The troubling food waste figures

Reducing food waste is essential to help sustainability

According to data published by the European Commission, 1/3 of world production is wasted annually, so we are talking about a problem that must be solved as far as possible.

And to achieve this, the responsibility that each family has in the figures of food waste that we will see later should not be avoided.

Next, we will review the definition of food waste, the figures offered by the European Commission and some of the solutions that have been established.

What is food waste?

Although there is no clear definition for “food waste” by international and European institutions that address this problem.

“The set of food products discarded from the agri-food chain for economic, aesthetic reasons or due to the proximity of the expiration date, but which are still perfectly edible and suitable for human consumption and which, in the absence of possible alternative uses, end up eliminated as waste ”.

This is the definition that we find in the resolution of the European Parliament in which this problem is addressed.

The food waste figures

As we have already pointed out, the European Commission maintains that 1/3 of world production is wasted. In other words, more than 1.300 million tons of food. And of these, 89 million tonnes of healthy food are wasted in the European Union.

In addition to these, we find the following Loss and waste data in the European Union:

• Each inhabitant wastes 179 kilos of food (not including food of agricultural origin generated during production or discards of fish thrown into the sea).
• Annually, 170 million tons of CO2 equivalent.
• Of the healthy and edible foods that we find throughout the agri-food chain (until they reach the consumer), between 30% and 50% are wasted.
• Household food waste amounts to 42%.
• In the manufacturing phase, food waste is 39%, while in catering it is 14% and in distribution it is 5%.
• In the European Union, Spain ranks number 7 in food waste, with a total of 7,7 million tons.

How to fix food waste

In the last decade, from each country, as well as from the European Union and other political communities, different strategies have been developed to address and solve this problem.

For example, in Spain this issue began to be addressed in 2012, when a survey was drawn up to begin to know in more detail the attitude of producers, distributors, consumers, and others involved in the food chain.

Today, great importance is being placed on technology.

However, and without a doubt, we must not forget that These food waste figures are the consequence of the behaviors of not one, but thousands or millions of people, families, suppliers, distributors, etc. hence it is important that each one is aware of their responsibility and negative contribution to the total food waste: we remember that “each inhabitant wastes 179 kilos of food.”