Food remains forms a quarter of all waste. Another waste is thrown away (unopened) food products because the ‘beste before’ date was expired.
Rice, pasta, potatoes
Most thrown away products are rice (38% of bought quantity, similar to 2 out of 5 packs), pasta (23%), potatoes (23%) and bread (21%, similar to 1 out of 5 breads). 14% of bought diary, vegetables and fruit are thrown away.
The waste of pasta and rice are respectively large because it’s hard for the consumer to determine which quantity they need, says Milieu Centraal. This is because the relatively large water absorption of the products and rise in volume.
Young people waste more
Furthermore it appears that young people waste more than elder people. Elder people are more conscious about food products and have fewer and less often leftovers. They also save food for later moments.
Every Hollander throws away 47.6 kg good food. This represents a value of 155 Euro.
435.000 breads
The 800 million kilos of thrown away foods contain 435.000 breads and 60.000 kilos rice. The 800 million kilos is equal to 100.000 garbage trucks full of food and 2.6 billion Euros of edible food. This is only waste calculated based on consumers. So waste during transport, storage and from food producers are not included in these figures.
Improved logistics chain
Retailers and food manufacturers have reduced their waste already. Ten years ago about 3 or 4 percent of fresh food products were wasted. Nowadays it’s reduced to 1 or 2 percent. This is because the products, packaging and logistics chain is improved.|
Throwing away one kilo food equals waste of 1.5 litre petrol of energy. This is about producing, packing, cooling and transport of food products. Also unnecessary farms, fertilizer and pesticides are used.
Source: 22 January 2013, evmi.nl (Dutch)
(Reprocessing) breadwaste
23 January 2013 Consumers waste 800.000 tonnes of food each year
Dutch consumers waste 800.000 tonnes of food each year. They throw away 13,5% of bought food. These figures point out that consumers waste more food than food manufacturers. This can be concluded from new figures published by GfK. Research was executed for ‘Milieu Centraal’ (Environment central).
