Food Waste Intelligence

Earlier this month, the US EPA’s food recovery hierarchy, the upside downtriangle which has guided food waste reduction efforts since the 1990s, got a makeover. And that’s a good thing, as it reflects the continued evolution of research and elevation of activity on food waste reduction.

In December of 2019, the United Nations General Assembly designated September 29 as the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste. UN leaders sought to raise awareness of the scope and scale of the global food waste challenge to speed progress toward Target 12.3 – the global goal of halving food waste by 2030. As we celebrate the fourth annual observance this week, we remain excited by the fact that food loss and waste is now explicitly recognized on the UN calendar – and we believe this date is only growing in importance.

According to a new report, the energy, transportation and manufacturing sectors could drastically reduce their carbon emissions, but the world still wouldn’t hit Paris climate agreement targets because of greenhouse gases from the food system. A staggering reminder of the need to prevent food waste, among other food system improvements.

It is an exciting and eventful time in the food space. In September, we celebrated the first International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, which brings further awareness to the scale of the global food waste challenge and urges individuals to take action to stop food waste “for the people, for the planet.” And on 16 October, we celebrate another very special day on the calendar – World Food Day.

Christy Cook recently joined the LeanPath team as an Account Director, where she is focused on delivering measurable food waste prevention for our strategic enterprise customers. Christy comes to LeanPath with a wealth of food waste and sustainability experience in the foodservice sector, and we recently sat down to ask her more about why this mission is so important to her.