When I was a kid, my granny used to always say “don’t waste food, to eat all of it.” It was the 1990s, after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and life was a struggle. Shops were nearly empty—buying a Snickers bar was a major accomplishment.

Now, when I enter any supermarket, I can choose from at least 10 types of milk, which are essentially the same if I read their labels. I find it impossible to decide which chocolate egg with a toy inside to choose—they all look so colorful and appealing. This vast variety of goods in grocery stores is a sign of global food overproduction and overconsumption, which, in turn, leads to food waste.

Why do we think that one brand of a product is better? Or those identical apples, all perfect light green--which I doubt were grown on a tree and under the sun--are better than the small garden apples with spots and imperfect shapes?

Is it a funny ad or a good brand that makes me prefer one type of cream cheese to another?

This non-stop information stream—the advertisements, deals of the day--encourage us to lose focus on our real needs and wishes and buy things we don’t need at the store. Then this extra food becomes waste.

Overconsumption also leads to too much waste—and the world is already struggling to deal with waste responsibly, according to ecologist Temur Shvelidze.“While many people are aware of the effects of waste, only a small portion truly understand the real danger and act accordingly. Few take the necessary actions, though these actions are crucial,” he says.

Thinking about this issue led to this project.

Nearly one-third of all food produced is wasted, according to a project by researchers at the University of California Davis—and the World Food Program estimates that more than 333 million people in the world suffer from “acute hunger.”

Obviously, there’s a fundamental flaw in global food production and consumption.

Overconsumption is a multifaceted issue that involves consumer purchasing habits, with various societal, marketing, and psychological factors leading many people to buy more food than they can consume.

When I was studying at university, I worked as a hostess at a restaurant in a five-star hotel in Baku, and I witnessed how huge amounts of food were simply thrown away instead of being given to those who need it.

Consumers misinterpret "sell by" or "best if used by" dates on food packaging to mean the food will no longer be safe to consume after those dates. Instead, the dates are the manufacturer’s recommendation for quality, not safety.

There should be more fundamental measures to prevent overproduction, overconsumption, and food waste. The responsibility also rests on us, the consumers, to rewrite this narrative of excess and waste.