Food was never wasted in the traditional societies of the past. In an era of economic crisis, growing inequality and rising living costs, food waste can be considered a social failing, or an important ethical problem at the very least. And yet a full fifth of the food produced globally ends up in the trash.
Τhe most recent United Nations survey shows, in 2022, households threw away the equivalent of one billion meals a day—enough food to solve the issue of world hunger. In all, it is estimated that a third of the food produced for human consumption is lost at different stages in the supply chain (production, harvesting, storage, transport, distribution and consumption). Food waste has become a global scourge, with one tenth of all foodstuffs thrown away unconsumed.
Greece does not seem to be an exception in this regard. Despite high food costs being one of the main problems facing Greek households, the figures are alarming: the average Greek is responsible for around 190 kg of food ending up in the garbage every year, with the country ranking third in total food waste per capita in the European Union after Cyprus and Denmark. The European average is an only marginally less shocking 131 kg of food a year.
According to Professor Katia Lazaridi of Harokopio University, where extensive research has been conducted into the phenomenon over the last decade, food waste is “a crucial issue with global dimensions. The big picture is that around 10% of all food produced ends up in the trash. Globally, it is estimated that a third of all foodstuffs are lost between the farm and the fork: that’s a staggering 1.3 billion tons of food.”
One thing all the studies agree on is that households account for more than half of all food waste. As Ms Dia Chorafa, coordinator of the Alliance for the Reduction of Food Waste at Boroume [We Can], points out, “According to the latest data, total food waste in Greece from production through to consumption is in excess of 2 million tons per year. Of this, 940 thousand tons are generated by households.” Chorafa points out that “while there is a legal framework laying out obligations for businesses, this is unfortunately not the case for households. So while households actually pose an enormous problem, it isn’t as easy to make effective interventions.”
A month’s salary every year
Achilles Plitharas, Lifestyle Footprint Reduction Manager at WWF Hellas, stresses that “according to the EU data, in Greece, of the almost 2 million tons of food wasted in a year, 372 thousand tons are at the production stage, 375 thousand during processing, 150 thousand tons in retail, 220 thousand tons in catering, and 930 thousand tons in households.” Based on these figures, it is estimated that, at the household level, Greeks waste about 98 kg of food each per year. Of this, 55 kg is food that could be safely consumed. This means the average family of four throws out 36 kg of vegetables, 25 kg of fruit, 20 kg of bread and pastries, 22 kg of dairy products, 12 kg of pasta and rice, 11 kg of potatoes, 10 kg of meat and fish and 5 kg of eggs that are perfectly safe to eat. We did the math to work out how much this wasted food costs. The result: in a year, the average Greek household throws out foodstuffs for which they have paid over €1,000. So we’re talking about a month’s salary’s lost through waste every year.”
As Plitharas points out, “The main causes of food waste are poor planning and poor preservation and storage practices. We still cook more food, and serve larger portions, than we need. Another reason is the dietary preferences of different members of the family. For example, a mother may cook lentils, but one family member doesn’t like them, so she has to cook them something else. Finally, there is a lack of awareness of the importance of reducing waste.”
For her part, Lazaridi stresses that a common mistake made with packaged food at home is taking the ‘best before’ date to be an expiry date, which it is not. “There are two kinds of dates. There is the ‘use by’ date stamped on perishable foods such as meat, dairy, charcuterie etc. and there is the ‘best before’ date which goes on pasta, pulses, etc. which can still be eaten once that date has passed. In short, without knowing it, we are throwing away food that is perfectly safe to eat.”
Hotels and the buffet “experiment”
One sector which wastes truly excessive amounts of food is tourism, the heavy lifter of the Greek economy. Plitharas explains that “At WWF Hellas, we have conducted research in partnership with hotels to gauge waste levels in the sector. What we found in the hotels we worked with is that buffets are a major issue. Guests tend to pile the food high, but don’t actually eat everything they put on their plate. We worked with 13 five- and four-star hotels that offered a buffet. In some of them, we tried using smaller serving dishes. In others, we worked with the chefs and kitchen and service staff to change the order in which the food is presented in the buffet, putting the most perishable foods at the end. In other cases, we worked with the kitchen to make sure the different foodstuffs were brought out gradually rather than all at once, or we changed the serving time and posted a notice saying the buffet would not be replenished for the last half hour. We also put up signs informing customers that they didn’t have to fill their plate from the beginning, as they could visit the buffet as many times as they liked, as long as they ate what they put on their plate. Combined, these measures resulted in a 40%-45% reduction in buffet waste.”
Everyone agrees that food waste has a direct and significant environmental impact. We shouldn’t forget that 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions are linked to it, while in the EU, food is responsible for an estimated 17% of direct greenhouse gas emissions and 28% of natural resource consumption.
