Press release
Minister McConalogue highlights the importance of reducing Food Waste on National Stop Food Waste Day
From Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine
Published on
Last updated on
On National Stop Food Waste Day 1 March 2024, the Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Charlie McConalogue T.D, highlighted that we all need to play our part in reducing food waste.
Minister McConalogue said:
“Food waste is estimated to cost the average household €700 a year or €60 per month. Reducing our food waste at home makes financial sense as well as being a climate action we can take every day. We all lead busy lives. Research conducted in Ireland shows that leftovers, bread, fruit, and vegetables are the foods most likely to go to waste. Taking the EPA’s “Stop Food Waste Challenge” this coming week will help each household identify what food they waste most and take action to reduce it.”
The focus of this year's National Stop Food Waste Day is to encourage people to ‘know their food waste’ by taking the Stop Food Waste Challenge. The challenge invites people to record and track their food waste over a week to see what they waste and see where they can make savings on their food bills and to take simple actions to reduce the food they waste the most.
Minister McConalogue added:
“Reducing our food waste shows how much we recognise and respect our primary producers, processors and those who work to provide us with that food.”
Speaking of National Stop Food Waste Day, Minister of State with responsibility for Public Procurement, eGovernment and Circular Economy, Ossian Smyth T.D. said:
“Substantial resources are needed for the growing, processing, transportation and storage of food. Tackling food waste is one of the key steps we can all take to help combat climate change and support Ireland’s transition to a circular economy.
We need to adopt good food management behaviours so we can all play a key role in preventing food waste. I encourage people to take up the Stop Food Waste challenge, and get to know the simple actions that can be taken to prevent food waste. This will help reduce our carbon emissions, and help make savings on food bills.”
More Information on the Stop Food Waste Challenge can be found HERE
ENDS
The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that the average Irish household can save around €700 a year by avoiding food waste. In the most recent national food waste attitudes survey, commissioned by the EPA, the types of food that people in Ireland say they waste the most are:
• leftovers from the fridge
• bread
• fruit, and
• vegetables
There are simple steps that can be taken to curb food waste: Buy less, store better, eat it, or freeze it.
Food Vision 2030, the stakeholder led strategy for the sustainable development of the sector, sets out a number of actions to reduce food loss including working with stakeholders to develop a National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap.
The National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap 2023-2025 was published in November 2022 and includes a number of priority actions to prevent food waste.
The Food Waste Charter was relaunched last year. The Charter promotes a collective industry commitment to measure, reduce and report food waste along the food supply chain by businesses that sign up. Businesses have a significant leadership role to play in the fight to prevent food waste.
The EPA estimates that Ireland generated 753,000 tonnes of food waste in 2021. 29% of the total comes from households, 29% comes from the processing and manufacturing sector, 25% comes from restaurants and food service, with the remainder coming from retail and distribution 10% and primary production 7%.