Grocery shopping is a topic you can not avoid no matter living in which country. Surprisingly, in Germany, they do take “food” pretty seriously. Speisequark, which is quite common in Europe (and almost nowhere to find in East Asia), shows me a strange symbol with “Kostbares Retten” written on it. After a quick research, I found out it says something like ”rescue the precious”. It aims to reduce food waste(“Halving food waste”, 2020).
去超市,是一个在哪个国家都避不开的生活日常。未曾想到的是,在德国,吃,这一件事,却又有很多讲究和门道。Speisequark是一种欧洲很常见的乳渣制品,类似于国内相对浓稠的酸奶。我偶然间在标签上发现了“Kostbares Retten” 的标志。经查阅之后发现,这是一个拯救食物浪费的运动(“Halving food waste”, 2020) 。虽然“食品安全”是难以避免的话题,德国人倡导: 闻一闻,尝一下,开始享受,哪怕在最佳日期到期之后(Riechen. Probieren. Genießen. Auch häufig nach Ablauf des Mindesthaltbarkeitsdatums)。他们认为,哪怕在保质期过后,牛奶,奶酪,酸奶等制品通常也很好。然而,大多数的消费者却会选择将其抛弃(www.dw.com), 2020)。
Although food safety can be a big issue, the Germans still choose to promote – Smell. Try. Enjoy, also often after the best-before date has expired.(Riechen. Probieren. Genießen. Auch häufig nach Ablauf des Mindesthaltbarkeitsdatums)Even after the best-before date, the dairies like milk, yogurt and cheese can still be good to eat. However, most of the customers usually just throw them away(www.dw.com), 2020).
在一次采访中,德国食品贸易组织的发言人说到:”The importance of the best-before date is overestimated this way because most of the foods that are thrown away have no best before date at all.” (最佳有效期的重要性被远远高估了,因为很多被扔掉的食物其实并没有什么最佳有效期)(www.dw.com), 2020)
In an interview, Christian Böttcher of the Federal Association of the German Food Trade told DW, “The importance of the best-before date is overestimated this way because most of the foods that are thrown away have no best before date at all.(www.dw.com), 2020)”
因此,德国人认为消费者应该相信自己的感觉,没有坏掉的食物,就还可以食用。但是我们为什么要如此抠门呢?食物浪费真的有这么严重吗?
Therefore, the Germans believe that customers should trust their feelings. If it has not turned bad, then you can eat it.
But why do we have to do this? Is wasting a bit of food such a huge problem?
根据联合国粮农组织2019年的报道,在超过八千万人口还在挨饿的世界里,我们每年浪费着13亿吨的食物,而这,是世界年产量的三分之一。(FAO, 2019)(“FAO – News Article: Food wastage: Key facts and figures”, 2020)
According to the report from FAO in 2019, in a world with more than 820 million people starving, we are wasting 1.3 billion tonnes of edible food per year – this is a third of the world production.(FAO, 2019)(“FAO – News Article: Food wastage: Key facts and figures”, 2020)
其中,很大一部分都发生在 “Distribution” (分配) 和“Consumption” (消费)这两个环节上(Food wastage footprint, 2013)。所以,从消费者这里入手,似乎是个有效的方案。
Of which, a large part of wastage happens during distribution and consumption stages in the supply chain(Food wastage footprint, 2013). From this point of view, starting from us – the customers, seems not to be a bad idea.