Italy dedicates day against Food Waste

Rome: Italy is celebrating its seventh National Day against Food Waste.

According to the Food Sustainability Index, developed by Barilla Foundation with the Economist Intelligence Unit, every year Italians waste 65 kg of food per person.

This is an alarming figure considering that in addition to being an ethical problem, food waste fuels climate change, generating 8% of annual greenhouse gases.

Food lost or wasted every year around the world translates into a financial loss of 2.6 trillion dollars a year, while also wasting the natural resources used to produce it.

The fruit and vegetables we throw away every year in fact required over 73 million cubic meters of water to be produced, enough to fulfill the drinking water requirements of a whole region of Italy like Apulia for 153 days. Not to mention the fact that 28% of the land available around the world is used to produce food that isn’t consumed.

The figures for this waste show that we are facing a dramatic situation which, globally, is stopping us from achieving the Sustainable Development Goals of the UN’s 2030 Agenda. Visit the Barilla Foundation website to find out all the projects, articles and publications put in place to better understand the causes and therefore identify the solutions in terms of food losses and waste.

Su-Eatable Life Project, a three-year initiative funded by the European Commission, designed to save about 5,300 tons of CO2 equivalent and around 2 million cubic meters of water related to food consumption in Europe, has been launched. With the support of an easy-to-use information system, sustainable menus will be introduced to company and university canteens (in Italy and the UK). Barilla Foundation is spearheading the project, working alongside GreenApes, Wageninen University and the Sustainable Restaurant Association.

Each of us can play a part in making a change! Here are a few tips to reduce waste in the home: 1) Shop rationally: before you buy, check what you really need, make a list – and stick to it – remember that wasting food is also a waste of money

2) When you’re cooking, keep an eye on your quantities and only cook what you can eat

3) Check your labels: always check the ‘eat before’ dates

4) When storing food in the fridge, put the short-life food in front and store in the freezer what you are not likely to eat soon

5) Recipes to avoid food waste: don’t bin leftovers and food waste, they can be turned into new creative dishes