Food waste in Austria: WWF and tables demand measures

Food waste in Austria: WWF and tables demand measures

In Austria, an alarming evil threatens: over 1.2 million tons of food are lost every year, which would be enough to cover the needs of 1.7 million people - this corresponds to the population of Lower Austria. In view of these frightening figures, the WWF (World Wide Fund for Nature) and the Association of Austrian tables from the new federal government are calling for immediate actions to combat food waste. At a media event in Vienna Hietzing, the pressing suggestions of these organizations were presented on Monday.

"Food that can no longer be sold must be better used and given away," emphasized Dominik Heizmann from the WWF. The two organizations have set themselves ambitious goals: by 2030, the waste is to be halved, so that the 1.1 million people who suffer from nutritional poverty in Austria.

claims for transparency and legal certainty

The proposals include the expansion of the reporting obligation for food waste and binding regulations for dealing with excess food. "We urgently need more transparency and incentives to better use edible products," continued Heizmann. The demands of the tables are clear: the legal hurdles that non -profit organizations are currently struggling must be eliminated. In particular, the clarification of liability issues is crucial, since there is currently a great uncertainty for these organizations if someone suffers health damage through a donated meal. Victoria Kull von der Tafeln emphasized the disproportionality of the liability regulations: "The company can expect solidarity from us, while large food companies do not have to bear the same responsibility."

The fact that in a WWF survey four out of five parliamentary parties have spoken out particularly explosive for a mandatory package of measures against food waste. According to Heizmann, a "further as before" is no longer portable: "Politics now have the chance to implement its election promises into concrete deeds." In view of the global climate crisis, in which around ten percent of greenhouse gas emissions can be attributed to food waste, it is not only a social but also environmental responsibility to act here. For more information on the topic and possible solutions, readers can do more in an article on Volksblatt.at read.