REFOOD: fair and tasty A responsible practice of consumption
Giulia Del Bosco ISIA Roma
Francesca Cofini Gent University
ABSTRACT: YOUR IDEA
The project aims to promote a more responsible and conscious food consumption, while seeking to make it a trendy and accepted good practice. The general objective of the project is the reduction of food waste, first at micro, then at national level through the attribution of economic value to food that would otherwise be thrown away. Furthermore, food waste and hunger still represent two sides of the same global injustice. One third of food produced for human consumption, which is about 1.3 billion tons per year according to FAO, is lost or wasted (1). In Europe about 90 million tones of food is wasted annually, 9 million only in Italy, which correspond to a waste per capita of 179 kg (2).
Although the economic crisis in the society that would claim “less money to waste”, there are several drivers towards increased amount of food waste in the society. Food waste and hunger still represent two sides of the same global injustice. One third of food produced for human consumption, which is about 1.3 billion tons per year, according to FAO, is lost or wasted. While almost 870 million people are chronically undernourished. Food waste is considered here as a social problem As a social problem whose solution goes beyond the technology used to dispose it. REFOOD is a system to recover, pick up excess food from small businesses, such as cafès, bakery, pizzeria and sale on the street or deliver door-to-door to householders. REFOOD is basically a marketing and social communication project. To support the interaction, the networking and the education of the actors a web site and an App for smartphone will be created. REFOOD’s practices are addressed to influence social behaviors and to give back dignity and economical value to food that can still be used up. REFOOD is not a system encouraging the selling of discounted products but it aims to become a trendy and responsible practice of consumption.
2. DESCRIPTION To be or not to be: What is REFOOD? What it doesn’t want to be? REFOOD is a system to recover, pick up excess food from small businesses, such as cafés, bars, bakery, pizzeria (henceforth called ‘target stores’) and sale on the street or deliver door-to-door to householders. REFOOD is not a system encouraging the selling of discounted products because of their proximity to expire. It is a revolutionary and ethical practice deriving from both side of the market, consumers and sellers, to give back dignity and economical value to food that can still be used up.
Categories and Subject Descriptors (2 max) [Food Marketing]; [Food waste]
REFOOD goods are not a ‘second hand’ food but components of a trendy and responsible practice of consumption.
Keywords
REFOOD requires the following steps to be implemented:
Street food, Social Communication, Responsible consumption, Food waste,
1. SELECTION AND PACKAGING Target stores participating in the initiative will be the guarantee of the products. Sellers will select those products that seem to lose freshness and pack them into vacuum-sealed bags or protective atmosphere packaging according to the national regulation for food safety and HACCP standards (see Figure 1). The outstanding design (see figure 2), fun and attractive, will reveal a product made out of biodegradable, reliable and healthy materials; packaging will be partially transparent for visual inspection. The packaging, branded, made by silk-screen printing will be the distinguishable sign of REFOOD circuit.
1. INTRODUCTION: AIMS AND BACKGROUND Nowadays sustainability is at the top of the agenda, for governments and businesses, in both policymaking and corporate social responsibility. However, in order to be competitive and to satisfy high-demand consumers, often small shops, cafes and retail stores that sell fresh products, increase the quantity and variety of their supply and offer large packages and “getting 2 for 1” deals that encourage people to buy more than they actually need, leading to a growing rate of daily waste.
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2. COLLECTION AND SALE
also a social problem mainly related to cultural and social issues. REFOOD’s practices are addressed to influence social behaviors.
The collection will be made by youngsters from 19 to 30 years old endowed with REFOOD equipment (‘food on wheels’ car, wagon or motorcycle). Each delivering track has a unique reference number in order to be tracked and distinguishable. Low cost and last minute food will be provided widespread in the most socially alive corners of the city. Products will be sold at a lower price and according to the market.
4. CONCLUDING REMARKS In the context of global food crisis and relative resource scarcity, food waste appears as a real environmental and social problem. Reducing food waste is a huge challenge and a step towards a more efficient distribution of food resources. Food waste is a worldwide concern, and the general objective of this project can only be reached if there is a sound coordination among stakeholders all along different stages of the supply chain. Furthermore there is a need to raise awareness among consumers and perhaps to reassign rights and sanctions in order to stimulate fewer waste.
REFOOD is basically a marketing and social communication project. To support the interaction, the networking and the education, two instruments are put in place: i.
A Website will provide customers with a mapping of the target stores, the possibility to leave feedback on the service, the promotion of related initiatives, events and focus on the topic (e.g. innovative experiences on how to fight food waste, local initiatives of responsible consumption, etc..)
ii.
An App for smartphone will permit the tracking of the ‘REFOOD on wheels’ in order to localize the closer one and get to know the stores participating.
Acknowledgments: REFOOD is born as part of “CLEAN CITY” project, the course held by prof. Alessandro Spalletta at ISIA ROMA in which Giulia declined her embryonic idea of the REFOOD concept as cleaning from waste. It will be presented as master Thesis within the Design of System master. It is with immense gratitude that we acknowledge the support and help of Prof. Alessandro Spalletta and Prof. Carlo Di Pascasio. Furthermore we would also like to acknowledge with much appreciation the Ph.D. student in architecture Valentina Frasghini for her special advises.
We believe that food waste is a social problem, therefore to impact on it, marketing and communication tools should be addressed to contribute to a change in consumers’ behaviour. Figure 1. REFOOD packaging process.
5. REFERENCES [1] FAO, 2011. Global food losses and food waste.
[2] EUROSTAT, 2006. BCFN, 2013. Contro lo spreco sconfiggere il paradosso del food waste. BCFN, 2010. Food for Culture. Atti del 2nd International Forum on food and nutrition. Milano 30 Novembre - 1 Dicembre.
Figure 2. Different packaging.
European Commission (DG ENV), 2010. Preparatory study on food Waste across EU 27. European Commission, 2011. Sustainable food consumption and production in a resource-constrained world - The 3rd SCAR Foresight Exercise. FAO, 2013. The State of Food Insecurity in the World 2012. SFPHES, 2005. San Francisco Collaborative Food System Assessment. www.lastminutemarket.it
3. APPLICATION AND RESULTS
www.bancoalimentare.it
We strongly believe that, gradually implemented at local level, REFOOD could have significant importance in terms of sustainability and environmental impact of waste.
www.lovefoodhatewaste.com www.adsoftheworld.com
As already mentioned, food waste is not only related to the technology used to dispose it. At this level of the supply chain it is
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