KANSAS CITY, MO — Consumer consciousness regarding food waste grew to 72% in the past two years; by comparison, it was 33% in 2020, according to a report published by the Capgemini Research Institute.
The global survey was conducted in 11 countries across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific in April and May.
Food waste is one of the population’s main concerns, together with rising food prices, supply chain challenges and the pandemic, with an impact on their behavior. For the report, titled “Reflect. Rethink. Reconsider. Why food waste is everybody’s problem,” the institute surveyed 10,000 consumers and executives from 1,000 large organizations in food manufacturing and retail.
Consumers are already looking into ways to reduce their food waste. For example, there is an 80% year-on-year growth in social media searches for methods to increase the life of food items, according to the research. Cost savings (56%), concerns around world hunger (52%) and climate change (51%) are the primary reasons for this.
Looking into the causes of food waste, consumers take responsibility, with 60% feeling guilty about wasting food.
However, the survey showed that people also think retailers and food manufacturers are not doing enough to help them curb the issue. Nearly two-thirds (61%) of consumers want brands and retailers to do more to help them tackle food waste, and 57% are disappointed, as they feel that businesses don’t care enough about the issue.
The study revealed that consumers feel they are too often left to their own devices regarding reducing food waste. When it comes to increasing food longevity at home, two-thirds (67%) are going to third-party sources for information (friends, family, influencers and social media), and only a third (33%) are getting information from packaging and commercials or campaigns run by food manufacturers and retailers.
“The increased awareness amongst consumers and the initiatives being taken by businesses to tackle food waste is a positive step forward,” said Tim Bridges, global sector lead, consumer products, retail and distribution at Capgemini. “With the help of technology, organizations can track and assess food waste at every stage of the food value chain to enable action at the right time while also engaging with their consumers by inculcating waste-avoiding behaviors and making them an active participant in waste reduction. An agile, intelligent supply chain can also enable an effective collaboration across the value chain to create a sustainable and future-ready ecosystem.”
Although reducing food waste at the retail and consumption phases is an important facet, much more food is lost during production and distribution (1.5 billion tons vs. 931 million tons, respectively), according to the World Wildlife Federation.
More than three in four (77%) organizations said they have committed to the United Nations’ Sustainability Development Goals 12.3 (UN SDG 12.3), a framework that focuses on halving per capita food waste at retail and consumer levels and reducing food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses, by 2030. However, only 15% of organizations say they have achieved or are on track to achieve their targets.
According to the report, this is due to a fragmented approach to addressing food waste and loss across the food chain. Although food retailers and manufacturers focus on reducing food waste in upstream logistics (44% of retailers and 50% of manufacturers) and processing and packaging (43% retailers and 46% manufacturers), few players pay the same attention to agricultural production (22% retailers and 23% manufacturers) or downstream storage (18% retailers and 21% manufacturers). With produce often crossing international borders, getting a handle on where, when and how much food loss and waste is occurring is proving a challenge for manufacturers and retailers.
This story has been adapted from the February | Q1 2023 issue of Commercial Baking. Read the full story in the digital edition.
