Food Waste in Canada
August 21, 2019
Food waste in Canada is a BIG problem and many people are becoming more aware of it. But they might not know just how much is being thrown away. According to reports by Second Harvest a staggering 60 percent of food produced in Canada – nearly 35.5 million metric tonnes – is wasted each year. How much of this is avoidable food waste? Well, research says that 11.2 million metric tonnes of food that makes it to grocery store shelves is not purchased, and is thrown out as a result. Not only that, when food is actually purchased Canadian households are throwing out a lot more than they realize.
Recipe By Seafood Crate
From the distribution and production level, to the grocery stores, and finally our homes, it’s about time we re-evaluate our food chain… from the bottom up!
FOOD WASTE BY THE NUMBERS
Let’s break it down even further. The National Zero Waste Council recently conducted research on household food waste in Canada. Here’s the shocking truth:
- Canadians report that 63% of food thrown away had not expired and could have been eaten.
- This wasted food amounts to 140 kilograms annually per Canadian household, totalling $1,100. Think of what you could do with that money!
- What does this mean for Canada on a larger scale? When you total it up, Canadians on a whole throw out 2.2 million tonnes of edible food every single year. This costs an incredible $17 billion!
Roughly 47% of food wasted in Canada occurs in households. The remaining wasted food? It accumulates along the supply chain. This means there is food waste at all levels of the supply chain: food production, processing, transportation, and grocery stores.
ENVIRONMENTAL IMPACT
Not only is wasted food taking a toll on our finances… it’s negatively impacting the environment as well. How? Food production like agriculture and aquaculture produce greenhouse gases. So when we’re wasting excess food, we’re over-utilizing the resources used to grow and produce these foods. We’re essentially emitting unnecessary greenhouse gas emissions—all for the sake of foods that are winding up in our landfills.
On top of this, transporting excess food from farms to grocery stores, and then disposing of food waste substantially increases Canada’s carbon footprint. Love Food Hate Waste Canada estimates that avoidable household food waste in Canada is equivalent to an additional 2.1 million cars on the road.
THE SEAFOOD CRATE SOLUTION
It’s time to get smarter about how we shop for our foods. But where do we go from here?
Insert: Seafood Crate!
Grocery stores must sell fresh seafood within one week or it goes bad, often leading to high amounts of wasted fish! Seafood Crate effectively cuts out the middleman, meaning your seafood never sits on a grocery store shelf or in a warehouse. And we order only the exact amount of seafood that we need, so there’s virtually no waste.
We’ve been in the industry for over 30 years, so it’s safe to say that we value seafood sustainability. To put it simply… we hate to see it go to waste. The grocery store model leads to unimaginable amounts of seafood wasted each day. However our flexible subscription model ensures that we only order what you order. Each week, you order what your family needs… and we’ll do the rest! It’s just that simple.
Less waste, better for the environment, and less stress on disposal companies. What more could you ask for?
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