It says a survey that also tells how to waste especially unused fruits and vegetables and how the cause is often a problem of time management and unexpected events
The food waste it is a bad practice very common in the home. And now it is no longer just a question of a moral linked to social and economic aspects, but also of a problem strongly linked toclimate and environmental emergency. Providing data and information on waste and disseminating good practices on the generation of food surpluses and on their recovery can be useful to combat food waste. This topic has now become more relevant than ever on the occasion of the 2nd edition of the Nutrition Day, Nutrition: waste in the dish, organized by Crea (Council for Agricultural Research and Analysis of Agricultural Economics), in which a sort of "Wasteful identikit" which would coincide with the profile of a young, single and affluent.
Food waste: Italy better than other European countries
THE'Observatory on food surpluses, recoveries and waste del Crea created in 2018 the first comparative survey on waste, with harmonized data, coming from different European countries (Italy, Holland, Spain, Germany and Hungary). It has been calculated that Italian families (1142 representative of the entire population have been consulted) waste about 370 g per week of food, mainly vegetables, fresh fruit and bread, followed by pasta, potatoes, eggs, puddings, milk derivatives such as yogurt and cheese. However, we are not the most wasteful in Europe: our figure is similar to that of the Dutch, while it is lower than that of the Spaniards and Germans who waste as much as 534 g of food a week and that of the Hungarians (464 g a week).
Singles and young people waste more
Returning to Italian families, it emerged that 77% threw away food in the week preceding the survey, a percentage that is reduced with the age of those who shop, with the decrease in income and in families that live in the South and Islands. The greatest waste, on the other hand, was found in single-component families and in the segments of younger age and among families with greater economic resources..
What is thrown away and why?
In Italy they are thrown more completely unused products (43.2% vs 31% of the amount wasted), while there is a lower propensity to throw leftovers of the dish (14.6% vs 20.0%) and i open products, but not finished consuming because they expired (30.3% vs 36%).
But why is it wasted? The time factor and the unexpected in food management play a crucial role, putting both prevention actions at risk. In most cases, time is openly declared to be a scarce resource in everyday life and even the unexpected turn out to disturb the management of the pantry and the preparation of meals.
Attention to waste is growing
However, according to the CREA survey, in Italy, there is one increasing attention towards the theme of waste to the point that more than half of the sample interviewed strongly condemns the practice of throwing away food, recognizing their negative impact and impact on different areas: economic (70%), social (consequences on availability of food in the world, 59%) and environmental (55%). Finally, Italian families declare themselves capable of manage kitchen activities, a factor of significant prevention: around two thirds of the interviewees, in fact, declare to planning purchases and not to make impulse purchases, less than a fifth say they do not know how to reuse leftovers or plan the right quantities of food to buy and only 5% say they do not finish what they have on their plate and do not keep leftovers. However only 42% decide in advance the weekly menus.
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