Ireland is throwing away so much surplus food that saving just three per cent of it could provide 50 million meals annually, according to a new Government-backed initiative.
The initiative, which is called Declaration on Surplus Food Sharing and Redistribution, urges food businesses, farmers, charities and public agencies to collectively take a stand against food waste.
It builds on the work of FoodCloud, the Irish charity that links food producers and outlets with people in need to ensure surplus food is not wasted.
In Ireland last year, FoodCloud redistributed more than 4,000 tonnes of food – the equivalent of 10 million meals – that would otherwise have gone to waste. The charity, though, says much more could be achieved.
“We have about 708,000 tonnes of food waste in Ireland every year,” said Angela Ruttledge, FoodCloud’s head of policy.
“It won’t all be edible but a lot of it would be and a lot more of it should be shared and redistributed.”
The Departments of Environment and Agriculture agree and are asking not only for more concerted efforts in Ireland, but globally.
They intend launching the declaration at next month’s Cop31 climate summit to encourage other governments to take the problem more seriously.
“By turning surplus food into a resource rather than a waste, we can advance climate action, strengthen food security and accelerate the transition to a circular economy,” said Minister for the Environment Darragh O’Brien.
Surplus food comes from a range of sources, including farmers with more produce than they are contracted to supply or with fruit and vegetables that don’t fit the specific size or shape a buyer demands.
“Often they have little choice but to plough it back into the soil,” Ruttledge said. “It needs to be made feasible for them to link in with a redistribution network.
“We also have food manufacturers, restaurants and other food outlets with surplus food and it needs to be an easy choice for them to pass it on.
“A lot of effort went into encouraging them to separate food waste for composting rather than dumping it in the bin, so we realise it’s asking them to take another step to make it available for redistribution instead. But if there’s a good system in place, it would support them.
“We got that system in place for retailers and that’s working really well now.”
The declaration was launched at the inaugural Food Sharing Summit in Dublin on Friday on what is designated annual World Food Day to mark the anniversary of the establishment of the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation.
Food businesses such as Aldi, Ballymaloe, BWG, Lidl, O’Brien Fine Foods, Musgrave and Tesco were among the first to sign the declaration at the event.