Report: Poles waste 9 mln tons of food annually

Deloitte emphasizes that our country has huge potential in agricultural production, as evidenced by the fact that 13 percent of our exports are agri-food products. At the same time, we are at the forefront of the European Union countries that waste food the most.

“These are extremely important problems because two billion people in the world suffer from malnutrition. In developed countries, to which Poland can also be included, the discussion is currently about the fact that too much food that could be used is wasted,” said Irena Pichola, partner at Deloitte, leader of the Sustainability Consulting Central Europe team.

Paulina Kaczmarek from Deloitte pointed out that there is no uniform system for measuring the amount of food wasted. “The European Union is working in this area, and companies are implementing solutions that are not only to monitor the size of the food waste problem but also, based on the collected data, take action to minimize it,” she explained.

Deloitte reminded that in the Polish parliament, the draft law on counteracting food waste is being worked on. It imposes on retail outlets with an area of over 250 sqm, where the revenues from the sale of foodstuffs account for at least 50 percent, the need to have a contract with a non-governmental organization and free transfer of food for social purposes. The project also sets an annual fee of PLN 0.1 per 1 kg of waste food.

According to Deloitte experts, the project is an important step, but it also has its drawbacks as it only tackles the retail part without addressing issues at the production level and at a consumer level.