Don’t throw food in the trash

On International Food Loss and Food Waste Awareness Day, the media reported on how much food we throw in the trash and warned how wrong it was. But one day a year is not enough! We should talk and think about this topic every day.*

Every Slovene throws as much as 68 kilograms of food a year in the trash. Let’s recalculate: that’s 20 decagrams, or almost four buns a day. A huge amount of food is lost already on the way to the consumer, it then ends up in the trash, along with unsold food from stores and leftover food from restaurant, school and family tables.

The United Nations has set itself the goal of halving the amount of food waste in ten years while eliminating world hunger. How can we achieve this?

We give surplus food to those who are still hungry. Some food retailers hand over leftovers of fresh unsold food to representatives of various humanitarian organisations every night to distribute to those who cannot buy food. This is a good example. But only ten percent of leftover food comes from stores. The most food waste is in households. We ourselves are to blame for more than half of all discarded food, warns Delo journalist Maja Prijatelj Videmšek.

Therefore, we should strive to buy and prepare only as much food as we can eat. The leftovers are stored and eaten later. Surplus food can be donated. Every year, the Association of Friends of the Youth of Slovenia announces the Europe at School competition. This year’s title is If the bread falls to the ground, pick it up and kiss it.

Points to Consider

1. Do you know how much food you throw away?
2. Do you have any ideas what could be done about food waste in schools?
3. Do you know any good recipes for leftovers?

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*The original version of this article was published on October 1st.

English translation courtesy of JL Flanner, Total Slovenia News, an English language website with news from and about Slovenia.