According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, roughly one third of the food produced in the world for human consumption every year – approximately 1.3 billion tons – gets wasted. Earlier this month, agriculture ministers of 20 major world economies have agreed to take a leading role in reducing food waste.
For Japan, in particular, food waste represents a serious issue. Yearly, the country wastes around 6.43 million tons of still-edible food. In order to curb this shocking amount of perfectly good food that gets tossed away, the country’s government has recently enacted legislation that calls for a “national movement” to drive food loss reduction through collaboration between local governments, as well as businesses and consumers. Images showing large amounts of discarded seasonal sushi rolls went viral on social media last year, leading the farm ministry in January to call on convenience stores and supermarkets to refrain from supplying more products than demand requires.
Adding momentum to the move, major convenience store operators Seven-Eleven Japan Co. and Lawson Inc. said last week they will start discounting rice balls and lunch boxes that are close to their expiration dates by offering customers enrolled in the chains’ loyalty programs shopping credits worth 5 percent of the value of purchases.
