Team Kagoshima - 1

No More “Mottainai”-Reduce Household Food WasteNational Institute of Technology, Kagoshima College
A: Hello, everyone. My name is Mitsuki Shiomitsu, team leader. This is RearuFukumoto. This is Takumi Matsushita.
When we were looking for the theme of our presentation, we knew the activity ofDavid Gross called “Mottainai Kitchen”. “Mottainai” is a Japanese word which means
to have reverence for living things. He traveled all over Japan to transform
throwaway ingredients into delicious meals. We were interested in it and started tothink about the food loss problem. This time we narrow down reducing household foodwaste because it is happening in our house, so we think we may get a clue to solve thisproblem.
Today, we will make our presentation in the following order.
1.Introduction: The reason why we chose this subject
2.Body:(1) History of food loss
(2) Present situation analysis
1)Stores 2) Producers 3) Households(3) Experiment3.Conclusion
A: Look at this graph, a change in food loss in Japan from 2012 to 2018. It remained
almost at the same level. Why are so much food thrown away compared to the past?
There was no present pet food in the past, and the pet food was from leftovers of ourmeals. Furthermore, they were used as fertilizers for growing vegetables. In thisway the food circulation went well. However, as people’s life-style was westernized andchanged, it was broken and people started to throw away leftovers.
Next, Takumi will analyze food loss in three areas: stores, producers and households.
B: 6 million tons of food are thrown away in a year. 1.8 million tons are from stores,
1.44 million tons from producers, and 2.76 million tons from households.
First, there are 4 main causes of store food loss.
1) Products with misprinted packages2) Substandard products
3) Excessive products from overproduction to prevent shortages4) Unused ingredients and leftovers from excessive preparation
Secondly, there are 2 examples of food loss from producers
1) Vegetable disposal due to substandard products
2) Fish disposal due to unavailability

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Finally, there are 3 main causes of food loss from households
1) Over preparation
2) Cooking too much, leftovers due to likes and dislikes, and overbuying3) Expiration dates
Next, Rearu will explain the experiment to reduce household food waste.
C: First, we decided to make an experiment for 2 months at one home.
B: Rearu, may I ask you a question?
C: Sure, go ahead.
B: Do you think you can get reliable data with only one subject?
C: I know this problem. I needed at least ten subjects. I can’t ask my family for help
because I’m the experiment leader. Both of your family can’t be subjects because
you are team members. So I asked all my classmates for help, but none of them
accepted my offer because their mother refused to make refrigerator contents inpublic. I felt like crying.
A: Calm down, both of you. Takumi, Rearu did her best. Finally, helplessly, she tried
asking our advisor’s wife for help. She kindly accepted her offer. Though we can’t get
reliable data with only one subject, we may get a clue to solve the problem. Rearu goon!
C: Thank you, Mitsuki. We researched 3 points to get her current situation in June.
1) How much food waste a day is disposed of?
2) What kind of food is disposed of?
3) How much expired food is there?
After analyzing the current situation and considering suggestions to reduce foodwaste, we asked her to reduce food waste following our suggestions another month, inJuly.
C: From now, let me explain the result of the experiment. Please look at this picture.
She measured the amount of food waste a day and recorded its contents. First, this is
the record of June. Its total disposal is 6.3kg. Its average is 287g per day.
According to this data, we could find 3 points.
1) Disposing of edible portions
2) More vegetables and fruits than meat and fish3) Disposing of expired foodThen, we gave her 4 suggestions to reduce food waste.
1) To list up vegetables and fruits in her refrigerator and cupboard to know its
amount.
2) To reduce large amounts of vegetables and fruits to the limit she can consume.
3) Try not to prepare too much so that she does not throw away the edible portions

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when she cooks.
4) To list up the expiration dates of all the food in the refrigerator.
We asked her to work on this experiment for one month, in July, following thesesuggestions. And we measured its amount and contents again.
Next, Takumi is going to explain the result and discussion of the two-monthexperiment.
B: Compared to June’s waste amount of 6.3kg (daily average 287g), July’s waste amountwas 1.1kg (daily average 44g). It decreased by 5.2kg (82.5%) compared to June. Our
experiment has only one subject, but a simple calculation reveals that if every
household in Japan took the same approach as ours, annual food loss would be reducedby 2,277,000 tons (2,760,000 tons x 0.825)
The number of expired foods in the refrigerator has been dramatically reduced. 26 inJune, 3 in July. This is because, by knowing the expiration date regularly, they got into
the habit of consuming the food before it expires.
In the home where we conducted this experiment, the major issue was that they
couldn’t use up a lot of vegetables and fruits. Knowing the amount of food and theingredients in her refrigerator led to reducing food loss by 80%. Knowing the amountand type of food loss generated by your own home is the first step to reduce food loss.
Next, Mitsuki will summarize this presentation.
A: Today, we reviewed history of food loss and analyzed the present situation of food loss
in three areas. We explained the experiment of one home and got a tremendous result.
It is difficult to change people’s awareness of this issue. But one person changed
completely. That is our advisor’s wife. At the end of July, she said happily, “I wasshocked by the amount of total waste for June and the number of the expired food in therefrigerator. But finally I was able to reduce enormous amount of food waste, following
students’ suggestions. I feel gratitude for students to give me a wonderful chance tochange my awareness of this issue and make reducing food waste a habit.”
We would like you to change your awareness like her, and to experience a sense ofenjoying a food loss attempt.
Why not start by putting your daily garbage on a scale? And finally, say it together
with everyone. NO MORE MOTTAINAI!!