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Food & beverage

Food waste and sustainability

Alessandro Grassetto Alessandro Grassetto 18 Jun 2018

Italy has always been associated with food culture. The multitude of resources and the culinary artistry beyond every dish have turned food and its rituals into a cult for our country.

In the last years, awareness has raised towards healthy food with a reduced environmental impact. Organic food and farmers’ markets offering have boosted and both consumers and producers are striving to cut food waste, although food surplus rates are still significant.

According to the data provided by the Food and Agriculture Organization for the United Nations and processed by Politecnico of Milan [1] in a report commissioned by the Italian food bank (Banco Alimentare) in 2015, food waste worldwide account for 1.3 billion tonnes every year, meaning more than 2,000 billion euro per year.

In Europe, it is estimated that approx. 88 million tonnes of food are wasted every year. Households are responsible for the biggest share of food waste, but the entire production chain plays its part [2].

Every year in Italy food is waste for approx. 12.6 billion euros, although our country ranks midway on the chart, with the best in class being Greece and the biggest waster being the Netherlands.

From an analysis conducted by FederDistribuzione, it results that in Italy the production chain generates approx. 5.6 million tonnes of food surplus. Only 9% of that food surplus is recovered. The remaining share turns into waste. Families are the main ‘culprits’, followed by the primary sector, mass-market retail and restaurants.

Recently, mass-market retail has committed to reduce non-recovered but recoverable food surplus, although food waste figures remain high.

Food waste is not only an ethical issue, it entails also a significant environmental impact in terms of tonnes of CO2 released in the atmosphere. As it results from the graphs prepared basing on FAO data, each phase of the food production chain leaves its own CO2 footprint in the environment.

CO2 emissions by sector, averate 1999-2016: burning-crop residues 0,2%; manure management 16,6%; manure applied to soil 6,2%; cultivation of organic soil 0,3%; manure left on pasture 7,5%; rice cultivation 7,4%; crop residues 4%; synthetic fertilizers 15%; enteric fermentation 39,6%

Hence, a more rational and sustainable approach to our needs and to farming and agriculture would be beneficial to the economy, the environment and the community where we live.

Sustainable gastronomy also means respecting biodiversity and leaning towards nutritionally appropriate and healthy diets. One of the best diets ever is the Mediterranean diet, which is grounded on a diversified and balanced food consumption and is deeply rooted in the territory.

And the Italian territory is one of the richest and most generous land offering an extensive variety of food in every season of the year. A territory that needs to be cared after as some chefs have been doing in the last years, giving new life to traditional recipes and products with their mastery and creativity. We have asked Massimiliano Alajmo, star chef at Le Calandre and La Montecchia and Davide Oldani, star Chef at D’O what sustainability means for them and how they balance care and attention to the territory with their food artistry.

Massimiliano Alajmo:

Sustainability is a way of life and a philosophy we try to apply to the various aspects of our cuisine. Attention to ingredients means respect for their seasonality, selection of the best raw materials we try to exploit as much as possible, from head to toe, to minimize waste. We look for a level of sustainability that maximizes efficiency and create the right balance to meet the guest needs, get the best from materials and ingredients.

Unfortunately, we also have to face the unsustainability that emerges from the need to trace, register and label our preparations or to preserve product healthiness, e.g. through cooking or preservation methods requiring the use of specific disposable plastic materials.

The challenge is complex and must take into account many aspects that often do not depend only on a single entity, but rather the system has to follow a positive trend and aim at the same goal. Only in this way we will be really sustainable… with each other.

Davide Oldani:

When I was a child and the rules of the house banned food waste, bread was never thrown away but turned into delicious cakes. Ingenuity found its way to solve needs every day. Then the time came when eating was no longer only a necessity – at least for a part of the world – but also a pleasure. And the quest for innovation has become the reason for sharpening wits and skills. But I believe that the less is more principle can apply to innovation too.

Season-wise supply, a well-equipped but not overstuffed pantry, proper preservation procedures, a well-thought out menu… carefully devising menus is a form of respect for everybody . Wasting food means throwing away the money we spent to buy it, the time and work of the people who grew it as well as the water, land and energy used.

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Notes:

[1] "Surplus Food Management Against Food Waste Il recupero delle eccedenze alimentari. Dalle parole ai fatti." di Garrone, Melacini, Perego – DIG, Politecnico di Milano – Ed. La Fabbrica 2015.

[2] EU Fusions (2016).

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