Potato Grower

32 POTATO GROWER | JUNE 2019 New technologies can help tackle the issue of global food shortages and make food businesses more profitable. Don't Waste It Diggin' In Diggin' In PROCESSING | By Bjorn Thumas Supermarkets of the near future will have their business models radically reshaped by innovations in-store, online and in the food industry supply chain. These technologies will be deployed in the battle for customers but, more than this, can also benefit the planet. This will be achieved by improving sustainability—a buzzword that is widely overused, but that really can mean something in supermarkets and the supply chain. Producing and selling food will become more environmentally responsible because sustainability and profitability both depend on the efficient use of resources. The global population is forecast to increase from 7.6 to 10 billion people by 2050, and in many places food demand is already outstripping supply. To illustrate the rapid pace of change, some models indicate agricultural demand today is 50 percent greater than it was just five years ago. This is placing enormous strain on agricultural resources because the land available for growing food is limited. According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, only 20 percent more land can be brought into productive use. Existing resources must be used more effectively to provide food for everyone and to ensure food supply for future generations. In addition to these pressures, there is another challenge that must be tackled: food waste. Almost one-third of all the food produced worldwide is currently being wasted, amounting to approximately 1.3 billion tons of food rotting away or being thrown away every year. It is shocking to learn that waste accounts for around 45 percent of all fruit and vegetables, and 20 percent of all meat. This is scandalous. Just one-quarter of this wasted food could feed the 795 million chronically hungry people around the world. This also has commercial implications. According to the Waste and Resources Action Programme (WRAP), action to prevent food waste could save businesses $384 million a year. And there are clear indicators of where action needs to be taken. Some 54 percent of all this waste is lost in upstream processes, much resulting from inefficiencies in developing countries during harvest, post-harvest handling and processing. The other 46 percent is wasted in processing, distribution and consumption, with massive consumer-led waste in developed nations. Recognizing these inefficiencies, the United Nations agreed in 2015 to reduce per capita food waste by half by 2030. This set a new precedent by including food loss and food waste reduction within the UN's Washington apples are graded by a Compac sorter. Modern sorting technology allow produce that once would have been thrown out to be utilized in different ways. More can be done to prevent useful product from being unnecessarily removed from the processing line.

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