Plan to cut food waste too narrow, says professor

It’s estimated Canada wastes $31 billion-dollars-worth of food a year, but France’s solution to curb such waste is too narrow, says Martin Gooch, a professor of hospitality and management at the University of Guelph. France wants to force its supermarkets to donate unwanted food to charity and to stop poisoning products to stop people from retrieving them from garbage bins and eating them.

Grocery stores reduce waste

Canadian grocery stores already donate some unwanted food to charities and soup kitchens, they compost some and only throw it out as a last resort, says Gooch. But he says 47 per cent of wasted food is dumped by consumers.

“It’s largely because we’ve become driven in Canada by attitudes of abundance and affluence,” says Gooch. “We can afford to waste food—we perceive that there is plenty of it. We want a lifestyle driven by experience, driven by enjoyment.”

Canadians afraid to get sick

Canadians are also afraid to get sick from food that is past the expiry date listed on its labels or which they think may have gone bad. Gooch thinks if Canadians were encouraged to see food as money, they would be less likely to waste it.

There are efforts to reduce waste in Canada, says Gooch pointing to the Loblaw supermarket chain which offers tips and recipes for consumers on its website. But he says much more needs to be done all along the food supply chain.

‘At stake is our own sustainability’

Waste is “a global issue, so it’s not just in Canada,” says Gooch. “So like any part of the world, and to not be too dramatic, what’s at stake is our own sustainability. We as a society are operating on credit. We are using natural resources at a rate that is simply unsustainable.”