(ANS - Rome) - Yesterday, 5 February, a national day for the prevention of food waste was celebrated in Italy.  It is an issue that concerns not only Italy, but the entire world. It is also very timely, given that the forthcoming World Exhibition in Milan will be on the theme: "Feeding the Planet, Energy for Life". At the end of January, young people involved in the school of globalization and mission in the Salesian schools of Central Italy were engaged in studying the topic of food waste and how to combat it.

The young people took part in a meeting organized by the NGO CESVI on the right to food. The meeting was led by Valentina Prati, coordinator of the campaign "Food Right Now". There the young people discovered the alarming dimensions of the problem.  About a third of the food produced in the world is wasted, either by food loss - the decay of food that occurs at the beginning of the food chain, especially in developing countries, due to defects in the early stages of preservation, sterilization, canning and transport. Then there is food that is wasted subsequently between production and distribution, catering, and domestic consumption.

At the level of agriculture, large quantities of food are often abandoned in order not to saturate the market and lower prices. The cost of harvesting it would represent a loss to the business. Sometimes food is ruined by bad weather. At the industry level, however, excessive amounts of food are often bought to avoid running out at a later date. And finally there is waste at the household level, due to poor planning of expenditure, confusion over use-by dates and labels, improper storage, excessive portions and little use of leftovers.

The food that ends up in the waste-bin has a significant impact, both economically and environmentally. For this reason, since it is much easier to make individuals aware of the need to conserve than it is to change the methods used by the waste industry, the following steps are proposed:

• Plan your purchases intelligently.
• Freeze and re-use leftover food.
• Pay attention to the use-by date.
• Do not throw away food simply because of minor cosmetic defects.
• Do not buy more than you can eat. Do not gorge.

Published 06/02/2015