How to stop global food waste?

 How to stop global food waste?

 

Our world has a lot of problems. Wars, terrorism, air-water-land and noise pollution, forest fires, pandemics, weak economy, global warming, food waste and many more.

In this video, I am going to talk about how to stop global food waste.

 

Firstly, we must shop smart.

We mustn't buy more than we need. We must know that if we buy more food than we need, they will get rotten and we can't eat them. We will have to throw them away.

We must make a shopping list. We must write only necessary things down. We must also stay away from bulk shopping. Bulk shopping means buying a lot of food. For example buying 20 kilos of meat, 30 kilos of chicken, 10 kilos of beans, 50 liters of milk is bulk shopping. When we buy that much they get rotten. A correct amount should be 2 kilos of meat, 3 kilos of chicken, 1 kilo of beans, 2 liters of milk. In this way, we can keep them safely and they won’t get rotten. So, we won’t have to throw them away.

 

Don't go shopping when you are very hungry

Scientists say that we want to buy more than we need when we go shopping with an empty stomach. Because we feel that we can eat more than our stomach can take. In other words, the link between the brain and the stomach gets weaker and the brain sends wrong messages to the stomach and it makes us think we have to eat more than we need. We must go shopping after we eat. In this way, the connection between our brain and stomach will be more logical. So, we can buy only what we need.

 

Store food correctly

Another reason why we waste food is that we don't know how to store them correctly. Did you know that food waste increased up to 80% during the coronavirus pandemic? It happened because people washed their food. They were afraid there were bacterias on them and they thought that those bacterias would infect them with coronavirus. As a result, their food got rotten earlier than usual and more food was wasted. Now, you may ask “Isn’t it good to wash food?” The answer is “Of course it is”. But washing them all and trying to store them all makes them rotten earlier. For example, you must only wash eggs before frying or boiling them. If you wash eggs then store them and then try to eat them after five or six days, you will see that they are rotten and you will have to throw them away. Another example is that if you wash cucumbers and tomatoes and put them in the refrigerator, they get rotten earlier. The same problem happens with many other food items. So, what should we do? According to the experts we need to wash food only before eating them. In this way we can keep and store them longer.

Don’t fall into the trap of fake discounts

Many stores try to sell some fruit and vegetables that are very close to getting rotten. So they make discounts. For example, one kilo of good tomatoes is normally 25 liras but when you go to some stores it is 10 liras with a big discount sign on them. Don’t buy them because they are going to get rotten sooner than usual. So, what can we do? Economists say that we should always follow the prices and buy accordingly. Don’t always go after cheap products. As old people with experience say “If you buy something with a good price there is something good. If you buy something cheaper than normal there must be a problem with it”.

Eat out less, eat at home more

Do you know that restaurants waste food more than homes do? They do it because they try to be perfect. For example, they use five tomatoes to make only one bowl of tomato soup. At home one half of a tomato is okay. Restaurants also started to put cheese on everything. They cover the food with melted cheese. It is so exaggerated. Using cheese more than enough means wasting more milk because cheese is made with milk. Another example is that some restaurants serve different kinds of food on a single plate and people can’t eat all of them. So, they are wasted. But, if you cook at home, you cook only two or at most three kinds of different food. In this way, you waste nothing.

Be fair to street animals

Many people think, “If the food in my home is rotten, I will give them to street cats and dogs. In this way, food is not wasted”. But the fact that they are street cats and dogs doesn’t mean that they must eat rotten food. Street animals need healthy food too. So, be fair to street animals and stop buying more food than you need. Their stomach is not your rubbish can.

Cook for the day not for the week

Many people work long hours and they feel really tired to cook everyday. So, as a solution, they cook a lot, eat some of it and put it into the refrigerator. Next day, they heat it and eat again and put the rest back into the refrigerator. But cooked food gets rotten faster than uncooked food. So, we must cook daily. In this way, it won’t get rotten and we won't have to waste it.

In conclusion, food waste is one of the main problems of the world and we must stop it. So remember the tips:

• Shop smart

• Don't go shopping when you are very hungry

• Store food correctly

• Don’t fall into the trap of fake discounts

• Eat out less, eat at home more

• Be fair to street animals

• Cook for the day not for the week