Between 30 and 60 per cent of food produced in Canada is lost or wasted annually
By Diego Flammini
Staff Writer
Farms.com
The University of Saskatchewan (USask) and the City of Saskatoon have identified ways to minimize the volume of food heading to landfills.
Rachel Engler-Stringer from USask’s Community-University Institute for Social Research was a lead researcher on the Promising Practices in Food Reclamation in Saskatoon project.
Engler-Stringer and her colleagues identified short- and medium-term goals the City of Saskatoon can use to minimize how much food from industrial, commercial and institutional settings are going to landfills.
“We tried to make it very practical,” Engler-Stringer said in a release. “I hope that a number of our recommendations will be taken up and there will be significant change in Saskatoon.”
The recommendations include public awareness campaigns, creating a food recovery association and to include food diversion in city planning.
Food waste is an issue in Canada.
Between 30 and 40 per cent of all food produced in Canada is wasted or lost, Engler-Stringer’s report says.
That number could be as high 60 per cent, according to Second Harvest, a Toronto-based agency which collects food throughout the supply chain and distributes it to the community.
This research falls in line with one of the City of Saskatoon’s goals.
In 2020, the City adopted a target of diverting 70 per cent of waste from the landfill to help it reach greenhouse gas reduction goals by 2050.
The industrial, commercial and institutional sector accounts for about 68 per cent of all garbage in the city, the report says.
Of that amount 45 per cent is deemed to be recyclable or organic waste that can be diverted.
City staff will be looking to apply some of Engler-Stringer’s team’s recommendations soon.
“We will continue working with the research team,” Katie Burns, manager of community leadership and program development for Saskatoon, told CBC. “We’d like to do more and just see what opportunities we can pursue.”
USask students have been involved with food waste reduction initiatives in the past.
In November 2021, student Chi Vu won an award for her app, Celer.
It directs users to grocery stores with discounted goods nearing the end of their shelf life.
“It is wasteful to throw away good, nutritious food that can feed the people within our City of Saskatoon,” Vu said in a release. “Celer is a proactive solution that utilizes software to reduce surplus food by encouraging their purchase and donation. Given the right incentive, this technology has the potential to create a positive impact on society and the environment.”