90m Tonnes of food wasted yearly in Europe

About 1.3 billion tonnes of food per year is wasted globally including about 90 million tonnes of food in Europe. According to a statement released by the European Commission to mark World Food Day on Wednesday, this figure does not include agricultural food waste and fish discards. Food is wasted along the entire food chain by farmers, food industry, retailers, caterers and consumers. "When 870 million people go hungry every day, there can be no excuse for wasting one third of the world's food," said Janez Potocnik, EU Commissioner for Environment. "The EU has set itself an ambitious target, and is aiming to halve edible food waste by 2020," he noted. Lack of awareness, lack of shopping planning, overproduction, inadequate storage and inadequate packaging are some of the reasons for food wastage, added the statement.