Illustration 1 Environmental impact of avoidable food losses of Switzerland. The environmental impact of food losses along the Swiss food value chain in trillion environmental impact points (UBP). The percentages show the contributions of the individual stages of the food chain.

The activities to date to halve avoidable food losses by 2030 are not enough. The federal government has therefore derived success factors for government action from examples from abroad. The action plan is aimed not only at all companies and organizations in the food industry, but also at the federal government, cantons and municipalities. The action plan against food waste pursues several goals. One is to halve the amount of avoidable food waste in Switzerland by 2030 compared to 2017. With the sectors, the Federal Council defines sector-specific reduction targets. In addition, the greatest possible reduction in environmental impact is to be made possible through the appropriate design and prioritization of measures. Since the action plan only came into force in April of this year, we are still at the very beginning. The first phase from 2022 to 2025 contains 14 measures that go in the above-mentioned directions. The action plan is intended to strengthen the responsibility of companies, industries and associations by identifying solutions that the players can adopt voluntarily and develop individually. (Bundesrat, 2022).

Avoidable food waste

Food waste is morally questionable and a financial waste. But this blog post is primarily about the waste of important resources such as arable land, water and energy. When food that is still suitable for consumption is thrown away, this is referred to as food waste. Food waste happens everywhere from food production to consumption. During cultivation, processing, sale or even at the end consumer. In the case of food waste, a distinction is made between avoidable and unavoidable. We speak of avoidable waste when something is still edible but does not reach the end consumer. The reasons for this are spoilage or quality defects. Unavoidable food wastage is waste from scraps, bones or food that, despite being stored correctly, becomes infected with pathogens and is no longer   edible (WWF, 2021).

Illustration 2 Environmental impact of avoidable food waste. The higher the food category is listed in the figure, the greater the environmental impact per kilogram.

The environmental impact varies greatly depending on the product and where it is produced in the value chain. Therefore, it is important to avoid food waste in foods that have a particularly high environmental impact or are produced in large quantities. The food categories with the highest environmental impact per kilogram of food waste are meat, coffee and cocoa beans, butter, oils, fats, fish, cheese and eggs. Products imported by air are also included. Losses of fruits, vegetables and potatoes as well as breads and baked goods are also environmentally relevant. Although they have a lower environmental impact per kilogram, they are produced in large quantities (BAFU, 2022). When food is wasted, we unnecessarily pollute resources such as soil and fossil fuels with emissions. Studies on food waste in Switzerland show that around 2.8 million tons of food are produced each year due to food consumption in Switzerland at home and abroad. This corresponds to about 330 kg of avoidable food waste per person. In addition, there are about 240,000 tons of avoidable food losses in Switzerland due to the production of food for export. This differentiated view shows that it makes no sense to relocate production abroad (Bundesrat, 2022).

What I can do to reduce food waste in my private household

With about one-third of food waste, the end consumer is one of the main culprits. This amount of food losses does not have to be. To put this into perspective, if all parties involved managed to prevent at least one third of today’s food losses, we could save the amount of CO2 that 500,000 cars produce (WWF, 2021). Having read and learned a lot about food waste, I now want to note what I want to pay attention to in the future. Avoid unnecessary purchases. If you have an overview of your supplies, you don’t have to make unnecessary purchases. It helps to plan your purchases. Don’t buy too many fresh products at once. The most important thing is to use your senses. You can often  enjoy products past their best-before date. Not everything has to be thrown away as soon as the minimum date has passed. What applies to food also applies to beverages. If you know that coffee beans and milk are generally bad for the environment, you can do without that second cappuccino. By now, a lot of people know to use meat sparingly. Much of this is also a matter of personal responsibility. Learn how to process surpluses, pay attention to the country of origin and inform yourself about the proper disposal of waste products. I am confident that people will recognize the seriousness of the situation and act accordingly. I can feel how my environment is being sensitized to the topic and how people are talking about it. It is never too late to stand up for a better world.