There are few statements on which there is as much intergenerational consensus as the one that throwing away food is unacceptable… Older people will say that it is inexcusable to waste food (there are the classic phrases of ‘with the hunger in the world’ or ‘ In the post-war period this did not happen’) and those of more recent generations will use ecological justifications. And, well, both will share one more common but unappealable argument: that life is very expensive and that we cannot afford to throw our euros in the trash. Yes, we know that part of our money goes there… But not how much!
Go for it. On average, a Spanish family currently spends 5,050 euros per year on the shopping basket, according to data from the INE Family Budget Survey from this last summer. How many do we throw away? Half of us Spaniards throw away a minimum of 10% of the food we buy, which in terms of money amounts to more than 500 euros annually. This is extracted from the ‘2023 Food for Thought’ report, prepared by the company HelloFresh, a specialist in the food sector and in healthy and sustainable recipe kits.
And that is in the case of those that are managed well: the least organized, as stated in the dossier, can throw away up to 50% of their purchase… that is 2,500 euros per year. Paradoxically, they tend to be households made up of only two people (a priori, they seem easier to manage than larger families, but no). These are the extremes, although according to various studies, most of us would spend around 1,000 euros in waste.
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30%
is the percentage of households in Spain that do not waste food, according to the Food Waste Report in Spain 2022, prepared each year by the Ministry of Agriculture. -
3. 4%
is the average amount of food thrown away at the main meal of the day, the time of greatest waste, well ahead of dinner (26%).
According to the latest data from the Ministry of Agriculture, last year per capita food consumption (698.5 kilos/liters per person per year) remained below that recorded in the previous three years. Rising prices have made us more careful with what we buy and throw away, but quantity is still important. During 2022, Spaniards threw away 1,201 million kilos/liters of unconsumed food and beverages, 6.2% less. These are both foods that are thrown away without using them, as they were purchased (because they have expired in 78% of cases), and leftovers from what we cook (21%).
Is it easy for us to change our habits to be less wasteful? “51% of Spaniards recognize that they could be more sustainable when cooking or eating,” says Cristina García Ferreira, chef and culinary expert in charge of the recipes of this international company HelloFresh, who offers some tips for throwing away less: “Be careful with the offers (we must analyze whether it is better for us to buy three products for the price of two if they later go bad), organize the food well to know which ones to eat first and worry about better calculating the portions we prepare,” he lists. Likewise, García Ferreira recommends that if we have cooked too much, it is better to “take advantage of it the next day or make a new recipe with them.” Better not to delay too long, because later they will no longer be appealing to us.
According to the company’s report, these tips are far from effective: more than 48% throw away spoiled food once or twice a week. And when asked about the causes, the majority, more than 36%, indicate that it is “due to buying too much because they do not know what is at home”, but there is also a significant figure (30%) that admits that It is not just due to ignorance and they allude to compulsive shopping as a factor.
The most ‘throw away’
What foods are most likely to end badly? Fruits and vegetables are the ones that are thrown into the bucket the most, up to 45% of them, a figure similar to that of tubers (who doesn’t get bad potatoes), according to data from the iFood Waste Report, prepared by the United Nations. Bread (30%) and dairy products (20%) are just behind in the ranking. With the rise in prices, meat, fish and seafood end up less in the trash and are what we waste the least, according to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food.
Consumer associations add that there are classics that we rarely consume at all and that have a lot of potential to end up adding to the landfill mountain: they are the jars of sauces and condiments, which catch our attention on the supermarket shelves but which we rarely use anymore. at once.
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