The discussion about food waste focuses primarily on retail. He is only responsible for a small part. Consumers could achieve far more. In other countries, significantly less food is thrown away unnecessarily.
The famous apple with the dent and the radish with the sad leaves end up in the garbage far too quickly in Germany – mostly because they are not bought in the first place. Eleven million tons of food thrown away come together every year. In an international comparison, Germany is roughly on par with France – but other countries such as Austria or Spain only manage to waste around a tenth of that amount. This waste also includes unavoidable waste such as coffee grounds or banana peels, but a good half of the waste is actually still fresh and edible.
So what can be done to stop food waste? Even the federal government is aware that something has to happen – after all, together with the EU, it committed itself in 2015 to the United Nations goal of halving global food waste by 2030. But since this decision, hardly anything has happened in this country. Between 2015 and 2020, food waste in Germany was reduced by just 0.9 million tons, according to figures from the Federal Environment Agency.
At the moment, the discussion is mainly focused on the role of retail – however, it is only responsible for seven percent of food waste, more than half of which is in private households. Minister of Justice Marco Buschmann and Minister of Agriculture Cem Özdemir are working to ensure that the so-called containers, in which discarded food is taken out of supermarket waste containers, should no longer be considered theft. In Berlin, Social Senator Katja Kipping recently called for a law against food waste, the pan-European introduction of which has already been discussed in the past.
The share that consumers have in this waste even increased slightly between 2015 and 2020, to 56 percent. For the most part, fruit and vegetables are thrown away, bread and food leftovers and dairy products – not least because too much was bought at first and then the best-before date “MHD” was exceeded.
The MHD has been discussed in the EU for a long time, politics and trade are at odds. Couldn’t dairy products have a longer shelf life? Do products like pasta even need a best-before date? Who is ultimately responsible? “By printing the best-before date, the manufacturer guarantees that its product will be flawless at least up to this date and has the guaranteed quality level,” explains retail expert Beate Scheubrein from the Baden-Württemberg Cooperative State University in Heilbronn. Quality also refers to the color or consistency of a product. Just because the strawberry jam turns brown, it can still be edible – it just isn’t as pretty. Consumers often still struggle with themselves here.
The MHD debate is therefore not least about the extent to which the term “perishable” is useful and whether a formulation such as “perfect until” would not make more sense. Scheubrein considers the German regulations regarding the BBD to be too strict overall. Trade has also been trying to influence politics for a long time, but so far without success – also because a regulation has to be found at EU level. Supermarkets are already trying to encourage people to buy leftover yoghurt or sad radishes with discount campaigns on food that is about to expire or less attractive-looking fresh produce in separate boxes. Ultimately, however, the decision rests with the consumer.
Without the cooperation of consumers, Germany will not be able to achieve the UN’s goal. And the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture is sticking to this, no matter how ambitious it may be. It wants to achieve the halving of waste primarily through the further development of the “National Strategy for Reducing Food Waste”, which originates from the old government.
The strategy includes, for example, the development of innovative logistics systems for retail and the creation of greater transparency along the value chain from producer to consumer. The dismantling of hurdles in passing on food to non-profit organizations should also be examined. It doesn’t get any more specific than that. A law against food waste, as introduced in France in 2016, is not mentioned.
France is the first country in the world to oblige large supermarkets to offer their unsold goods to charities before throwing them away. In this country, this is on a voluntary basis. However, the trade there has twice the share of national waste compared to Germany and does not work well with the Tafel.
“In France, with this law, fewer donations are made to food banks than in Germany without such a law,” says Scheubrein. “The collaboration between retailers and food banks has been working well in Germany for decades.” From their point of view, there is no need for a law like that in France. However, she considers the associated tax advantages to be sensible. French supermarkets can deduct 60 percent of the purchase price of the donated food from their taxes.
In Germany, retailers are already exempt from sales tax for groceries that are passed on free of charge under certain circumstances, for example if products are about to expire or fresh goods such as fruit and pastries are no longer “marketable”. Nevertheless, traders also have to write off goods that they will hand over to Tafels.
Large orders are also one of the top reasons the Department of Agriculture cites waste in the retail sector. According to Scheubrein, supermarkets are already acting with foresight here. “Every liter of milk that ends up in the garbage hurts the retailer,” says the expert. “That’s lost profit. Ideally, you buy in such a way that everything is sold. In the end, only what really has to go is thrown away.” This rethinking would now only have to start with consumers.
This text first appeared on capital.de
