Food Wastage

Any food that can be consumed by humans. Food waste (FW) is food that has not been
consumed because it has been permitted to spoil or has been dumped by retailers or consumers.
Food waste is a psychological issue. It's a result of our behavior as well as customs and
traditions.

Food waste is a significant problem because of its economic, social, and environmental
consequences. Global food waste production is currently expected to be at 1.3 billion tonnes per
year, with a 44 percent rise expected between 2005 and 2025. Food waste is predicted to cost the
environment and society USD 700 billion and USD 900 billion, respectively. Furthermore, it was
calculated that increased water scarcity due by food waste will cost the world USD 164 billion
each year. For both environmental and economic reasons, it is essential to concentrate on the
quantification and management of food waste generation (FAO 2014).

Some of the reasons for food wastage in university canteens

 In hostels cooking too much food

 Not storing food correctly
 Find it difficult to estimate how much to cook per person
 Preferable to serve too much rather than not enough
 Food goes off before the ‘use buy’ or ‘best before’ date
 Do not have appropriate storage containers
 Lack of time or organization to plan ahead e.g. no meal plan
 Size of food portions and packages is too large for someone
 Cultural factors such as displaying wealth by leaving food uneaten, or only eating
specific parts of food also have an impact on food waste generation
 Aesthetic Standards - Food may be rejected only due to a physical or aesthetic flaw, such
as being the incorrect form or size, being broken, or having a cleft or blemish. The
fixation with esthetic quality standards has nothing to do with the safety of food.

Methods of Food Waste Reduction

  Public Awareness Raising/Education - Training programmes include teaching of food
waste prevention skills, workshops on waste-free cooking.
 Food Redistribution - voluntarily giving away food that would otherwise be thrown out
or wasted to receivers, such as philanthropic organizations, who then redistribute it to
others in need.
 Legislation—Governmental Interventions - These include financial instruments, legal
sanctions, regulation of claims, labels, guidance, monitoring and so on.
 Higher costs will lead to reduction of the amount disposed.
 ‘Polluter Pays’ Principle - which would reduce food waste through enforcing those who
are responsible for the waste (e.g. retailer/supplier relationships, where surplus is returned
to the supplier) to pay its price.
 Taxes and Charges - on products, on landfill and incineration (e.g. user fees, pay as you
throw)
 Energy Recovery by Anaerobic Digestion - Creates products: biogas and a liquid or solid
residue, the digestate
 Incineration - Recommended, when food waste contains animal byproducts and Waste to
energy plants used for producing electricity, steam and heating
 Composting
 Enzymatic hydrolysis – skimmed milk
 Volumetric concentration and diafiltration - Regular and whey butter milk

Food is available to many people on the earth, but it is not guaranteed to more than 820 million
people who are hungry. As a result, we must raise awareness of the importance of food, as well
as the farmers who produce it and the natural resources used to generate it. For a better
tomorrow, we must make a decision and take action as soon as possible to reduce food loss and
waste.
 Agricultural waste management

Agricultural wastes are leftover from the cultivation and initial processing of raw agricultural
products such as fruits, vegetables, meat, poultry, dairy products, and crops. This word refers to
both natural and non-natural wastes generated by a variety of farming operations, including dairy
farming, horticulture, seed production, animal breeding, market gardens, nursery plots, and so
on. Agricultural wastes can take the form of solids, liquids, or slurries, based on the type of
agriculture activity.

The table below summarizes AW depending on the agricultural activity

Agricultural activity Types of wastes Method of disposal

Crop production and harvest Straw, stover Land application, burning,
plowing
Fruit and vegetable Biological sludges, Landfilling, animal feed, land
processing trimmings, peels, leaves, application, burning,
stems, soil, seeds and pits composting
Sugar processing Biological sludges, pulp, lime Landfilling, burning,
mud composting, animal feed
Animal production Blood, bones, feather, litter, Land application, fertiliser
manures, liquid effluents
Dairy product processing Biological sludges By-product recovery
Rice production Bran, straw, hull Feeds, mulch/soil
conditioner, packaging
material for glass and
ceramics
Coconut production Stover, cobs, husk, leaves, Feeds, vinegar, activated
coco meal carbon, coir products

In recent years, a considerable amount of agricultural wastes have been created annually all over
the world. Agricultural wastes increased at a rate of 5% to 10% each year on average. Air
pollution, soil degradation, and other issues would emerge from the haphazard abandonment and
inappropriate use. Burning manure and straw produces a lot of toxic gas, smoke, and dust,
damaging our air environment severely. Many diseases, parasite eggs, heavy metals, and other
contaminants can be found in animal feces. To handle these issues innovative strategies are
needed.

