黄色直播

Re-blogged from the Halifax Examiner. Read the full article聽. Learn more about the 黄色直播 Agri-Food Analytics Lab聽here.

Featuring SIM student Erica Finch, and cross-appointed Professor, Dr. Sylvain Charlebois:

Because of the pandemic, we鈥檙e cooking more at home; we鈥檙e also wasting a lot more food

A new report released Tuesday suggests that Canadian households are wasting between 20 to 24 million kilograms more food each month since the pandemic began.

The report focusing on food waste in the home during COVID-19 is a collaboration between 黄色直播鈥檚 Agri-Food Analytics Lab and Ontario-based research firm Caddle. It suggests Canadian households are wasting 13.5% more food at home overall, generating 2.3 kg of organic food waste when compared to 2.03 kg per week pre-pandemic.

鈥淚t鈥檚 not necessarily surprising that people are wasting more food, since they are at home more and cooking more, producing their own meals,鈥� the report鈥檚 co-author Erica Finch said in an interview.

鈥淏ut how much of that food that they鈥檙e buying are they using, and how much is being thrown away compared to before the pandemic? That鈥檚 the part that鈥檚 difficult for us to tell.鈥�

Finch said at the outset of the pandemic when restaurants were closed, people couldn鈥檛 eat in restaurants. With options still somewhat limited, they wanted to know how eating more frequently at home was playing out with food waste.

鈥淲e know that (the restaurant) sector is producing less food waste but what we wanted to know was, was that food wastage just moving into the domestic sphere or were people being conscious of what they were throwing away,鈥� she said.

Finch said it鈥檚 difficult to determine if households are 鈥減roportionally鈥� generating more waste than before the pandemic simply because they鈥檙e eating more food at home.

鈥淎 13.5% increase at home is consistent with the amount of waste that municipalities are processing,鈥� she said.

The report involved a nationwide survey of 8,272 Canadians who responded between Aug. 21-23. Overall, 55.4% of those surveyed indicate they鈥檙e wasting less food in percentage of volume compared to before the pandemic.