ZAGREB, 24 July 2022 - About 71 kg of food per capita is thrown away in Croatia every year, totalling over 280,000 tonnes, and 76% of that comes from households, while the EU average is 53%, the president of the Food Waste Prevention Centre (CEPOH), Branka Ilakovac, has told Hina.

Prevention and educating citizens has not been recognised in Croatia as key in the fight against the creation of food waste, she said, underlining the importance of expert organisations constantly informing and educating all age groups and sectors.

CEPOH has launched an EU project to build capacities for the Green Deal made to the measure of local communities in order to help everyone who wishes to donate food.

The HRK 442,500 project is mostly financed by the European Social Fund and will last 15 months.

Preventing the creation of food waste is the most important step in food waste management as recommended by the European Commission, Ilakovac said.

It is possible to significantly reduce food waste by educating customers to change daily habits in buying, preparing and consuming food, she said, adding that during the 2020 COVID lockdown, households reduced food waste by 10%.

She said a CEPOH survey showed that nearly half the respondents cited an excess of food prepared as the reason for food waste in their household.

Ilakovac underlined the need to raise awareness of the fact that food waste polluted the air, the soil and underground waters.

Twenty-five percent of habitable areas and 70% of drinking water are used for the world's food production, which is the cause of 30% of greenhouse gases, 80% of deforestation, and one of the major causes of change in land use and biodiversity loss, she said.

That also accelerates climate change, which in turn affects the safety, quality and availability of food, she added.

Throwing food is also a moral problem because of the many socially vulnerable, undernourished and hungry people, whose numbers will only increase due to global inflation and climate change, she said.

According to estimates, EU countries throw away 88 million tonnes of food, causing a cost of €143 billion, she said, adding that Croatia, as an EU member state, set the target of reducing the throwing of food by 50% by 2030, which is also in line with the UN's Sustainable Development Goals.

Ilkovac also said that Croatia had drawn up a 2019-22 plan to prevent and reduce food waste.

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Just how much food are Croats throwing our on a yearly basis? What with world hunger growing at an alarming rate, the numbers are concerning both on a global and a national scale.

As Morski writes on the 29th of May, 2019, according to FAO estimates, around one-third of the food produced annually (1.2 billion tons) is thrown out globally, which means that across the world, over 1 trillion dollars worth of food is simply discarded.

In the Republic of Croatia alone, a massive 400,000 tons are being thrown out per year, of which 40,000 tons is due to a lack of Croats understanding or paying proper attention to the duration/expiry dates of certain products. This problem was addressed during the second day of the thirteenth Conference on Food Safety and Quality, organised by the Croatian Chamber of Commerce (HGK).

Sanja Kolarić Kravar from the Ministry of Agriculture presented a plan to prevent the continuation of food wastage, pointing out that we need to focus on responsible production and consumption in order to reduce the amount we throw out in general, and in turn increase the donation of products to those in a lesser economic position.

''Over the last couple of years, we've been actively developing a donation system and we're looking at what needs to be done in order to make it function better. An e-donation platform has been established which will relieve the burden from donors, align the supply and the need, and enable the more transparent distribution of food. The system has already been tested and I'd like to invite all donors and moderators to sign up.It's a virtual food bank that will allow us to throw out as little as possible,'' stated Kolarić Kravar, adding that tax relief regarding this burning issue is the plan.

''In developed countries, about forty percent of food in the sales and consumption phase is thrown out, and in developing countries, forty percent is thrown out during the production phase. Fruit and vegetables are thrown out the most, followed by fish and meat. On the basis of households, about 1,800 dollars of food is thrown out, and this ultimately has an impact on climate change,'' said Darja Sokolić of the Croatian Agriculture and Food Agency.

She also presented a study which involved samples of food categories on the Croatian market which showed that products with a very long shelf life (coffee, salt, sugar, rice, honey...), in the case they've been properly stocked, are fine for human consumption for up to one year after the "best before" label claims they are.

The second category includes long term durability products that retain all of their properties for up to two months after their expiry dates (cereals, sweets, oil...), and products with a limited and short duration should not be consumed at all after the expiry of the prescribed deadlines (dairy products, fresh meat, fish...).

''Small manufacturers often ask about the expiration time of their products, and I see this as an opportunity for laboratories to help them out. Guidelines for food donors are in the process of being developed, and workshops on safe food handling will be held next month. Intermediaries and end-users need to be educated in order to throw out as little food as possible,'' Sokolić concluded.

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