34 / THINK TWICE
Think twice: Fruit waste Fruit is an onboard staple, whether it’s a little pot of sliced apple or a seasonal platter, but is it a sustainable option? Chris Beech of the UK’s Nothing Wasted Club tells Julie Baxter why you might want to think twice before you buy… Experts currently estimate that the world wastes about 1.3 billion tonnes of fresh food each year. Wasted fruit is a huge part of that whether it be fruits disgarded because they are too big, or too small; damaged fruit or fruit delayed en route, perhaps stuck in a storm out at sea; or simply fruit over produced by farmers who had a better harvest than they had expected with no market to support that success. During the process of production (harvesting, handling, processing and chain involved. By way of example he packaging) around 75 million tonnes of fruit and veg is lost. The way we deal with that explains: "Working closely with farmers has an impact felt right and the fruit and across the globe. vegetable suppliers to Chris Beech, of the my home city, London, UK's Nothing Wasted I discovered thousands Understand the Club is on a mission nutritional value of the of tonnes of fruit and to change this by veg was going to landfill ingredients you use. shining a light on because it couldn’t be Track their traceability sold. the issues. He says: and scrutinize the supply "You might think "We live in a global chain involved community where it that it’s fine to bury really is everybody’s food in the ground, it’s responsibility to help reduce waste organic, right, and will just rot away. Well, and figure out WHY this waste is unfortunately, not really. The process of happening." layering food waste in the ground creates methane - which has a global warming potential 21 times greater than that of Track and trace carbon dioxide. In the UK, methane from He believes key to this is landfills represents 40% of all the nation’s understanding the nutritional value methane emissions." of the ingredients you use, tracking their He accepts it is not always easy to make traceability and scrutinizing the supply
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Think twice Fruit waste V6.indd 34
11/11/21 11:19 AM
