Introduktion
Greetings, everyone, and thank you for gracing this gathering with your presence. It is with profound gratitude that I stand before you at Leiths School of Food and Wine today.

I am Dina, hailing from Denmark, and I wear the hat of an entrepreneur. The subject that beckons us today is one that resonates deeply with my heart—food waste.

Allow me to commence by addressing the ongoing crisis confronting not only the UK but numerous other nations. Subsequently, we shall delve into the escalating predicament of food waste in contemporary society.

Lastly, we will explore potential solutions to this pressing issue. But before we proceed, let me briefly share the story of my journey, illustrating how I transformed food waste into a business opportunity.

Utdrag
I'd like to begin by posing a question: How many among us have discarded edible food at some point in our lives? As anticipated, a sea of hands rises.

The squandering of food resources stands as one of the most formidable challenges of our era. To grasp the enormity of the issue, let us turn to some stark statistics.

A mere 25% reduction in global food waste would yield enough sustenance to feed the 795 million people grappling with malnourishment worldwide.

In the UK alone, a staggering 15 million tonnes of food meet their untimely demise each year, with households squandering a jaw-dropping £12 billion annually on food that eventually finds its way to the trash.

Adding to this disheartening statistic, a staggering 20-40% of the fruits and vegetables cultivated by UK farmers meet a similar fate due to supermarket preferences.

Who bears responsibility for this colossal food wastage? Is it the consumers who discard their purchases? Is it the retailers who reject food based on aesthetics? Or are there deeper underlying factors at play?

Currently, retailers contribute to just over 1% of the UK's estimated 15 million tonnes of annual food waste. Supermarkets often entice consumers with "buy one, get one free" offers, inadvertently encouraging excess purchases that lead to food being bought or prepared in excess.