Food waste continues to have the greatest impact on the environment and climate as it represents an additional source of greenhouse gas emissions.
In Serbia, according to the guide published by Naled in cooperation with GIZ, 247 thousand tons of food are thrown away annually, which is 30-40 kilograms per inhabitant, although it is believed that this number is much higher, considering that does not separate food waste from municipal waste.
The largest amount of waste is still generated in households (42 percent), followed by food processing and production (39 percent), catering facilities (14 percent) and retail and wholesale (5 percent).
About 80 percent of wasted food comes from perishable foods (bread, meat, cheese, milk, fruit, vegetables…). All of this entails social consequences since hunger has not been eradicated, economic consequences because large resources are spent on the production of food that will later be thrown away, but it also has a negative impact on the environment due to the release of harmful gases.
According to Eurostat data, 127 kilograms of food is wasted per inhabitant per year. In households, 55 percent of waste is produced, which is some 70 kilograms per inhabitant, while the other 45 percent of waste is generated in the food supply chain.
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It turns out that household waste is twice as much as that generated in the primary production sector and the production of food products and beverages.
Considering that this is data from 2020, the impact of the quarantine caused by covid 19 on the creation of this amount of food waste is still being analyzed.
In some EU countries, supermarket chains are obliged to give surplus food to humanitarian purposes before the expiry of the deadline, and in return they are exempt from tax. In our country, there has been an initiative for years to introduce such a law that would exempt donors for humanitarian purposes from tax, but the Government as well as the relevant ministries are silent.
The introduction of such a law in Serbia would ensure almost 1.2 million additional meals in soup kitchens per year, Danas reports.
