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Reducing Food Waste - Identification of causes and courses of action in North Rhine-Westphalia
Project
Project code: keine Angabe
Contract period: 01.09.2011
- 28.02.2012
Purpose of research: Inventory & Assessment
The research project 'Reducing Food Waste – Identification of causes and courses of action in the German State of North Rhine-Westphalia' is connected to the discussion on a new appreciation of food and a sustainable lifestyle. The Institute of Sustainable Nutrition and Food Production (iSuN) of the Münster University of Applied Sciences and the Consumer Center of North Rhine-Westphalia the task of conducting a study, focused on the identification of causes of food waste and possible courses of action in North Rhine-Westphalia. This task was issued by the Ministry for Climate Protection, Environment, Agriculture, Nature Conserva-tion and Consumer Protection (MKUNLV).
The food market operates highly globalized and works based on a division of labor and the North Rhine-Westphalian situation does not differ much from the German or European situation. Orientation towards North Rhine-Westphalia within the study was achieved by the choice of interview partners and business experts. This orientation was further supported through the choice of the locally relevant product groups vegetables, bread and bakery, milk and milk products as well as meat and sausage products. Courses of action for a reduction of food waste in North Rhine-Westphalia can possibly be transferred to other German federal states.
The study consists of four research-modules. Research-module A analyzes the causes of food waste within the four relevant product groups and deduces the implicit possibilities for procedure recommendations. The analysis of causes is based on the value chain of the specified product group, from agriculture to retail. The potential arrays of causes show that practices which lead to food waste often take effect across various levels of the value chain. Therefore it is important to take the interfaces between levels into account, in order to develop practical measures that decrease creation of food waste. The analysis of face-to-face interviews and anonymous online-interviews in private households was performed in Research-module B. Therein, reasons for the wasting of food through consumers were detected and based on the findings and recommendations to reduce food waste are made. The interviews show that, especially, the complex and unpredictable lifestyles and job-situations lead to the littering of food. Research-module C analyzes the available statistics, in order to gain data on the amount of food waste produced in North Rhine-Westphalia. Research-module D shows that the creation of food waste leads to considerable social, economic and ecologic effects. The dimensions of ecological effects of food waste are shown through an exemplary consideration of the consumption of resources and environmental effects of selected foods. The foods consume resources within the upstream chain, that amount to multiples of the waste that is later created through the wasting of these foods. Within foods from the four examined food groups, ecologic footprints divide differently from the way, the amount of waste created through them divides. This is due to the different amounts of resources that are used up per kilogram of each food. While vegetables and fruits are accountable for the highest amount of food waste, their share of the consumption of resources is lower than that of meats.
Out of the four research-modules, the study devises commendations on reducing food waste in North Rhine-Westphalia within the four categories „process enhancement/ interface management“, 'structures and rules', 'Re-use/recovery instead of devaluation' and 'appreciation and enhancement'. Based on these categories, practical approaches can be developed for the participants of the round table 'new appreciation of food' ('Neue Wertschätzung für Lebensmittel') as well as for North Rhine-Westphalian politics, in order to avoid the creation of food waste and to find new markets that can help to reduce merchandise loss or to find subsequent uses for discarded foods.
Section overview
Subjects
- Home Economics
