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Each Romanian throws away 129 kg of food per year
Each Romanian throws away 129 kg of food per year on the average, and the target of the government is to reduce this quantity by half until 2030, said Cornel Hanganu, a councilor in the Department for Romania's Durable Development within Romania's government.
He participated in the conference “Stop garbage and food waste! For the people! For the planet!”, organized by the Ministry of Agriculture and InfoCons, on the occasion of the international food waste awareness day”.
According to him, food waste happens because we wrongly estimate quantities when we go shopping, we do not store food correctly and we are not attentive with validity dates.“12% of the food bought reaches waste baskets, but the EU average is almost double. The bigger a family is the more food is thrown away. The worrying phenomenon is that we have, on one hand, malnutrition and food waste and on the other hand, 15% of Romania's population is obese, which means that food education is faulty, people are not preoccupied by food quality and quantity,” Hanganu added.
In his turn, Adrian Oros, the minister of agriculture showed that, in order to reduce food waste, educating consumers at home and in the education system is the most important, besides regulations and the activity of institutions with attributions in that respect.
At the same time, resource waste also means a high pollution factor, he said.
“People should consume local, fresh Romanian products, as we can reach that balance where there is pressure on high production, where agriculture is less durable, where there was excess and it was proved that things are not all right. Now we can stop going on the wrong paths adopted by certain countries which now want to correct those mistakes. Through education we can reach a balance between the decent incomes of people in agriculture while consumers can have healthy, quality food. Certainly, the price is higher for healthy food, but it is better to spend more for healthy food, the minister said.
As of this year, the UN General Assembly declared September 29 the International Day on Food Consciousness”. The information, education and consciousness campaign “You can protect the planet too! Together we start reducing food waste!” was launched on that occasion.