Band 9 model answer
Despite persistent hunger in parts of the world, vast quantities of edible food are discarded daily, particularly in wealthier nations. This essay will examine the underlying causes of this waste and suggest realistic measures to address it.
Several factors lie behind the problem. At the consumer level, abundance breeds carelessness: shoppers frequently buy more than they need, misinterpret confusing 'best before' labels, and throw away perfectly safe produce. Retailers compound the issue by rejecting fruit and vegetables that fail to meet cosmetic standards, while restaurants serve oversized portions that diners cannot finish. Higher up the supply chain, inadequate storage and inefficient transport mean that harvests spoil long before reaching the shelf, especially in regions lacking refrigeration.
Fortunately, this waste is highly preventable. Public awareness campaigns could teach households to plan meals, store food correctly and interpret date labels accurately, thereby cutting domestic waste substantially. Supermarkets should be encouraged, or even legally obliged, to donate unsold but edible stock to food banks rather than sending it to landfill. Investment in better cold-chain infrastructure would further reduce losses in developing economies. Crucially, financial incentives, such as taxes on disposal, can prompt businesses to treat waste as a cost worth eliminating.
In conclusion, food waste stems from careless consumption, rigid retail standards and poor logistics, but none of these causes is intractable. With a combination of education, sensible regulation and infrastructure investment, societies can dramatically shrink the mountain of food they squander, easing both economic and ethical burdens in the process.
Examiner’s notes
- Task Response: causes and measures are each given a fully developed paragraph, and the conclusion explicitly ties them together, satisfying both halves of the prompt.
- Cohesion: the essay moves logically through the supply chain ('At the consumer level', 'Retailers', 'Higher up the supply chain'), creating a coherent cause-and-effect structure.
- Lexical resource: precise terms such as 'cold-chain infrastructure', 'cosmetic standards' and 'intractable' demonstrate the lexical sophistication expected at Band 9.