Here's why Switzerland ranks top for food waste

According to the United Nations, each person in Switzerland throws away 170 kilograms of food every year. Significantly more than in most other countries. The main reason is our prosperity.

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According to a United Nations report in late March, more than 1 billion pieces of food are thrown away every day around the world. At the same time, 783 million people worldwide suffer from hunger or malnutrition. No wonder Inger Andersen, president of the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP), condemned “food waste as a global tragedy.”

The report's data is based on 2022. According to United Nations estimates, about 60% of global food waste occurs in private households, followed by the catering and retail industries. In 2022, private households alone wasted an average of 79 kilograms of food per person.

But global food waste is not just a problem for rich countries. For example, in countries with hotter climates, the proportion of food that spoils and therefore is not wasted is higher. This is usually due to a poor or interrupted cold chain.

Switzerland ranks 17th among the countries with the most food waste per capita in the world. In our private households, 119 kilograms of food are wasted per person per year. If retail and catering are included, the figure is even 170 kilograms. This would put Switzerland at the top of Europe's list.

However, international comparisons are not without problems. On the one hand, the UNEP figures are only estimates based on scientific research, and on the other hand, measuring food waste is difficult because there is no unified method. For example, wet food waste is heavier than dry food waste of the same volume.

However, Switzerland’s top spot when it comes to food waste is not up for debate. There are also explanations for why more food is thrown away in Switzerland than elsewhere: on the one hand, Switzerland's high purchasing power means buying more than you actually need, and local consumers always want to be able to choose from different foods. Fresh and full range.

According to the Federal Office for the Environment, bread and baked goods are thrown away most frequently in Switzerland, followed by fish, stored and fresh vegetables, cheese and fruit. The food can actually be reused – in the form of animal feed, fertilizer or used to generate electricity and heat.

Steps that families can take to prevent large amounts of food waste are simple:

However, this alone is not enough to truly declare war on food waste in Switzerland. This is why the Federal Council wants to reduce avoidable food losses by at least half by 2030 compared to 2017 through the Action Plan against Food Waste. To achieve this, many large food manufacturers, such as Emmi, Fenaco or Migros and Coop, have signed cross-industry agreements with the federal government. They hope to reduce food waste by 20% by the end of 2025.

Federal Councilor Ignazio Cassis attended three United Nations Security Council meetings in New York on Monday. The content covers the situation in the Middle East, the crisis in Sudan and the war in Ukraine.