For meat, fish and eggs, supermarkets have to take products off the shelves and apparently destroy them once they have reached the “use by” date.
“We are not allowed to pass this on to social organizations, as we sometimes do with other expired foods,” said Paul Pötschacher, spokesman for the grocery retailer Rewe (Billa, Billaplus). “As a retailer, we make a living from selling food – throwing it away in the trash is neither desirable nor common practice.”
Confronted with the scenes in the video, the President of the Upper Austrian Chamber of Agriculture, Franz Waldenberger, said in a first reaction to the OÖ Nachrichten: “It’s a slap in the face for every farmer when you see how high-quality food is destroyed. It does heartache.”
However, he does not want to shake the strict safety regulations for sensitive foods, but wants to start with people’s awareness. As a consumer, you should be aware of the enormous waste of resources that your purchase may cause.
Around 60 percent of the food thrown away occurs in private households (see graphic). “Only” nine percent in supermarkets and wholesalers, says Carmen Brüggler from the Land creates life initiative. The private household is the biggest spendthrift. A third of all food produced worldwide ends up in the garbage.
Expressed in figures, this corresponds to around 120,000 tonnes in processing that are destroyed, 85,000 tonnes in trade, 175,000 tonnes in out-of-home consumption and 520,000 tonnes per year in private households. In total, that is a million tons of food that is thrown away. Calculated in trucks: 50,000 trucks with a load of 18 tons per vehicle.
Largest dairy farmer is angry: “Every third bull ends up on the garbage”
“It’s not just the fault of the trade, but also of the consumers. Food has no value anymore,” said Austria’s largest dairy farmer, Johann Konrad from Pfaffing near Vöcklabruck, shocked by the pictures to the Upper Austria News. He, who has around 1,000 animals (dairy and fattening cattle) in the stables, calls for a massive rethinking of trade and consumers. “Every third bull ends up in the garbage,” he says, coining the general figures for his farm.
We were not able to clarify the amount of meat in the video and in which period and in which region the meat was produced by Friday noon. To date, Rewe has not provided any statement, but confirmed the authenticity of the video. “Unfortunately, that’s God’s fact,” said Pötschacher. A disposal company was commissioned to pick up the meat and dispose of it in accordance with regulations. You can probably see a biogas disposal plant in Lower Austria.
In any case, Waldenberger estimates that significantly more meat has to be destroyed every day (!) in Austria than the amount seen in the video.
Pötschacher from Rewe points to different approaches in the fight against food waste: Among other things, forecast-based order quantities, which, however, often do not apply due to the pandemic and the resulting changes in shopping behavior (less frequent, but more quantity per purchase). Shortly before the expiration date, food would often be cheaper. They also supply start-ups such as “Unverschvertt” and social institutions.
Source: Nachrichten
