France this year became the first country in the world to ban supermarkets or other large shops from binning unsold food, forcing them to donate any surplus to charities and food banks.
But what of the vast mountain of perfectly edible food – estimated to be about 9.5 million tonnes – that Australia chucks out each year?
Katy Barfield, who has spent much of her career battling food waste, questions whether France's approach would work here.
"I'm not entirely sure that's the right approach, only because unless you provide a solution you only push the problem somewhere else," says Barfield, who was the founding CEO of food rescue charity SecondBite.
Barfield points instead to Italy, where companies are given tax concessions if they donate surplus food products. "I think that's a better way to go and that's what I'd like to see here."
Wonky fruit, and other lessons
The serial entrepreneur, who now runs start-up Yume Wholesale, was inspired to wage her own war on waste after hearing of the hardship her English grandmother endured raising eight children single-handedly.
Times were so tight she was forced to send three of her children, including Barfield's mum, to live with a charity for a year.
Barfield said her grandmother had taught her that every bit of food is precious, even if it "isn't perfect and straight ... and shining like it's, you know, nuclear infused".
For a while, Barfield forgot the lesson, until she bought a Melbourne bar.
"I used to be horrified at the chef literally scraping masses of product into the bin – product straight from the fridge where he hadn't got the ordering completely right, because it's not an exact science," says Barfield. She later discovered the same problem existed on every level of the food system.
On a mission
Her response was to help SecondBite's founders steer the charity into a force for good that now saves millions of kilograms of food a year, redistributing it to the needy.
In 2012, Barfield founded Spade & Barrow in an effort to help struggling farmers sell produce that didn't meet the exacting specifications of the big supermarkets. It was snapped up by Aussie Farmers Direct in late 2013.
Now she's tackling food waste from "further up the food chain", encouraging suppliers such as food distributors, producers and manufacturers to list their surplus sale for discounted sale or donation on Yume Wholesale. It means buyers such as cafes and restaurants can potentially snap up a bargain while helping the environment, says Barfield.
About 70 suppliers, including major player PDF Food Services, can sell to about 210 buyers on the platform so far.
One recent situation involved two tonnes of salmon fished in Norway that was shipped to Australia, only for the buyer to cancel the order at the last moment. Through Yume, the distributor, who was about to bin the expensive order, has sold the salmon at a discount to buyers including Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, several chefs and a cafe chain.
Running a sustainable business
Yume began in another iteration as a consumer app. For example, a restaurant could sell its leftover lasagne to the public.
But while the app had gained traction, Barfield said it became clear that "these were really small amounts financially that were going to not be the financial engine room of our business". She also felt the impact on preventing food waste could be vastly increased.
So in March, the business pivoted to become a B2B platform that takes 10 per cent of each transaction.
"Our mission is a world without waste. It's pretty simple and we want to revolutionise the current food system by ensuring any surplus product is offered for sale or donation," says Barfield.
The business began with $650,000 – some from investors and some from Barfield's own mortgage – and is staging an investment raising round.
As such, it's coy about revealing its figures. "[But] in terms of volume we've sold 4574 kilograms and donated 13,644 kilograms to food rescue organisations since April without putting one truck on the road," says Barfield.
Competitors, even globally, are thin on the ground. Barfield knows of only two US start-ups: Cerplus and Spoiler Alert.
What next?
Barfield believes one of the biggest challenges will be reaching a critical mass of buyers and sellers.
"I also don't believe that there's a silver bullet ... there's no one answer to try and solve the issue of food waste, or to solve the issue of food insecurity," she says. However, she believes technology will form a large part of the solution.
"I truly believe – and I saw this at SecondBite – that people want to do the right thing but you just need to provide them with the opportunity to do that in a really simple, easy way that doesn't mean they have to completely change their processes."