Food Waste in the European Union - The Economic Utilisation of Food Co-Products - page 29

UK

Sweden

Spain

Slovenia

Slovakia

Romania

Portugal

Poland

d n 9 r 3 n g | 5

Netherlands

Malta

Luxembourgh

Lithuania

Latvia

Italy

Ireland

Hungary

Greece

Germany

France

Finland

Estonia

Denmark

Czech Republic

Cyprus

Bulgaria

Belgium

Austria

0 20 40 60 80 100 120 140 160

per capita tonnes per year

Figure 2.4 EU per capita household food waste by Member State.
Source: Bio Intelligence Service (ref. 2).

3 .

2.6 Food Waste by Food Group
The quantity of food waste generated is related to the type of food product; this
may be due to the lifetime of perishable products, high susceptibility to damage,
or high wastage related to low financial value. Figure 2.5 illustrates the
estimated percentage of edible food wasted at each stage of the supply chain for
each commodity group. These estimates are specific to Europe. Fruit and
vegetables, including root vegetables typically generate more waste than meat
and dairy products. For fruit and vegetables, including root vegetables, loss
and wastage at agricultural production is greatest, whilst for cereals most
wastage occurs at the consumption stage. In addition to edible food losses and
waste, the food supply chain produces a large quantity of inedible or
unavoidable waste, for example for wheat, barley and other cereals around
23% of the agricultural product is inedible, for fruit and vegetables the inedible
fraction averages around 25%, and for fish and seafood the average is
estimated at 50%. 3

2.7 Data Sources
Under the European Union Waste Statistics Regulation (EC2150/2002)
Member States must provide waste statistics to the European Commission
every two years. 5 The statistics include an estimate of the quantity of
waste generated, details on waste treatment and waste-treatment facilities.
They are reported for the purpose of monitoring the implementation of waste
policy.