On their official Instagram page, The Left group claimed: “58 million tonnes of waste annually go to waste in the EU.” Is this number correct, and what is it based on? How was this number calculated? After checking the facts, the claim turns out to be mostly true, as extra context and nuance is needed to correctly interpret these numbers.
Whereas food waste and climate are typically themes found in election programmes and ideology of The Greens, The Left made it a priority in their campaign to try to pursue a cut of the food waste by 50%. In their Instagram post, they added the number of tonnes of food that annually go to waste in the EU.
The Left group based this post on a release by the European Commission (EC). In this release, the EC promotes an event about food waste, while also providing some numbers on food waste in the European Union.
Difficult to compare
The Instagram post was published on March 13th 2024, whereas the latest Eurostat food waste figures only date back to 2021. In 2021 the 27 countries in the European Union wasted 131 kilograms of food per capita. When multiplied by the total EU population in 2021, 58 million tonnes of food went to waste that year. It is unclear whether the number has grown or diminished.
But what is meant by ‘food waste’? It is defined by Eurostat as ‘parts of food intended to be ingested (edible food) and parts of food not intended to be ingested (inedible food)’. When taking a mango as an example, the yellow pulp is intended to be ingested. The core and the mango skin is not intended to be ingested. Apart from the definition, food waste is food that has become waste under the following circumstances: it has entered the food supply chain, it has been removed from the food supply chain or the final consumption stage and/or it is finally destined to be processed as waste.
Understanding the methodology
To have an absolute figure of the amount of food waste, it is important to know that the data in this collection is based on estimates. In some countries, the measurements of food waste are influenced by seasonal changes, because of loss of water that evaporated from the original food base or water drained from the waste bin. Therefore, food waste data needs measurements and estimations in tonnes of fresh mass.
In the Commission Delegated Decision (EU) 2019/1597, the European Commission pressed the need for a common methodology for all EU member states to calculate food waste. To help them, the European Commission published a guidance book. For example, the table on data of food waste, the member states are obliged to offer the total amount of food waste. They can voluntarily add a second column to show what percentage is edible food waste, and a third column to show the data on food drained as or with wastewaters.
The origins of the data delivered by Eurostat are not entirely clear. There are various ways to measure food waste and to acquire data, for example through supermarkets or by having several consumers keep a diary of what they buy, eat and throw away.
Problem and solution
The European group, The Left, wants to do something about food waste. What can they do and why is it so important that they pledge for it? Tessa Avermaete, Chairwoman of the Food and Agriculture Advisory Board of the Belgian city of Leuven, stresses the necessity to be careful with data about food waste. According to her, there is also unexpected waste, such as potato peels. ‘They are discarded by the industry, but also in our own kitchens. Things like potato peels are things we as humans don’t want to eat. But they are included in the amount of food waste.’
She also claims that, for example, the bones that come with meat are considered as food waste in some countries, whereas in other countries, they aren’t. ‘That is why it is very difficult to make comparisons between countries or even regions’, Avermaete explains.
Furthermore, she warns to be careful with food packaged in plastics. ‘Some types of food are packaged in plastic because of storage life issues. Otherwise, a lot of food would rot in the store’, she says. ‘Just because it is packaged in plastic, doesn’t mean it is less sustainable. That’s an illusion people have. Plastic-free packaging is not always better.’
Avermaete warns people that they must be careful with numbers about food waste. It’s important to know where the data comes from. Organisations should be more transparent about it. That way, it becomes easier to compare different countries and even regions.
Conclusion
As the definition used by the European Commission of ‘food waste’ also includes non-edible parts of food, it differers slightly from what is commonly understood as ‘food waste’. Therefore the claim by the Left Group should be deemed mostly true.
RESEARCH | ARTICLE: Céline De Munter, Jona Barkmeijer & Niels Dhondt – Thomas More University of Applied Sciences, Belgium
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