September 29 is the FAO'sInternational Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste. On the occasion of this day, the platform Zu gut für die Tonne (Too good for the garbage can) is also calling for a week of action entitled "Deutschland rettet Lebensmittel!". With various on-site actions and digital formats, such as webinars or podcasts, participants can campaign for the topic of food appreciation throughout Germany. We would also like to use this day to once again draw attention to the problem of food waste.
Every year, nearly 931 million tons of food are wasted, according to the market research institute Capgemini. This was equivalent to around 23 million loaded 40-ton trucks - lined up end to end, this amount is enough to circle the earth seven times. Germany alone is responsible for about 12 million tons of this food waste. What is frightening about this is that many people are not even aware of what this actually means. Nearly half of consumers surveyed in a study do not associate food waste with climate change. A full 64% of consumers continue to believe that growing more food is necessary to end world hunger - unaware that throwing away less food could end food insecurity.
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) estimates that as much as 1.3 billion metric tons of food waste is generated each year. Experts assume that two-thirds of this food is still edible. This amount would be enough to feed around two billion people. With a figure of 821 million hungry people, we could therefore eliminate hunger from the world in purely mathematical terms - completely without increasing food cultivation. According to the United Nations, a 25% reduction in food waste would be enough to feed all undernourished people adequately.
Science agrees that reducing food waste plays an important role in mitigating climate change. With every piece of food thrown away, we lose valuable resources. These include fossil fuels for transportation, energy for refrigeration, labor, fertilizers, and natural resources such as water, habitats, and soils. For example, nearly 30% of the world's agricultural land, and an area three times the size of the EU, is already used to produce food that is never consumed. On top of that, our agriculture is responsible for 80% of deforestation. By 2050, this could lead to the clearing of around 10 million square kilometers of land to meet food demand. However, forests act as important carbon stores. Their deforestation releases CO2, which continues to drive climate change. What is worrying at this point is that food waste alone accounts for around 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
With our partners, we pursue the mission of using our software to optimize the use of goods and thus reduce food waste. Since our founding, we have already been able to save over 820,000 meals, which is equivalent to 1000 tons of CO₂-equivalents. We are thus making a significant contribution towards a responsible consumer climate as well as the preservation of our planet. By means of the four smart products, the Delicious Data system not only enables connected businesses to reduce avoidable food waste. At the same time, it generates cost savings, sales increases and higher consumer confidence. Our Food Waste Monitoring identifies and documents the areas where food waste occurs and highlights potential to take action, such as changing portion sizes. The use of sales forecasts enables the exact use of goods and thus already prevents overproduction. Generated results as well as other key figures are clearly bundled in the dashboard. These can be used for communication with customers or as part of the sustainability report. Finally, the Intelligent Day Planner takes over the scheduling of production tasks so that goods are available as needed at all times. This guarantees customers the best possible freshness and increases sales, with no overproduction or sell-outs.
