Most countries are facing a real health emergency due to the coronavirus which, unfortunately, appears to also be leading to a huge increase in food waste.

Although the supply of food and basic necessities has never been questioned, several people storm supermarket shelves to grab as much food as possible.

A large portion of the food purchased, however, irreparably ends up in the garbage. These are mainly fresh foods which have been bought in excess and have reached their expiration date before they could be consumed.

In England, various groups have already shared images on social networks, in which intact fresh food packaging has been visibly thrown in the garbage.

Here’s a post by the Dacorum Borough Council, in which they state, “at a time when people are worrying about food even more than usual, please be considerate and responsible with what you are buying. There is enough food for everyone if we don’t panic buy.”

One refuge collector said:

“In the past two weeks, we have seen a 30% increase in Food Waste collected from households. The additional weight is mainly fresh food that has gone out of date and was never even touched, some still in wrappers”.

It’s important to remembered that, for most countries, this is a health emergency and not a food emergency. At the moment, there is no danger that food will be scarce on supermarket shelves and there is no need to stock food.

Panicking and carelessly filling shopping carts at this juncture would only generate further problems including the waste of tons of food, the scarcity of basic necessities for those who enter the supermarket after us and a general increase in prices. 

Sources: Daily Dits – Dacorum Borough Council – Ajit Singh Atwal