“Of the food thrown away in the UK, 4.5m tonnes is perfectly edible – equivalent to each household putting eight uneaten meals in the bin every week. This equates to approximately £800 per year for the average family at a time when millions are struggling with the cost of living.”
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Yesterday was the UN’s International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste:
Reducing food losses and waste is essential in a world where the number of people affected by hunger continues to show a rapidly increasing trend, and tons and tons of edible food are lost and/or wasted every day.
The International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste is an opportunity to call to action both the public (national or local authorities) and the private sector (businesses and individuals), to prioritise efforts and initiatives to cut food loss and waste to enhance efficient use of natural resources, mitigate climate change and support food security and nutrition.
Read more and discover what you can do. Take action, start something. Stop food loss and waste. For the people. For the planet…
Food Loss and Waste Reduction | United Nations
As covered in Europe:
International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste
And in Africa:
Ghana: Reduce Food Loss and Waste! – allAfrica.com
Zambia: In Drought-Prone Zambia, Farmers Learn New Tools to Save Harvests – allAfrica.com
In the UK, the supermarkets are doing their thing:
Supermarkets helping out with food waste – Vision Group for Sidmouth
With this advertorial in today’s Mail:
Following yesterday’s International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, which calls on households, businesses and the public sector to reduce its food waste, it is clearer than ever before that we’re all wasting too much food, and we need to do something about it.
The UK throws away a shocking 9.5 million tonnes each year worth roughly £19 billion, according to WRAP. This waste is responsible for 25m tonnes of carbon dioxide, more than the entire annual emissions of Kenya.
And of the food thrown away, 4.5m tonnes is perfectly edible – equivalent to each household putting eight uneaten meals in the bin every week. This equates to approximately £800 per year for the average family at a time when millions are struggling with the cost of living[1].
‘We really believe that fighting food waste is a priority for everyone – both businesses and customers – and it’s certainly a priority for Tesco,’ says Kené Umeasiegbu, Campaigns Director at Tesco.
Here’s what one supermarket is doing to tackle food waste | Daily Mail Online
The UK press also reports today on a pop-up event from another supermarket:
To coincide with International Awareness Day of Food Loss and Waste, Swedish-born grocery retailer Motatos partnered with food media platform Mob to launch the Bring Your Own Food pop up.
The pop up took place in BOXPARK, Shoreditch on Thursday and was open to the general public, serving freshly made meals cooked by Mob using Motatos products. The public were encouraged to bring a store cupboard item in exchange for a free meal to fight food waste. All food was donated to the Hackney Foodbank, part of The Trussell Trust network. Motatos is matching every donation made.
Motatos is an online supermarket that sells well-known products that would otherwise risk ending up in landfill due to changes in packaging, seasonal changes or short best before dates. The UK alone produces an average of 9.5 million tonnes of food waste each year.
Pop-up highlighted how to cut food waste for awareness day – Wales Online