"Produce is wasted here because many people don't really respect the value of food any more" The COVID-19 pandemic and labour shortages have had a "massive" impact on the already high levels of fruit and vegetable wastage, according to Australia's leading research centre on the issue. Dr Steve Lapidge is the inaugural CEO of Fight Food Waste Ltd, which incorporates the Fight Food Waste Cooperative Research Centre and Stop Food Waste Australia. He spoke at a webinar hosted by PMA-ANZ, where he explained that fruit and vegetables are by far the most wasted food type. "There were some interesting trends (from COVID)," Dr Lapidge said. "In terms of the consumer, we saw peaks in food waste after 'panic buying'. People were panic buying vegetables and perishables, and a lot of them went off. So, there was a peak at the start of the lockdown. Then it was quite the opposite, with people trying to make the most of their food so they didn't have to go to the supermarket that often. In the production area, we had increases in crop utilisation; we know Woolworths, for example, were doing whole crop purchases because demand was so high. Right now, it is the labour shortage issue and getting those crops out of the paddock and orchards that is a real mess. How to prevent this in the future is something that we really should be looking at."