Some of the novel strategies to manage agricultural wastes

Application of zeolite

Possible uses being investigated include applications as a carrier of slow-release fertilizers,

insecticides, fungicides, and herbicides, and as a trap for heavy metals in soils. Can be applied to
reduce salinity levels of compost made by animal litter.

Pyrolysis

Pyrolyzed or activated carbons can be prepared from a variety of raw materials especially
agricultural solid wastes. Activated carbons, can be derived from apricot and cherry stones,
almond shells and grape seeds through steam pyrolysis. This can be used to absorb synthetic azo
dye, carmoisine A, from aqueous solutions.

Through pyrolysis can produce biochars from rice straw, tea wastes and animal litters. Biochars
can be used to improve soil condition by pollutant removal.

Fluidized-bed bioreactors

In India, a group of researchers used agriculture leftovers such as wheat and corn waste to
generate bioethanol in a magnetically assisted fluidized-bed bioreactor.

Production of membranes from agricultural wastes

Porous mixed matrix membranes (MMMs) were prepared by particles of banana peel, tea waste
and shaddock peel as fillers in polyethersulfone (PES) (Lin et al., 2014)

Compost techniques

 Vermicomposting
 Windrow system
 Aerated Static Pile Composting
  In-Vessel Composting

Vermicomposting

Vermicomposting is a technique that uses earthworms and microorganisms to degrade and

detoxify organic waste while also converting it into a product that may be utilized for agronomic
reasons. Enzymatic processes in the earthworm gut result in toxic metal immobilization,
suggesting that vermitechnology is an effective method for removing heavy metals from
industrial organic wastes and sludges. It may be stated that vermiremediation has the ability to
convert sugar industrial sludges into nutrient-rich organic manure with low toxicity for
agricultural uses.

Windrow system

The waste material is stacked up and organized parallelly in long rows for microbial breakdown
in a windrow system. To help with air and moisture conditioning, porosity, and heat
redistribution, these rows are flipped around. Depending on the machinery used to mix the piles,
triangular or trapezoidal shaped windrows can be used. The windrows are not turned with
mechanical equipment.

Aerated Static Pile Composting

The waste is heaped in this system, and the air circulation is maintained by a distribution system
that uses perforated pipe/tubes at the mound's bottom. Windrows, covered, open, or closed
vessels can all be used for these systems. The aeration aspect, which is similar to aerobic
composting, is crucial to this composting approach. As a result of the aeration intensity, a
temperature gradient is formed vertically over the top and bottom of the pile. This approach has
the advantage of requiring less area for composting because the waste does not need to be
transferred to another location for aeration.

In-Vessel Composting

One of the most efficient and quick composting technologies is in-vessel composting, which
treats biodegradable waste in closed containers with temperature, moisture, and oxygen
regulation. Containers, tunnels, spinning drums, agitated bags, and enclosed halls are some of the
bioreactors/vessels used in in-vessel composting.

Gasification

The influence of process variables like temperature, pressure, residence time and catalyst on
supercritical water gasification of model compounds has been investigated and found that
through this process corn starch is convertible into feedstock.

Electrochemical oxidation

Recommended for dairy effluent. Membrane filters pretreatment of digested effluent should be
obtained from a full-scale anaerobic digester, followed by anodic oxidation and indirect
oxidation using dimensionally stable anode (DSA) and lead dioxide coated titanium (Ti/PbO2) as
anode and stainless steel as cathode.

Coagulation

Recommended for dairy waste water. Coagulation with inorganic (alum and ferric chloride),
coagulants, followed by powdered activated charcoal (PAC) treatment.

The extensive land degradation has led to intensive experimentation, aiming at identifying the
most promising techniques for attaining the lowest possible pollution level. Accordingly novel
approaches should be employed to control those harmful effects as discussed in this section.

References

FAO, 2014. Food Wastage Footprint: Full-cost accounting

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