Paris – Ten million tonnes of food wasted every year in France – L’Express

These volumes represent a carbon impact of 15.3 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent, or 3% of emissions of greenhouse gas in France, adds ADEME, which is launching a national campaign to waste awareness.

The publication of this study comes as the parliament voted in February of measures against food waste.

“ losses and wastage is observed at every stage of the food chain ,” says Agency at the time of consumption (33% of total losses and waste) but also the production (32%), processing (21%) and distribution (14%).

“ The entire waste and losses are not concentrated in the consumption phase, unlike the common misconception ,” said ADEME.

But “ 40% ” of their value corresponds to the consumption stage, as the value of a product increases throughout the food chain, because the cost of transportation, processing, selling or advertising, the study reveals.

The share of loss and waste varies for each of the food chain actor. It represents 7.3% of the tonnage for consumption (at home and outside the home), 4.5% for processing, 4% for production and 3.3% for distribution.

With him, every consumer wastes 26 kg of food per year. This represents “ about 30 grams per meal per guest ,” said ADEME.

collective and commercial catering, losses and waste are “ four times higher “, with 130 grams per meal per guest.

“ This suggests that they are more constraints which lead to losses and waste that irresponsible behavior + + ,” said the agency.

In fact, in this type of restoration, “ the choice is imposed, it is difficult to adjust the portions to each and very rarely possible to keep what one has not finished . ”

Fruits and vegetables are mostly lost and wasted in the production level (damaged goods, overproduction, market requirements).

But for salads, losses and waste are “ Important every step “, because of their fragility and distributors and consumer demands.

For products of animal sectors, losses and waste are “ much lower than for crops “, but “ economic and carbon impacts are more significant “, still indicates ADEME.