More could be done to keep edible food out of landfills: University of Saskatchewan study

According to Canada’s Food Price Report, the price of groceries is expected to continue climbing well into 2023.

But a joint study between the University of Saskatchewan and the City of Saskatoon suggests more could be done to recover surplus edible food that’s thrown out every day by grocery stores or restaurants.

According to the report, 30 to 40 per cent of all food produced in Canada (11 million tonnes) is wasted or lost.

The study, called “Promising Practices in Food Reclamation in Saskatoon,” was published earlier this year. Associate professor Rachel Engler-Stringer said the study looked at ways to reduce food waste in Saskatoon as it applied to industrial food sources like grocery stores, restaurants and distribution channels.

(Lara Fominoff/650 CKOM)

“Also, how to potentially divert what would become wasted food into ideally things like job creation and so on,” she said.

Engler-Stringer said many food business employees told researchers they didn’t have the means to donate food that would otherwise go to waste, or that they were told by corporate headquarters they were not allowed to donate at the local level.

“We were told that there simply wasn’t the infrastructure to do so,” she added.

Some grocery stores also cited food safety reasons, something the professor challenged.

“As long as that food is kept at the appropriate temperature, there is no reason why you could not donate that food and that it could not be used for some other purpose,” she maintained.

On the flip side, some charities said they only had so much capacity in terms of picking food up and storing it.

“There were challenges on both ends,” she said.

It’s also not free to get that food to local soup kitchens, charities or other groups. There are costs to package the food, transport it, and labour costs. However, Engler-Stringer said there are dozens of examples of groups that have come up with ways to do just that across Canada.

One of the possible bridges to that gap in Saskatoon included establishing a community-based non-profit or business that would work with the grocery and restaurant industry to collect food that would otherwise go to waste.

“(It would involve) making them into new sauces, jams, jellies, soups, processing them and creating jobs in the process … and then sell those foods back into grocery stores or restaurants. (It’s) really creating a system that would allow us to take a lot more of the food that is going to waste and creating a social good, and more edible food,” she suggested.

Working with the Saskatchewan Health Authority, the group also created a pamphlet that was mailed to every food business registered in Saskatoon. It explained what fell within the Public Health Act, what could and could not be donated, the circumstances, and where it could be donated and at what time.

“We created that because we were told it would be useful,” said Engler-Stringer.

At this point, though, she said there’s no way to determine whether any business actually responded to the suggestions or information.