Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue has called for a reduction in the amount of food wasted in Ireland, marking Stop Food Waste Day 2022 today (Tuesday, March 1).
Marking the day, Minister McConalogue urged people to “think critically about the amount of food we waste”.
“When we think of food waste, we think of the amount of food in our waste bins. But we don’t always think of why we are putting it in there,” the minister said.
“Today, let’s take time to think about that question and to understand what food we waste, how much we waste and why we waste it.
“We can each work towards reducing the amount of food we waste, which will in turn help us reduce our carbon footprint,” the minister added.
Ireland’s Climate Action Plan aims to reduce food waste in Ireland by 50% by 2030. The new Food Vision 2030 Strategy also contains commitments to reduce food waste.
The focus of this year’s Stop Food Waste Day is on use-by-dates. The stated aim is to make people aware that food passing its use-by-date is the “main reason Irish consumers are wasting food”.
Consumer are reminded that they can use or freeze food right up to its use-by-date to avoid wasting food.
The carbon footprint globally of food waste is estimated at 3.3 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent. According to the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine, Ireland generates over one million tonnes of food waste each year, a third of which occurs in our homes.
“By reducing our food waste, we also show our farmers, fishers and other food producers that we value their work and the safe and nutritious food they work all year round to provide,” Minister McConalogue added.
‘Stop Food Waste’ is a programme funded under the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) National Waste Prevention Programme since 2009.
The Food Vision 2030 Strategy states that the Department of Agriculture will work with stakeholders to develop a national food waste ‘prevention roadmap’ that sets out a series of actions to deliver the reductions necessary to halve our per capita food waste by 2030.