Food Sharing

The current food production in the industrialised world is apparently facing and interesting paradox: the intensive flow of many food and beverage commodities, year by year, on the one hand, and the concomitant elimination of unused portions of produced edible products. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, 88 million tonnes of food produced for human consumption are get wasted annually in the European Union, and associated costs exceed 140 billion Euros. Apparently, the greatest responsibilities for food waste are reported in countries with medium/high-income values if compared with developing nations. However, the genesis of wasted food appears questioned and extremely debated: food waste appears after harvest and during processing steps in developing countries and at the retail and consumer level in industrialised nations. Certainly, food waste is a phenomenon occurring in industrialised countries such as Germany: a notable part of food waste happens because of consumers’ behaviour, although food retailers may give a significant contribution. The remaining part appears to be localised in the food industry. Consequently, the recently observed ‘food sharing’ communities have been created with a basic aim: to save food and give it to suffering people ‘for free’. Could food sharing may be a solution? Organisations such as food banks and social supermarkets should be analysed and evaluated; specific regulations could be elaborated. Otherwise, recovered (and possibly degraded) products could be unsafe. This chapter explores the current situation and the regulatory definition of food sharing, with specific relation to different European countries.

The sharing food trend is achieving again popularity at present in industrialised countries. The main reason seems correlated with food overproduction. ‘Food sharing’ communities have a basic aim: to avoid the waste of food by gifting food commodities to needful people or institutions. Indeed should some food be wasted along the food supply chain, this waste would also concern energy and efforts that have been invested in food-related activities. In industrialised countries such as Germany, the principal food waste source is identified with household consumers and retailers (up to 40% of all wasted foods), while the resting amount is reported to be caused during processes as production, agriculture, post-harvesting, and processing activities. In Germany, as indicated by a statistic from 2012, 11 million tonnes of food coming from food industries, trade, wholesale, and private households (60%) are wasted annually. The answer of German citizens is the sharing economy, and this project essentially relies upon the presence of physical distribution points and/or network platforms, empowered by information and communication technologies, with different applications. Nowadays, more than 200,000 ‘foodsavers’ are engaged in this no-profit and non-commercial project in the Germany/Austria/Switzerland area. This Chapter described some of the local implementation efforts in Germany and a Magdeburg-based experience in particular.

The current market of foods and beverages worldwide is obliged to face two counteracting factors: the intensive production flow of many food and beverage commodities, year by year, and the concomitant loss of remarkable amounts of globally produced products. Food losses may be also confused with ‘food waste’, but these words usually concern two different phenomena. Food losses concern the final destination (food and beverage consumers), while food waste is related to the management of food supply chains. From a general viewpoint, food loss is sometimes unavoidable, while food waste should be adequately contrasted. Both phenomena seem to depend mainly on anthropic behaviours. However, the distinction between perishable and non-perishable foods should be considered as a critical factor because of Parisi’s first law of food degradation. Apparently, food loss and waste cannot be predicted and adequately contrasted without a strong analysis concerning the nature of involved foods, even if the active subject—the food consumer—is the only aware player in this ambit. This chapter examines food products that can be easily collected because of their supposed long shelf life, with relation to the most observed and analysed chemical–physical features (for food safety evaluation).

The phenomenon of food waste appears generated and highly relevant in many industrialised countries with reference to perishable products such as meat and poultry, fruits and fresh vegetables, beverage items, and milk/dairy foods. Other perishable or highly perishable food products—eggs, fish, prepared meals, bakery products—should be considered in this ambit. The higher the number of different items on the market and in the complete food supply chain, the higher the danger of wasted products because of the loss of acceptability requirements during shelf life. Consequently, adequate countermeasures against food waste should take into account the problem of perishability. On the other side, and by a regulatory viewpoint, foods on the market have to be safe, legal, and correspondent to the claim(s) reported on labels. From a practical and industrial perspective, food waste could suggest the reuse and recycling of foods and beverages, provided that certain and minimal safety requirements are maintained. This chapter shows a simulation concerning a particular food product—a melted cheese—in five versions. Recycling may be good enough when speaking of food waste countermeasures and price reduction, but there is no demonstration that needful people can effectively take advantage of this system because food recycling occurs usually in a few and limited areas. On the contrary, On the other hand, food sharing should be considered as a distinctive advantage for food consumers as part of a more complex and multi-operational strategy.