Balan, I.M.; Gherman, E.D.; Brad, I.; Gherman, R.; Horablaga, A.; Trasca, T.I. Metabolic Food Waste as Food Insecurity Factor—Causes and Preventions. Foods2022, 11, 2179.
Balan, I.M.; Gherman, E.D.; Brad, I.; Gherman, R.; Horablaga, A.; Trasca, T.I. Metabolic Food Waste as Food Insecurity Factor—Causes and Preventions. Foods 2022, 11, 2179.
Balan, I.M.; Gherman, E.D.; Brad, I.; Gherman, R.; Horablaga, A.; Trasca, T.I. Metabolic Food Waste as Food Insecurity Factor—Causes and Preventions. Foods2022, 11, 2179.
Balan, I.M.; Gherman, E.D.; Brad, I.; Gherman, R.; Horablaga, A.; Trasca, T.I. Metabolic Food Waste as Food Insecurity Factor—Causes and Preventions. Foods 2022, 11, 2179.
Abstract
The Metabolic Food Waste [MFW (kg of food)], first time developed in 2016 as a new indicator by Serafini and Toti, indicates the amount of food consumed over the nutritional requirements and the impact of this overconsumption on the environment. It is necessary to identify the causes and to develop potential methods to prevent and reduce MFW, at the same time with increasing consumer awareness about unsustainable diets and changing diet habits toward more environmentally conscious consumption patterns. By analysing and corroborating external data available for food waste, nutritional requirements, environmental impact of food waste and consumer behaviour, we identified as primary causes for MFW the lack of nutritional education and little understanding of the nutritional requirements amongst all categories of consumers, no access to appropriate food resources or reduced availability of fresh produced food. We conclude that for the quantification of the negative impact of MFW on both the environment and human health, we need a decisive action to raise consumer awareness for healthy and sustainable diets, together with an uniform worldwide distribution of the nutritious food.
Biology and Life Sciences, Immunology and Microbiology
Copyright:
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
