Editor’s note: This is an in-depth review of From Waste to Value: How to Tackle Food Waste. This course is currently offering a free upgrade sponsored by EIT Food (for one year from 6 Feb 2023). Upon completion, participants will receive a CPD accredited Learning Certificate.

I am a PhD candidate in Food Science, and I have always been driven by an obsession to comprehend and address food-related problems in a sustainable manner. However, it is obvious that the entire society must participate in order to bring the transformation that would allow future generations to live happily on our one and only home planet.

Food waste is one of the biggest problems that gives me the willies. Did you know that 14% of the food produced is lost before it reaches the consumers? An estimated 1.3 billion tons of food are lost or wasted annually, according to a 2011 estimate by the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations.

On the other hand, more than a billion people worldwide are overweight or obese, while about 820 million people are undernourished. One of the biggest paradoxes of our day is the existence of food waste and malnutrition simultaneously. Food that is wasted is a chance lost to feed the expanding global population.

Food waste leads to the loss of not only the food itself but also all the resources used to produce it, including land, water, labour, energy, fuel, and packaging. Additionally, methane, which is more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere, is released when food waste is dumped in a landfill.

About the course

Those enormous current food waste challenges were the main reason I took the course called From Waste to Value: How to Tackle Food Waste by EIT Food to see the current development. Additionally, I was looking forward to understanding a deeper cause of food waste, its effects on climate change, and different ways to prevent it in the first place.

I can honestly point out that course covered it all! Even more! They mention the Food Use Hierarchy, why it is necessary to shift the focus towards keeping food in the food chain for as long as possible, and using circular economy to tackle the solution was a nice systematic approach. I was thrilled to see new technological ideas to contribute to the solution of food waste, especially through smart packaging. I really value the fact that this online course is creating a huge awareness of the problem and providing simple solutions to avoid them as individuals. Simple steps such as making a grocery list to amazing unique recipes to diminish food waste.

Time commitment

The best part about the course is that it is only 3 weeks long and doesn’t require more of your time daily. You are free to follow the course according to your own schedule, and all the course materials can easily be downloaded. With less patience and huge curiosity, I finished the course in a week and successfully passed the quiz.

Conclusion

It is always nice to see small achievements when they are compemented with a certificate, which, in this case, it was. If you are looking forward to widening your knowledge of the importance of food waste issues, this course is your call!

What’s next

Well, it wasn’t the end. I have taken several courses produced by EIT Food and am currently following Future Food: Sustainable Food Systems for the 21st Century and How Food is Made: Understanding Food Processing Technologies. They are also impressive!