Most of Canada's wasted food dumped from homes

Canadians are among the world's most well-fed people — so much so that we're wasting billions of dollars worth of edible food a year, mostly coming from the homes, according to a study.

The "Cut Waste, Grow Profit" draft report from the Ontario-based Value Chain Management Centre (VCMC) suggests that more than half (51 per cent) of the estimated $27 billion of food wasted nationwide ends up as unwanted leftovers dropped into household trash bins.

Expectations for larger portion sizes, confusion about safe consumption and sell-by dates, and the low cost to households of over-purchasing and wasting food were among factors blamed for the wasteful behaviour.

"The food waste that occurs in Canada is largely a symptom of current processes and attitudes, primarily of abundance and affluence," the unpublished paper states.

The VCMC is an extension of the independent agri-products think-tank the George Morris Centre, and provides annual research about food waste.

Food waste, as defined by the draft report, is the loss and disposal of food that's perfectly fit for human consumption. The group released the paper ahead of the forthcoming Cut Waste, Grow Profit forum on Nov. 19 in Mississauga, Ont.

The chart provided in the background document points out that the second-worst area of food waste is via packaging and processing (blamed for 18 per cent of lost food), followed by retail stores (11 per cent), the farming stage (nine per cent), the food service industry (eight per cent) and transport and distribution (three per cent).

Last month, the U.S. Natural Resources Defence Council estimated that nearly 40 per cent of food in the States ends up in the trash ever year. The figures are roughly in line with recent estimates of how much Canadians throw away.

The average Canadian wasted about 291 kg of edible food in 2009, according to Statistics Canada. That's the equivalent of the weight of three empty refrigerators. The breakdown for what and how much we tossed out was as follows:

202 kg of fresh and processed fruits and vegetables.
8 kg of dairy products.
36 kg of meat, poultry and fish.
45 kg of oils, fats and sugar.
Globally, nearly one-third of all food is lost. That amounts to about 1.3-billion metric tonnes of food per year — enough to feed an estimated 860 million people who are malnourished, the draft paper says.

It also provided examples of British, American and Canadian food waste-reduction initiatives. In Canada, for example, the Montreal Urban Community Sustainment group's Zero Food Waste Network picks up "surplus food" from local businesses and passes it on to local food banks.

-  CBC News