FOOD WASTAGE

Hi, this is Wan Ni. Welcome to my blog. I hope to spread the word on saving food and stopping food wastage. Hopefully my blog gives you a better idea of food wastage.

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Is cosmetic filtering a main reason for food wastage?

Food waste is created almost every single day in our food production cycle be it – production, distribution, retail to consumption and the wastage is unfortunately due to many reasons such as business and cultural practices. But, is cosmetic filtering the main reason?

Perhaps they are. Since consumers are most likely to buy produce that looks good, food will only have to go through "cosmetic filtering" before they are allowed to be sold.

Every single day without fail, vegetable sellers at the market would spend hours throwing away "ugly-looking" vegetables such that customers would actually choose to purchase from them. Even at the NTUC FairPrice in Singapore, staff trim vegetables to get rid of the leaves that are less appealing to the eyes. Thus, you can actually infer that cosmetic filtering has caused plenty of food to be wasted.

The consumers on the other hand, when it comes to choosing fruits and vegetables, you can actually be surprised how their habits may actually result in food waste. Just take this as an example: by picking up a fruit, pressing it to see if it is ripe or smelling it, they could be indirectly damaging the feel and look of the fruit. If it does not look good, chances are, it will be left unsold and eventually gets thrown away. Therefore, cosmetic filtering has been a significant reason of food wastage and has been worsening the situation of food shortage as those edible "ugly-looking" food could have been used to save millions of people suffering from starvation. Now that you are aware, YOU can actually stop food from being wasted by not caring about the little imperfections. References:  Food Wastage in Singapore. (n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2015, from http://www.savefoodcutwaste.com/food-waste/food-wastage-in-singapore/  

(n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2015, from http://i.huffpost.com/gen/1524464/thumbs/o-FOOD-WASTE-facebook.jpg

(n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2015, from http://www.savefoodcutwaste.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Green-galore-A-Pasir-Panjang-wholesale-seller-filters-out-the-perfect-looking-vegetables-to-prepare-them-for-sale.jpg 

(n.d.). Retrieved February 11, 2015, from http://www.savefoodcutwaste.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/10/Survival-of-the-greenest-A-staff-in-Giant-hypermarket-at-Vivocity-was-spotted-filtering-crinkly-vegetables-at-3pm-on-a-Monday..png

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Cosmetic filtering - how it was developed

A group of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) students conducted a eight-month investigative study about some practices that result in good food going to waste in Singapore.

These students who focused on business practices discovered that supermarkets and vegetable sellers at Pasir Panjang Wholesale Market for exmaple, practice "cosmetic filtering". So some of you may ask what exactly is, cosmetic filtering?

Cosmetic filtering is basically a process that occurs in farms or supermarkets where any food that looks "ugly", damaged or not perfect enough for consumption according to the market or individual standards are discarded even if they are often edible. 

Based on observations at food waste recycling company IUT Global, the market discards up to 30,000 kilos of unwanted vegetable parts and blemished fruits everyday. In this tiny country, more than 95% of its food is imported. Which mean, more should be done to minimise such wastage. 

So, how was cosmetic filtering developed? 

Supermarkets once mention that their practices are in accordance with consumer behavior. Produce sellers do that to ensure that they sell only fresh fruits and vegetables as this is expected by the consumers.

The media can also be said to play a part in the cause of cosmetic filtering as humans are polluted by their media's standards and the imagery of food perfection. Overtime, this contributes to people being slowly influenced by visual appeal. They start to link their visual perception together with health issues, becoming uneasy with imperfection food.

According to a survey conducted in Singapore,

75% of the people mind buying imperfect looking food products. and

66.7% choose not to purchase such foods due to an impression that these food products are not safe for consumption.

But all of us are clearly aware that, such imperfections are completely unavoidable. Vegetables and fruits tend to look "imperfect" not because they are not safe for consumption but it is due to their perishable nature. Thus further practicing of cosmetic filtering by supermarkets had subconsciously been pushed into minds of customers thus creating an expectation of food.

Therefore, I feel that what all of us can do is change our mindset and not care about the little imperfections of food. Although those food are not perfect looking, they are completely edible. So why waste them?  References:  Ong, D. (2010, April 16). Wildsingapore news: Letting it all go to waste: Food waste in Singapore (R. Tan, Ed.). Retrieved February 11, 2015, from http://wildsingaporenews.blogspot.sg/2010/04/letting-it-all-go-to-waste-food-waste.html Powham Thian, S. (2014, June 11). Copy of Cosmetic Filtering. Retrieved February 11, 2015, from https://prezi.com/m-rbvchm0lef/copy-of-cosmetic-filtering/   

Seow, A. (2012, November 11). Copy of Cosmetic Filtering. Retrieved February 11, 2015, from https://prezi.com/m-rbvchm0lef/copy-of-cosmetic-filtering/

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What is cosmetic filtering? Some of you may ask.  

To answer your question, maybe you would like to take a look at this publication. 

This publication educates us on the effects of cosmetic filtering which is something that we have all been overlooking. Cosmetic filtering is the process of throwing away edible food that is not appealing.  

This growing perception of perfect food has caused a lot of food wastage in Singapore. Supermarkets for example, lose approximately 10-15% of fresh produces which worth around $12,000 of food. 

The supermarket sellers only sell fresh produce and throw away "ugly-looking" ones because this is what customers expect. That is why, actually human's expectations indirectly fuel cosmetic filtering.  Stay tune to my next blog post for further explanation of cosmetic filtering!  References:  Powham Thian, S. (2014, June 11). Copy of Cosmetic Filtering. Retrieved February 11, 2015, from https://prezi.com/m-rbvchm0lef/copy-of-cosmetic-filtering/