Fruit and vegetable consumption and waste in Australia - VicHealth

Contents
Executive Summary 1
Preamble 4
Introduction 5
The Australian Food System 7
How do we conceptualize the food system? 7
The sectors of the food system 8
Challenges to improving the system 9
Major forces on the food system 10
The role of government 11
Recommendations 11
Consumption and Waste in Australia 12
How much is enough? 12
Consumption data 13
International data 13
National nutrition survey 13
National children’s nutrition and physical activity survey 13
National health survey 14
State-based consumption data 14
Waste data 15
Recommendations 18
Drivers for change 19
Health and the link with fruit and vegetable consumption 19
Cancer 20
Cardiovascular disease 21
Diabetes 22
Other conditions 22
Environment and its relationship with the food system 24
Climate change 24
Water usage 29
Biodiversity conservation and ecosystem health 31
Ethics and the food system 32
Environmental ethics 32
Human ethics 32
Animal ethics 34
Economics and the future of the food system 35
Current efforts to change the paradigm 36
Efforts to increase fruit and vegetable consumption 36
International 36
‘Go for 2 and 5 ® ’ campaign 36
‘Go for your life’ 37
Other efforts 37
Efforts to minimize and better manage food waste 39
Minimizing food losses along the supply system 39
Better managing food losses along the supply system 42
Minimizing food losses at the consumer level 44
Better managing food losses at the consumer level 44
Whole-of-system approaches to improving the food system 45
Recommendations 47
Conclusion 49
Culture change 49
Summary of recommendations 51
References 53
Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and Waste in Australia iii