5 - Practices of food waste management and its impact on environment

Abstract

Food waste (FW) is one of the serious issues globally and day by day becoming alarming not only for the human beings but also for the ecosystem. It is estimated that around 20% of the total food exist in the universe goes to the waste bins at home, food amenities and retail outlets. In recent years, FW has received significant attention and considered as an alarming and ethical issue at international level. Wasting food simply means wastage of time, money and energy that requires to produce the food and natural resources. Apart from this, the FW causes a greater impact on the environment through the emission of greenhouse gas. Henceforth, there is an urgent need to reduce these economic, social and environmental impacts. Globally numerous practices and methodologies are implemented for successful management of food wastes. Decreasing food loss and waste are vital parameters for a Zero Hunger world. The assessment and study on indicators such as economic ramifications, environmental impacts and social considerations will give an appropriate cataloguing for various types of food wastes, which will probably help in selection of various approaches of FW management. FW is an outcome of personal, cultural, political, geographic and economic drivers. The awareness for prevention of FW and its recovery is rising worldwide. In this chapter, various underlying reasons and innovative measures to reduce and prevent the FW has been discussed along with discussion on the global scenario of FW management. Anaerobic digestion and FW composting are considered to be operative and steady resources of locating biofuel and bioproducts from FW.