According to the most recent Eurostat figures, the UK has wasted a total of 14.3 million tonnes of food per year, and is the most wasteful of the EU’s 27 member states. In total, the EU has wasted 89.2 million. Other EU members, Germany (10.3 million tonnes), the Netherlands (9.4 million), France (9 million) and Poland (8.9 million) make up the top five most profligate countries.
Malta is the least wasteful country, with the relatively little excess of 25,000 tonnes per year. Recently France passed a bill in an attempt reduce the estimated seven million tons of food wasted in the country each year by forcing supermarkets to donate food that is approaching its best-before date.
By 2020, it has been suggested that the figure of 89 million tonnes will rise to around 126 million tonnes if no preventative action is taken – raising the prospect of significant costs to the environment and the economy. According to a report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Europe is second only to North America and Oceania when it comes to per capita food losses and waste, compared to the rest of the world.
According to the European Commission, despite the EU’s high level of food waste, a large percentage of it is avoidable. Countries covered in their studies are the UK, the Netherlands, Denmark, Finland, Germany and Romania, in which it suggested that nearly three quarters of the food waste in those countries avoidable.
Waste for cereals, animal fats and cream are reportedly entirely avoidable, as they are edible, whereas avoidable food waste for fruit (49.41%), meat (53.10%) and fish (51.03%) is relatively lower, yet still significant. Western countries have a far higher ratio of personal waste. Consumers in North America and Oceania create 40% of the region’s waste, in Europe that figure is over a third, but in Sub-Saharan Africa it is only 2.94%.
Around 2bn tonnes of food produced in the world each year goes to waste, key contributors to this were unnecessarily strict sell-by dates, poor storage, promotional offers and consumer demand for cosmetically perfect food.
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