National Day Against Food Wastage in Italy

Today, February 5, Italy celebrates the eleventh National Day against food wastage. It was preceded by International Waste Food Awareness Day on September 29. The date has a clear reference to the actions of the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations’ 2030 Agenda. Specifically, goal number 12.3 aims to “cut in half the amount of food waste per capita globally, both in supply and consumption, and reduce food loss in production and supply chains.”

“Food waste” refers to the loss of usable food along the entire production and consumption chain. Each year, according to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), about 30% of food is thrown away. In rich countries, most of the still good products are thrown away by consumers, and the rest are thrown away in the production process. However, in developing countries, especially in the Global South, food is lost at intermediate stages of production or due to storage problems. In other words, there’s a lack of electricity and refrigerators.

This is very disturbing data. It is said: “Man shall not live by bread alone” (Mt. 4:4). But in 2024, about 735 million people in the world will suffer from hunger. FAO estimates that “globally, 13% of food is lost in the distribution chain, from harvest to retail, and another 17% of food is wasted at the household level.”

The average person living in Europe or North America throws away about 95 to 115 kilograms of food per year, while in Africa this figure is only 6 to 10 kilograms. The most “virtuous” countries are South Africa and Japan, where households throw away about half as much food as in Italy, and Europe’s most “virtuous” country is France. In Italy, almost 9 million tons of products are thrown away every year. On a per capita basis, an Italian throws away 146 kilograms, which is 15 kilograms more than the European average, with 73% of wastage occurring in households.

This phenomenon has a price not only in terms of environmental sustainability, but also at an economic level: the squandering of food – in Italy this means a loss of 385 euros for each citizen – represents a great loss of resources used to produce food, energy, and water. Land resources are also wasted. Many food systems are unsustainable, degrade agricultural land, contribute to greenhouse gas emissions and biodiversity loss, and increase groundwater consumption. Significant amounts of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, are produced by the decomposition of food waste in open landfills. Reducing food loss and waste not only represents an important climate strategy, as it leads to reduced greenhouse gas emissions, but can play a key role in transforming agro-industrial systems, resulting in greater food availability, promoting food security, healthy diets, and enhancing resilience.