Status: 02/02/2022 2:47 p.m
Millions of tons of food are thrown away every year – food that is still edible. Other EU countries have long since acted and enacted laws against waste. Little has happened in Germany so far.
Hundreds of rolls, several pallets of yoghurt or still fresh tomatoes: A look into the garbage cans of supermarkets left the reporters of the ARD business magazine Plusminus frightened again and again during their research. Food that is still edible is also in the containers. According to the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, there are twelve million tons of food thrown away every year in Germany. 18 million tons, according to a study by the environmental protection organization WWF. But why does so much food end up in the bin?
The issue of liability
Simply giving away sorted goods to customers would be better – one might think. But many traders are hesitant. The reason is the best before date (MHD) on many items. The manufacturer is liable for the goods until the best-before date is reached, then the “distributor”, i.e. the retailer – even if he gives the food away. And hardly any supermarket wants to take on the liability risk. Christian Böttcher, head of politics and communication at the Federal Association of the German Food Trade, confirms Plus minus: “It’s not like grocers like to throw away food that we can’t sell. Every unsold food is a monetary loss for the retailer.”
Fruit and vegetables, on the other hand, do not have a best-before date. But if apples, cucumbers and the like have a little quirk, they are still edible, but customers no longer buy them and therefore throw them away, say insiders.
Throwaway bans and tax incentives
In France, a law was passed in 2016 prohibiting the throwing away of usable food. With great success: Since then, the food banks and soup kitchens have been able to draw on significantly more food donations than before the law was introduced.
Just a few months later, Italy followed with a similar law. There are no bans there, but there are tax breaks. And above all, the food donors are not liable for the goods being flawless. The exemption from liability alone has achieved a lot: For example, food donations from the Banco Alimentare, the Roman table, rose by 20 percent within a year of the law being introduced. Donations have more than doubled since it was launched in 2016. Finland also followed the example of France and Italy and introduced a law against food waste in 2017, the Czech Republic followed in 2018.
What is the new federal government planning?
Are similar laws coming to Germany? The former federal government relied on voluntariness and had set itself the goal of halving the amount of food thrown away by 2030. In view of this, Jochen Brühl, chairman of the Tafel Deutschland, calls for Plus minus: “We think that’s a good approach. But it mustn’t just get stuck in talk or appeals. It has to be concrete. And there’s a lot of work to be done.”
But what happens after the change of government? The goal of reducing food waste is expressly laid down in the coalition agreement. But are there already first steps towards implementation? At the request of Plus minus The Federal Ministry of Justice only says: “The formation of an opinion within the Federal Government on the question of whether there is a need for legislative action with regard to the free distribution of food with an expired best-before date is not yet complete.”
But one thing is clear: as long as the legal situation does not change, large quantities of food will continue to end up in the garbage.
The ARD business magazine Plusminus reports on the subject tonight at 9.45 p.m. on the first.