Content area
Full Text
We talk a lot about creating the perfect package in the private label industry, but when it comes to produce, the product itself often is the package. So what happens when the "package" doesn't entice consumers? While some charities have worked to utilize unsightly fruits and vegetables, often they are discarded or never harvested in the first place.
Food waste is almost an unconscionable problem in the United States. The USDA estimates in 2010, 31 percent-or 133 billion pounds-of the 430 billion pounds of the available food supply at the retail and consumer levels went uneaten. Losses at the retail level were 10 percent (43 billion pounds), while consumer-level losses were 21 percent.
Finding creative solutions to food waste at any level is becoming increasingly important worldwide. By the year 2050, the world population is expected to reach 9 billion people, causing a 60 percent increase in the demand for food, according to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization.
At the farm level, food loss falls into two categories: food that is never harvested and food that is lost between harvest and sale, according to the 2012 Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) issue paper, "Wasted: How America Is Losing Up to 40 Percent of Its Food from Farm to Fork to Landfill." The paper contends approximately 7 percent of planted fields in the United States are typically not harvested each year.
Labor shortages are one reason...