Study shows Portuguese people throw away more food, especially fruits, in summer

A quarter of Portuguese people throw away more food in the summer, especially fruits, followed by vegetables and dairy products, a study published this Thursday suggests that one of the justifications is that heat spoils food more quickly.

Of the 1,000 respondents (representative study for Too Good To Go), almost half said it was difficult to control waste because heat spoiled food more easily, with more than a quarter of respondents saying heat made them eat less and therefore spoil more.

A smaller percentage noted that in the summer people eat more outside the home, which leads to spoilage of purchased products.

In a statement about the study, the company recalls the values ​​of food waste in Portugal, 1.89 million tons per year, and also recalls that the planet has already been in an ecological deficit since the 2nd (when it began to consume resources that should only be used next year) .

To keep food from being wasted, Too Good To Go (created in Denmark in 2016 after a group of friends saw that all the uneaten food in a restaurant was thrown away) links consumers to restaurants, supermarkets, grocery stores through the app and hotels, allowing users to buy products they didn’t intend to use at lower prices. It is currently located in 17 countries and has over 80 million users and 134,000 partners.

The study warns that 28% of the Portuguese waste more food in the summer and that food waste is responsible for 10% of greenhouse gas emissions globally.

In addition to a waste of money and natural resources, the document says, food waste also has another negative impact on the environment, as the decomposition of discarded foods releases greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide (CO2), methane (CH4) and nitrous oxide. nitrogen (N2O), gases that contribute to global warming.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) reports that about a third of all food produced in the world is lost or wasted at some point in the food supply chain, between production and consumption, while more than 800 million people go hungry. .

Data released last year showed that every Portuguese wastes 183 kg of food a year, 10 kg more than the EU average.

However, according to the study, seven out of 10 respondents admit that they do everything not to throw away food, 61% of respondents say they feel uncomfortable and upset when food is thrown away, and 66% are aware that food is thrown away at home. More than half say they ask for leftover food to be packed when they dine out.

Since its inception, Too Good To Go has saved more than 220 million tons of food from waste. In Portugal, the company has already recovered more than 2.9 million boxes, avoiding the waste of more than 2,900 tons of food.