With the aim of raising awareness of the serious effects of food waste and strengthening the international effort to reduce it by 50% by 2030 to achieve Sustainable Development, the United Nations has established September 29 as International Food Loss Awareness Day and Food Waste.

The reduction of food waste is aimed both at consumers, businesses and public bodies in order to strengthen the effective use of natural resources, while it is estimated that it has an impact on the climate crisis and the food security of society as a whole, due to the management of goods, as stated in a related update by the “We Can” organization, which is one of the first actors in this field in Greece.

In addition, this year marks 3 years since the official launch of the Food Waste Reduction Alliance, an initiative of the same organization.

“Food waste concerns us all. At every stage of the chain, from the field to our plate. We are all part of the solution. Effectively addressing the phenomenon requires coordinated action along the entire food value chain and synergies between all parties involved” emphasizes the “Poroume” organization.

The Alliance already has 79 collaborating organizations and is under the auspices of the Ministry of Environment and Energy.

As the “Poroume” organization informs, “at the national level, the adoption of certain measures – within the framework of Law 4819/2021 – to deal with food waste in Greece is a first step” while at the level of the European Union, “the member states they are required to submit data on national levels of food waste on a regular basis, take measures and monitor the effectiveness of their implementation.’

Impact of food waste in numbers

According to relevant information from the “We Can” organization, in the European Union 58.5 million tons of food are wasted annually along the entire food value chain from production to consumption. More than half (53%) of the total waste occurs in households. This is followed by manufacturing (20% of the total), primary production (11%), catering (9%), retail trade & other forms of distribution (7% share) (Eurostat, 2022). In addition, the annual cost of food waste (commercial value) in the EU is estimated at 132 billion euros. and the cost of collecting and managing food waste amounts to 9.3 billion euros. Finally, 8-10% of total greenhouse emissions worldwide are due to food waste.