World Food Day, the waste of Italians at the table
On the dock of the bad eating habits and the wrong purchases, every Italian throws 674.2 grams per week
Fresh fruit, onion, garlic and tubers, fresh bread, salads and vegetables are the foods most wasted by Italian and Sardinian families . This is what emerges from the “ Campagna Amica ” analysis by Coldiretti Sardinia on the Waste Watcher data processed for FAO's World Food Day , which is celebrated today all over the world. More than one in 3 Italians, that is 35% of the population, in the next 6-12 months, will cut waste by adopting solutions to save food and recover what is left at the table.
The high cost of living, triggered by the energy crisis and the war in Ukraine, therefore pushes citizens to adopt responsible behavior to save their budgets, even if the problem of waste remains relevant.
In order to help families adopt responsible behaviors, Campagna Amica has planned a series of initiatives in the markets over the weekend with recipes and cooking workshops for the reuse of food. After yesterday's experiences in Sassari, in the Hemicycle markets and in the covered area of Luna e Sole, in Nuoro in the covered area of the Exmè, in Oristano in the covered area of via degli Artigiani and in Quartu Sant'Elena a Pit'e Serra today is repeated also in Sassari in the Parco il Tappetino and in Selargius in Su Planu in the Campagna Amica I Mulini market. In the markets the 10 rules of Campagna Amica have also been delivered to avoid wasting food.
Here they are:
1) Make purchases reduced and repeated over time.
2) Choose fruit with the right degree of ripeness, not wilted, with a turgid appearance and not excessively necrotized at the cutting points.
3) Check the label and choose the local productions and varieties to buy directly from producers or in farmers' markets at zero kilometers.
4) Choose seasonal varieties, which have natural ripening times.
5) Compatibly with the needs, try to take whole fruits (for example in summer the watermelon) that will keep longer.
6) Make a shopping list before going to the store.
7) Go shopping just before you go home to avoid ruining your purchases.
8) Keep the packages of the different varieties of fruit and vegetables purchased separate and put them away in order to avoid bruising and development of rot.
9) At home, keep the fruit and vegetables you intend to consume shortly separate from those you plan to keep longer.
10) Cook anti-waste recipes.
In Italian homes, an average of 674.2 grams of food per capita are thrown away per week , according to Waste Watcher. Waste that at a national level costs 9.2 billion for the entire year. In South Africa and Japan half that in Italy is wasted (324 and 362 grams per week) while in Europe France is the most virtuous country with 634 grams per week, Germany and the United Kingdom stand out with 892 and 859 grams. United States top-waste, with 1,338 grams of food thrown away per week.
Food waste most often arises from wrong habits both at the time of purchase and during the storage and use of food . Very often we forget the foods close to the expiry date or we buy products already on the verge of perishable or already old at the time of sale. Other times we admit that we bought too much and miscalculated what was needed.
More digital consumers are also beginning to spread, using apps for last minute food (7.7%) or for fruit and vegetables close to the deadline with lower prices (3.2%). Two out of ten Italians use exchange platforms, 3.4% use apps with reuse recipes and 4.2% use applications for optimal food management and deadline monitoring.
Campagna Amica, always at the forefront to combat waste, as well as donating most of the products not sold in the markets to charities, has also entered into a partnership with Too Good To Go, the company that fights food waste with the help of an app .
“It is a useful application that goes well with the philosophy of Campagna Amica - says Alessandro Serra , a company from Campagna Amica that participates in the markets of Nuoro and Sassari -. In less than a year we have saved 1,338 meals thanks to the magic boxes that we deliver at the end of the market as well as having saved 3.35 tons of Co2. In recent months, due to the increase in prices, the demand for magic boxes has also grown because they guarantee good products that would otherwise be wasted ”.
