Food waste: Germany wants to reduce drastically by 2030!

Von Markus Schneiderling

Im Kampf gegen Lebensmittelverschwendung informiert der Artikel über Initiativen, Gesetzesänderungen und Recycling-Apps in Deutschland.
In the fight against food waste, the article provides information about initiatives, changes in the law and recycling apps in Germany. (Symbolbild/ANAG)

In a time when around 11 million tons of food end up in the trash in Germany, the Foodsharing initiative in Kusel-Altenglan is becoming increasingly important. This movement not only aims to save surpluses, but also to appeal to the problem of food waste. As rheinpfalz.de The local foodsharing group is active, committed to it, to distribute excess foods from companies to the population and thus contribute to a circular economy. In doing so, they make it clear that they are not a competition to the board, but complement the existing offer of help.

The federal government has the ambitious goal of halving food waste in private households and retail by 2030. Part of this plan is the information campaign "Too good for the bin!", Which offers tips for reducing food waste. The "Best Remnies" app, for example, supports the "Best Remains" app to promote residual recycling and creative recipe ideas. This is in accordance with the goals of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL), which at the same time checks the development of legal framework conditions for food donations in order to make it clear.

initiatives against food waste

In addition to the local initiative in Kusel, according to ndr.de , many different organizations and clubs are involved in the waste of food. Around 960 plates provide the needy with donated foods. These are collected by around 60,000 volunteers and around 265,000 tons of food are passed on at over 2,000 output points annually. This shows how important the voluntary work and the support of institutions are in combating food waste.

The use of the "TOO Good to Go" app is particularly striking, which networking restaurants with consumers and offers excess food at discounted prices. This initiative has over 14,000 partner shops and a growing community of more than seven million users in Germany. The "often good" label indicates that many foods can still be edited after the best before the best before date. Nevertheless, the containers, i.e. collecting away food from Müllcontainers, remains prohibited in Germany, which was criticized by Federal Minister of Nutrition Cem Özdemir.

strategies for reducing food waste

As part of a comprehensive strategy for reducing food waste, which was first presented in 2019, the Federal Government also pursues a target agreement, according to which food waste is to be halved by 2030. Current statistics show that 58% of waste is created in private households and the processing sector has a share of 15%. In order to counteract this, various dialogue forums have been set up to identify solutions and reduction potential.

An example of such initiatives is the Dialog forum for out-of-home catering, which has set itself the task of reducing the waste there by 30% by 2025 and 50% by 2030. The national strategy to reduce food waste is monitored and evaluated by the EU to ensure that Germany fulfills its obligations. The time window for changes and legal adjustments is opened, so that the topic of food waste will continue to be focused on in the future.

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