Food Waste in Netherlands

 Skillful 2 : Food Waste in Netherlands

 Food Waste is still a massive problem in Netherlands. About a third of the total produced food ends up in the trash can. Consumers are the biggest culprit, accounting 42 percent of waste food. Each consumer throws away about 41 kilograms of food per day. Bread is the most wasted product in the Netherlands. Nieuwsuur reports. 

Accordin to Toine Timmermans of Wageningen University, expert on food waste, the entire food chain in the Netherlands - consumers, supermarkets, restaurants, and other institutions - throws away around 5 million kilograms of food every day. While the Netherlands, aims to reduce food waste by half 2030. That will be a difficult task, as the decrease was minimal in recent years, Timmermans said. 

There are already hundreds of initiatives against food waste in the Netherlands. One such is app Too Good To Go. With the app hotels, bakeries, restaurants and supermarkets can offer their unsold products and meals for sale. While the app shows users where they can pick up an inexpensive package of ingredients in their neighborhood. The content of the package is unknown, so it is referred to as a 'magic box'. Initiator Joost Rietveld sees this as a first step in the prevention of food waste. "It's important to create awareness at both the consumer and the supermarket. It is not the solution yet, but it is a start. We've already saved 250,000 meals in the first year."

 Measures to combat food waste are more effective when consumers, producers, retailers and authorities work together. A good example is offering smaller sized portions and packages due to the increase in households with fewer people and the elderly. Some consumers are prepared to pay extra for smaller portions and do not consider the extra packaging a problem. Better, smarter packages that are adapted to storage conditions offer a solution, especially for products with a short shelf life. In addition, consumers would also benefit from clearer and bolder storage advice on packaging. Clarity and uniformity about the best-before date can also contribute to less food waste.