Ami:“Food waste increases pollution, here are the rules to avoid it”

Ilaria Falconi (Create):"The first cause is domestic consumption"

ROME - 'Every drop counts.A sea of ​​small actions to give strength to the Planet, is the title of the new 2024 campaign of the 'Green Week' of Ambiente Mare Italia (AMI), who today presented the 'Manual on food waste' at the library of the Council for Research in Agriculture and Analysis of the Agricultural Economy (CREA).

“The drop - they explain from AMI - is the action, even small, that each of us can do in defense of the Planet. In the context of the relationship between environmental sustainability and nutrition, the food choices of each of us can impact positively or negatively on our health and at the same time on that of the environment.Specifically, when you buy food you are making a real choice in favor of environmental sustainability or against the natural balance of the environment around us."

Among the 130 environmental awareness and intervention initiatives organized in Italy during the 'Green Week', “AMI has chosen - declares Alessandro Botti, national president of Ambiente Mare Italia - to dedicate a day to the theme of food waste and to the presentation of a dedicated dossier.

Avoiding waste means using our natural resources in a more sustainable way, protecting biodiversity, increasing natural resources, limiting environmental pollution".

In Europe, according to official sources, domestic waste is equal to around 50% of the total food surpluses and losses of the entire supply chain.In Italy, from the photograph taken by CREA, it can be seen that 70% of food waste is generated by domestic and out-of-home consumption, 20% by distribution and retail sales and 10% by the agricultural sector between post-harvest and transformation.

In the last year in Italy, 524.1 grams of food per capita per week were wasted, equal to approximately 75 grams of food per day and 27,328 kilograms of food per year. In the top list of the most wasted foods there are:fresh fruit (24 grams per capita per week);salad (17.6 grams);onions, garlic and tubers equal to 17.1 grams per capita per week;fresh bread (16.3 grams);vegetables (16 grams).

According to the example of the Waste Watcher International Observatory, those 24 grams of fresh fruit are equivalent to 5-6 apples thrown away per year by each individual and approximately 300-350 million apples wasted annually by the Italian population.

“We are currently witnessing real paradoxes in the agri-food system - continues Ilaria Falconi, CREA researcher and responsible for Ambiente Mare Italia for the Land, Soil and Sustainable Agriculture Area - We produce food for 9 billion people but, despite the world population being around 7 billion , there are 828 million people suffering from hunger, 2.3 billion people live in conditions of moderate or severe food insecurity and 3.1 million individuals globally do not have access to a healthy diet.These values ​​represent the existence of a consistent difference between the real production potential of the global agri-food system and the actual quantity of food consumed by the entire population.This difference is represented by the food losses and waste that occur along all stages of the supply chain."

The rules to follow, listed in the AMI manual, to reduce food waste, especially in the home are:buy little, but frequently, always consuming fresh products;favor short supply chain and/or zero km products, always paying attention to the seasonality of the products;freeze products (bread and meat) that are not consumed in the short term;place new purchases on the bottom in order to organize the fridge and pantry by product expiry;prepare a shopping list based on a weekly menu, in order to make prudent purchases based on your needs and not dictated by a sense of hunger, desire or offer;choose the doses of product to use/cook by carefully evaluating the quantities needed;check the expiration of the products purchased;reuse leftovers, reducing the waste of plant and animal products.

This year's Green Week is sponsored by MASE, the Ministry of the Environment and Energy Security, the European Commission, the Coast Guard, the Navy, the Naval League, the FIV, the Italian Sailing Federation and was also created thanks to Anas (Company of the Infrastructure Hub of the FS Italiane Group).