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
