Seán Canney (Galway East, Independent) | Oireachtas source

Globally, one third of all food produced for human consumption is estimated to be wasted each year. Per household, food waste is thought to cost €700 per annum in Ireland. Our ambition is to halve that by 2030. In Ireland, we waste close to 1 million tonnes of food every year. About a third of that arises in retail and catering, with a somewhat smaller share of waste accounted for by consumers and a somewhat larger share coming from producers. While supermarkets are directly responsible for the disposal of only 2% of food waste, their influence across the supply chain from farm to fork makes them central actors in combating our national food waste problem.

Recognising this, my Department and the Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, sought to involve major supermarkets in our efforts to reduce food waste. Aldi, BWG Foods, Lidl, Musgrave and Tesco have all participated in my Department’s action group on food waste. This has involved signing up to the food waste charter, promising to stop food waste, and signing up to the FoodCloud food donation network. I visited FoodCloud's premises lately. It is astounding to see how much food is saved through that mechanism. Participants in the food waste action group will also implement the collection and sharing of food waste data. I believe we can build on this foundation with further initiatives with the sector to encourage better practices by producers and consumers all along the food chain.

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