Overnutrition is a significant component of food waste and has a large environmental impact

Franco, Silvio; Barbanera, Marco; Moscetti, Roberto; Cicatiello, Clara; Secondi, Luca; Massantini, Riccardo

doi:10.1038/s41598-022-11813-5

Cited by 13 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…When comparing the two contrasting scenarios of people in the UK consuming 1) foods high in salt/sugar vs. 2) substitutes lower in salt/sugar, we found important reductions in daily kcal intakes and, besides resulting drops in overweight and obesity, also reductions in six environmental impact categories. These ndings tally with previous research highlighting overconsumption of energy as a key driver of avoidable dietary related environmental impacts [39][40][41][42][43]. For example, the estimated GHGE from excessive energy consumption amounted to 10% of total food-related climate impacts in Sweden [40].…”

Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Modelling impacts of a salt and sugar tax on intra-category food substitutions, BMI and environmental footprints

Colombo,

Green,

Espinosa

et al. 2024

Preprint

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Purpose Taxes on unhealthy foods can help improve population health in the United Kingdom (UK), but the health effects of food substitutions resulting from these taxes are often unclear. We investigated the potential impacts of a salt and sugar tax on hypothetical intra-category food substitutions, cost, body-mass index (BMI), and environmental footprints. Methods Purchase panel data from Kantar (2017) were used to determine the most popular foods high in salt or sugar within eight ‘salt-intensive’/‘sugar-intensive’ food categories. Within food categories, the most popular lower salt (≤1.5g salt/100g product) and lower sugar (≤22.5g sugar/100g product) substitutes were also identified. Hypothetical swaps between high salt/sugar foods and lower salt/sugar substitutes were explored, focusing on changes to cost, caloric intake and BMI, and environmental impacts. Results The suggested intra-category substitutions were largely like-for-like and did not accrue an added overall cost to consumers. The substitutions reduced calorie intake by about 200kcal/day and lowered the prevalence of overweight and obesity in the UK from approximately 60-65% to about 40-45%. The proposed food substitutions led to a total reduction of -2.7Mt of greenhouse gases, ~ -500.000ha of land, -0.5km3 of blue water, -12km3 of scarcity weighted water, ~ -12.000t of phosphorus, and nearly -14.000t of sulphur dioxide over one year for the UK population due to reductions in calorie intake. Conclusion Food substitutions following a tax on salt and sugar could lead to significant benefits for health and the environment, without necessarily resulting in major changes to people’s expenditure on familiar salty and sugary snacks.

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Section: Discussionsupporting

confidence: 83%

Modelling impacts of a salt and sugar tax on intra-category food substitutions, BMI and environmental footprints

Colombo,

Green,

Espinosa

et al. 2024

Preprint

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“…Given that most household wastes come from fruit and vegetables [15,57,63], it is possible that those intent on following a healthful diet tend to buy and consume fresh foods more frequently and produce greater waste due to the cleaning and preparation phase [57]. Additionally, in all socio-economic classes, in recent decades, the rise in basic income, together with the increasing availability of products such as meat, dairy, and of ultra-processed foods, have caused an increase in calories consumed daily [44,64]. Excessive food consumption can also be considered a form of food waste, and overeating has, on food systems, the same negative effect that discarded food, as was first hypothesized in 2000 by Smil [18,64,65].…”

Section: Relation Between Literacy and Household Food Wastementioning

confidence: 99%

“…Additionally, in all socio-economic classes, in recent decades, the rise in basic income, together with the increasing availability of products such as meat, dairy, and of ultra-processed foods, have caused an increase in calories consumed daily [44,64]. Excessive food consumption can also be considered a form of food waste, and overeating has, on food systems, the same negative effect that discarded food, as was first hypothesized in 2000 by Smil [18,64,65]. In 2016, a quantitative indicator, the Metabolic Food Waste (MFW), was developed for the first time, corresponding to the amount of food that leads to excess body fat and its impact on the environment [65].…”

Section: Relation Between Literacy and Household Food Wastementioning

confidence: 99%

Enhancing Food and Nutrition Literacy: A Key Strategy for Reducing Food Waste and Improving Diet Quality

Lisciani,

Camilli,

Marconi

2024

Sustainability

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Excessive food purchases, improper storage, incorrect food preparation, and the disposal of non-expired products contribute significantly to household food waste. Food and nutritional literacy can, therefore, be linked to household food waste and not just to diet quality. Consumers with high food literacy appear to better organize their food shopping and waste less than people with low food literacy. Different studies have demonstrated the association between high nutritional literacy, healthy eating habits, and a high amount of food waste, represented by highly perishable products. The relationship between a high-quality diet and food waste is mainly attributable to the consumption of fruit and vegetables, while an unhealthy diet is associated with fewer leftovers due to the high consumption of ultra-processed foods with a long shelf life. Social and economic conditions influence the effects of literacy on the production of domestic food waste. Many studies have reported that low-income individuals rarely waste food, while richer ones tend to produce more leftovers. The challenge for the scientific, educational, and health policy sectors is to promote the consumption of fresh, healthy, and inexpensive foods, especially in the most disadvantaged segments of the population, and at the same time, provide the knowledge necessary to limit the production of household waste.

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“…To provide an estimation of the nutritional value of food wasted instead of its value in terms of weight or costs, the quantity of Kilocalories (Kcal) wasted in respondents' households was computed. Adopting the Kilocalories as scale to estimate the quantities of wasted food is a method widely adopted in the literature on food waste ( [24][25][26][27] among others) as it allows to overcome the problem of aggregation of diverse types of wasted food, by assessing their impact on total waste in terms of energy instead of weight, providing more generalizable results.…”

Section: Defining Diets and A Measure For Household Food Wastementioning

confidence: 99%

Tell me what you waste and I’ll tell you who you are. An eight-country comparison of consumers food waste related habits

Iori¹,

Masotti²,

Falasconi³

et al. 2022

Preprint

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Starting from an original survey conducted in eight countries in 2021 (Canada, China, Germany, Italy, Russia, Spain, UK, and USA), this research explores the relationship between household food waste and dietary habits in a cross-country comparative perspective. 8,000 questionnaires were recorded from samples representative of adult population of each country through an online survey conducted between the 13th and the 24th of August. The questionnaires were built on the work of Waste Watcher International Observatory on Food and Sustainability, an international observatory of social, behavioral and lifestyles dynamics behind household food waste. Relationship between per capita self-reported amount of food waste (expressed in kilocalories) and self-declared dietary habits (Traditional, Healthy and Sustainable, Vegetarian, Smart, Confused) was estimated using multiple linear regression models. Results show that Smart diets are associated with higher values of food waste in Canada, Spain, UK and USA. Vegetarian diets are associated to lower food waste values in China, Germany, UK and USA but not in Italy, Russia and Spain. Since the share of population adopting a Smart diet is on average 2.7% of the sample, interventions for food waste reduction should focus on this specific type of consumers, often associated to larger amounts of food waste.

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Overnutrition is a significant component of food waste and has a large environmental impact

Cited by 13 publications

References 26 publications

Modelling impacts of a salt and sugar tax on intra-category food substitutions, BMI and environmental footprints

Modelling impacts of a salt and sugar tax on intra-category food substitutions, BMI and environmental footprints

Enhancing Food and Nutrition Literacy: A Key Strategy for Reducing Food Waste and Improving Diet Quality

Tell me what you waste and I’ll tell you who you are. An eight-country comparison of consumers food waste related habits

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