a Green Economy? – Evidence from the UK, Allen & Unwin, Sydney. John, LS., James, W & Peter, C 2013, Scenario-Based Extrapolation Models of Aging Effects on America’s Food Consumption, South-Western Cengage Learning, Mason. Marian S 2006, Highlighting the Retro Side of Innovation and its Potential for Regime Change In Agriculture, Momentum press, London. Michelle, T & Bruce, P 2009, Developing a food and wine segmentation and Classifying destinations on the basis of their food and wine sectors, Minneapolis, Lominger. Paul, K 2003, Urban food security, the rural Hinterland, and Istanbul's lower income Migrant households, Emerald publishing group. Shumaisa, K 2010, Food security and sustainability: Community food initiatives in London, Emerald publishing group. Terry M & Jonathan, M 2006, Introduction between the Local and the Global: Confronting Complexity in the Contemporary Food Sector, Emerald publishing group. Read More