Christmas multiplies production, consumption and waste: from unsold industrial products to household leftovers, a huge part of the food ends up in the bin. But it is possible to prevent and cure with the circular economy and good practices in the kitchen, allowing companies and families to transform excess into value.
The large tables of Christmas they are overflowing with food, at home and in restaurants. The abundance of appetizers, first and second courses, desserts or ready meals hides a food waste problem that weighs on companies and families. Mountains of panettoni and unsold sweets fill the aisles and shelves of supermarkets, while at home leftovers accumulate in refrigerators until they end up in the garbage.
The Christmas period concentrates production and consumption in a few weeks, creating a short circuit between forecasted demand and reality: companies produce enormous quantities to satisfy growing demand and families buy driven by tradition. The result is a chain of inefficiencies that involves the entire food supply chain, from factory to table.
Because it’s wasted at Christmas
Don’t make a bad impression in front of friends and relatives is now a Christmas mantra, transforming hospitality into excess with purchases that exceed real needs. Not only in the consumerism of gifts, but also and above all with food which becomes table decoration rather than nourishment. Groceries yes they accumulate in the fridge and pantry, those forgotten before shopping and those that remain left over as deadlines approach and pass.
For companies, panettone and pandoro sold after the holidays lose their appeal, quickly generating unsold items. Costs multiply due to discounts for disposing of inventories, logistics for redistribution and disposal of what cannot find an outlet: a study of ECR Retail Lossa group that unites retailers, suppliers and academics focused on measures against food waste, shows how every year a billion tons of food is wasted, generating estimated costs higher than 90 billion of euros.
Anti-waste strategies
To solve waste, as you remember Paolo FabbricatoreCEO of Regardiaan Italian group specializing in sustainable ingredients for animal feed, «the real issue is no longer whether to manage unsold goods, but how to do it in a strategic way». Companies in the food supply chain are adopting circular economy models, making inventories no longer a cost to be minimized, but a resource to be valorized through alternative paths. Among these, the sustainable feed it is one of the most effective solutions: unsold sweets are selected, treated and transformed into safe and nutritious ingredients for animal feed. Or transformed in raw materials and ingredients for other productions, becoming bases for creams, fillings and grains. What cannot remain among foods can be converted into compost or bioenergyclosing the circle of production, because, he explains Fabricator«transforming surplus into a concrete opportunity generates economic and environmental benefits along the entire supply chain».
Donations of surplus food to charities and organizations are simpler people in difficultyreducing disposal costs for companies. From this perspective, those anti-waste services and apps come into play such as Too Good to Go which allow food to return to the market before it expires, at a reduced price for customers and with additional revenue for companies.
At a domestic level, prevention is better than cure: check the refrigerator and pantry before doing your Christmas shopping to avoid double purchases and unnecessary accumulations, as well as preparing reasoned lists based on the real number of guests and their eating habits. If, however, it was not possible to optimize spending, the freezing of leftovers for future uses it is the most effective and simple solution: panettone or sliced pandoro can be frozen and toasted in the oven if necessary to consume them greedily, just as they can become ingredients of a tiramisu or a zuccotto. The bread goes stale panzanella, boiled, meatballs or toastwhile the cooked vegetables are recovered in omelettes, flans or savory pies.
Thus every excess finds a new utility, from waste to resource. Because Christmas can also be an abundance of opportunities.
