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Every year, 2.7 million tons of food ends up in the garbage in Switzerland. A gigantic waste – and bad for the environment. According to the federal government, that should change soon. But consumers are still not being held responsible.
If, instead of throwing away a third of all food, we ate it, we would save as much CO₂ as half of all Swiss road traffic. There is therefore an enormous need for action. Therefore, food waste is to be reduced by 50 percent by 2030 – with a cross-industry agreement. Working groups from industry, gastronomy and retail are now active, reports Susanne Blank from the Federal Office for the Environment (FOEN).
So far there are only rough industry estimates from 2017 and each industry has different starting points. In gastronomy, it’s about planning better, offering more flexible menus, adapting portions better to the needs of customers. In industry, where almost 40 percent of food waste occurs, the question arises as to what should be done with the so-called by-products.
According to Blank, flour production is about the bran, milk production is whey and meat production is about pieces that customers don’t buy. “So it’s important to look for solutions,” says Blank.
The expiry date is only a guarantee of quality.
The retail trade itself is not a big spendthrift because it has now learned to reduce its losses with half-price and donations. But he is the interface to the consumer.
A big problem is the best before date. This is misunderstood, says Claudio Beretta from the organization foodwaste.ch. “It’s just a quality guarantee, it doesn’t mean that the food has spoiled after the date,” explains Baretta, who researches food waste at the Zurich University of Applied Sciences and also helps in the working groups of the industries.
He also says that politicians are too cautious when it comes to food waste. The consumer is forgotten. He is responsible for a good third of food waste, in other words: he buys it in order to throw it away afterwards.
That’s why Claudio Baretta calls for a campaign and refers to other countries. “England shows that campaigns can have an effect,” he says. There, food waste in households fell by 20 percent within five years thanks to such a campaign. This is efficiently used tax money: Food waste worth 84 francs could be saved for each franc of the campaign.
Bund: No money for campaigns
The federal government declines: There is no money for this in the current program, and they are not convinced that a federal campaign will work. To this end, they want to raise the issue of food waste at school, and retailers should approach consumers. If no tangible results are available by 2025, the Federal Council can decree mandatory measures to achieve the ambitious goal of halving by 2030. However, the Bafu is convinced that this is not necessary.
Maybe you also have to think about food prices. No country spends so little money on food in relation to income. The meat in particular is far too cheap because it is highly subsidized and the environmental costs are not included, explains Claudio Baretta. However, Switzerland is not an island and a solution must be found for shopping tourism.