Le Gouvernement du Grand-Duché du Luxembourg
Logo Antigaspi

Antigaspi
  • fr
  • en
  • lu

    • Challenges

    Together against food waste

    1/3 of all food produced worldwide is thrown away!
    At the same time, however, around 673 million people in the world still go hungry. With these facts in mind, it seems obvious that we must act.

    Food wastage is clearly a moral issue. However, we also need to consider its ecological impact!

    Food waste also means that 28 % of all usable land is cultivated in vain, not to mention the enormous quantities of water being wasted in this process. To put a figure on this: that’s 250 cubic kilometres of water per year, which is three times Lake Geneva.

    In terms of CO2 emissions, it doesn’t look any better: 3,3 gigatons of greenhouse gases are released every year from food wasted and thrown into landfills.

    These figures, published by the United Nation’s World Food Programme, cannot be easily ignored. Especially knowing that the world population is constantly growing and will reach 9 billion people by 2050.

    Where does food waste occur within the EU?*

    53%
    in households because too much food is bought or badly stored, the “use by”or “best before” dates are misinterpreted and leftovers are not reused.
    28%
    are lost in production owing to overproduction, damaged or deformed products and unused by-products.
    11%
    in restaurants owing to oversized portions (you often have no choice as to how much you get) and because customers do not take leftovers home.
    8%
    are lost in retail owing to aesthetic standards, packaging defects and excessive stocks.

    Where does food waste occur in Luxembourg?**

    58%
    in households
    25%
    in production
    8%
    in restaurants
    9%
    in retail

    * Food waste and food waste prevention – estimates

    ** Quality report on the data on food waste amounts and the data related to food waste prevention 2023

    The challenge is to see how we can feed everyone and at the same time use our natural resources responsibly, so as to not further burden future generations.

    The Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Viticulture has therefore decided in 2016 to make food waste the focus of the World Hunger Day, thus marking the launch of the awareness-raising campaign “Together against food waste”.

    Sources and further information

    Antigaspi
    Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
    Privacy Overview

    We use cookies to make sure you get the best experience on our website. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. However, blocking some types of cookies may affect your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer.