FOOD waste is bad news for the health of our planet, and a high level of it could be avoided – in fact, Spain's government has just introduced the country's first-ever law regulating use and disposal of edibles.
The Council of Ministers has taken on board warnings from the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and its Sustainable Development Objectives (SDOs), which are based upon figures showing that a third of the human food produced on earth every year is thrown away uneaten.
According to Spain's ministry for agriculture, fishing and food, in 2020 alone, a total of 1.363 billion tonnes of food was binned.
Putting this in perspective, says the ministry, it means every single person in Spain chucks out 31 kilos of food annually – the equivalent of the average body weight of a nine- or 10-year-old child per inhabitant every year.
Excess emissions and land use, wasted water...
The negative effects of food waste mean that land for crops and grazing is used which does not need to be – often resulting in deforestation, or chopping down trees that provide oxygen and reduce harmful carbon dioxide emissions – chemical fertilisers are hard to avoid in mass production, which is why organic produce is more expensive as less of it is yielded in an average season, water is used for food which goes straight into the bin, and energy consumed and, with it, emissions that trap heat within the earth's atmosphere, when it could have been saved.
In the case of the meat industry, food produced and wasted means animals bred and killed unnecessarily.
It is no secret that enough food is produced on earth to feed every single one of its 7.44 billion inhabitants adequately, but that distribution means some communities starve whilst others waste, overeat or both – but even with current production volumes, 50% more than necessary is generated worldwide.
'Sustainable disposal hierarchy'
Spain's new 'food-saving' law aims to 'steer towards a more efficient production system' which 'focuses on development of a circular economy', and requires all industries throughout the food chain, from the primary or agricultural sectors through to tertiary or retail and hospitality businesses, to have a plan in place to cut waste.
A 'hierarchy of priority destinations' for food that has not been used or sold will be introduced, and businesses which do not comply could face hefty fines.
Unsold, but perfectly edible food should firstly be donated to food banks or other, similar charities; if they cannot be, but are still in a good condition, they should be used to make other types of food – for example, inferior shapes and sizes of fruit can be turned into juice or jam by manufacturers who cannot sell them to shops or supermarkets – or, if they are not ideal for human consumption but are not actually mouldy or toxic, should be used to make animal food.
If goods are unsuitable for consumption by any human or animal, no matter how they are cut, mixed or juiced, they should be destined for industry, to create biomass as a fuel source, or as compost.
Fruit and vegetables that have 'gone off' could also, in theory, be buried in soil and allowed to grow into new crops.
Handling, storage, and price reductions
Everyone working along the food chain must be given full training by their employees on correct handling, storing and transporting, to prevent damage, and all industries working with food must have suitable facilities to ensure optimum freshness – such as enough refrigerator or freezer space, or refrigeration units for shipping.
Supermarket food items which are getting close to their 'use by' date, or which have gone past the 'best before' date but are still in good condition, should be sold at reduced prices and separated from those still 'in date', or can be donated.
In reality, 'best before' dates are typically cautious, and once expired, do not mean the food item is automatically unsuitable for consumption – it means they may start to lose quality, flavour or both after that date, although this is not always certain and goods might still taste exactly the same a day or even several days after the 'best before'.
And in the case of certain fruits, for example, they can in fact be even more suitable for their purpose once they are considered to be 'past their best' – bananas make better milkshakes and smoothies when they start to go soft, and the recipe for banana bread actually stipulates the peel should have gone black before it is used.
Many supermarkets in Spain have already, for some time, been attaching prominent labels to fruit and vegetables close to their use-by date – in Mercadona, for example, huge yellow stickers reading Bajada de Precio ('Price Reduction') are applied, and are more frequently found late on a Saturday or on the eve of a public holiday, since they may not be fresh enough for sale by Monday.
Restaurants required to package leftovers upon request
Bars and restaurants also have food-saving rules to follow – they must give customers the option to take home any parts of their meals they cannot eat at the table, at no extra cost.
In practice, the majority of restaurants in Spain already do this – new expats, and holidaymakers, especially from northern European or North American countries, are often pleasantly surprised by how 'manageable' the portions are in size, meaning there is less tendency to feel 'over-faced' by an enormous plateful in a Spanish restaurant and, in nearly all cases, diners can take the surplus home in a takeaway box.
Anyone who finds themselves in that situation in Spain and thinks their leftovers will do them nicely for tomorrow's lunch only has to ask, ¿Puedo llevarlo a casa? (“Can I take it home?”) and there is no shame involved – the philosophy of most restaurants is that, if you're paying for it, then it's yours whether you eat it all on the premises or not.
Schools, hospitals and similar public institutions will have to make a conscious effort to avoid food waste, which could mean not overloading a pupil's or a patient's plate if the person stresses they are not very hungry, and will have to follow the same donation-juicing-animal feed-compost hierarchy as supermarkets and restaurants.
Local, seasonal and organic must be encouraged
All companies in the food chain are required to encourage sales and use of in-season, local and organic produce as much as possible, which could involve advertising campaigns about how they are healthier, more environmentally-friendly or help the local economy, or strategic shelf-placing, or reduced prices, or all of these.
Fines for non-compliance, when considered 'serious offences', range from €6,000 to €150,000, which the government says is to act as a deterrent, not as a new way to make money.
These 'offences' include impeding food donation or neglecting to do so, inadequate storage, handling and hygiene – behaviour which is also incumbent upon the food banks receiving the donations – or discriminating against who receives donated food, such as where poverty parcels are given to Spanish nationals only and denied to foreigners.
The latter is purely an example, as no reports of such a case are known about, and food banks and charities frequently stress that they exist to help everyone who needs them, not just certain sectors of society.
'Less-serious' offences, which attract fines of up to €6,000, include not having an anti-food waste plan in place, not following the set hierarchy of sustainable disposal, not keeping a record of waste and informing authorities, or not having the mechanisms in place for edible unsold food to be donated.
Charities and food banks could face disciplinary action if they are given food donations and do not distribute them appropriately, or not at all, or leave them to go to waste.
