Food waste: how to save 132 billion a year in Europe

There are a number of initiatives taking place in Italia in the run-up to the International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste, scheduled for 29 September, an observance established by the United Nations in 2019. The aim is, of course, to raise public awareness in order to reduce food waste and, at the same time, cut emissions linked to food waste. The figures speak for themselves: according to Eurostat data, over 58 million tonnes of food are wasted each year in the European Union, equivalent to around 130 kg per person, with an estimated economic value of 132 billion euros. More than half of food waste (53 per cent) occurs in people’s homes, making consumers central to both the problem and its potential solution. There is a clear paradox: over 42 million people cannot afford a decent meal every two days.

Food waste also has a serious impact on the environment. This is one of the reasons behind the launch of the “Take Eat Seriously – Don’t play with food!” project, promoted by the Fondazione Banco Alimentare Ets in partnership with the Politecnico di Milano, Shair.Tech and Confconsumatori, and funded by the European Commission (Health and Digital Executive Agency – HaDEA).

The initiative involves residents of the metropolitan areas of Milan, Rome and Catania, who are being called upon to take the lead in changing their habits through Follow-App, a digital platform (available free of charge on Google Play or the Apple Store), as was explained, ‘designed to become an ally in household food management, an area in which Banco Alimentare cannot directly contribute to reducing waste, as it focuses exclusively on the recovery of surplus food for social purposes throughout the agri-food supply chain’. Consumers can also access an anti-waste toolkit featuring plenty of useful tips on organising the larder, checking use-by dates and irresistible anti-waste recipes.

According to figures released by the company Too Good To Go (based on Eurostat data), 8.1 million tonnes of food are wasted along the supply chain in Italia every year, equivalent to over 257 kg every second, approximately 15.4 tonnes per minute and 925.2 tonnes per hour. An estimate by Too Good To Go highlights that the resources used to produce that food amount to approximately 308 Olympic-sized swimming pools of water and 373 football pitches of soil. 

The company has developed an app which, it was explained, ‘has helped save 37 million meals from going to waste in Italia since 2019, by connecting businesses and organisations in the food sector with consumers and enabling products at risk of going to waste but still fit for consumption to be given a new lease of life. In 2025 alone, around 8 million meals were saved, equivalent to over 15 kg of food saved every minute through the app’.