Greek seafood. Credit: Greek Reporter
Greece and Cyprus are among the three food wasters in the EU, according to the latest Eurostat data.
Greek consumers are discarding significantly more food per person than the EU average, despite widespread anxiety over the rising cost of living.
Greece is the third-highest in food waste
According to the figures, each Greek resident wasted an average of 201 kilograms (kg) of food per year, placing the country as the third-highest per capita food waster in the EU, only behind Cyprus and Denmark.
The nation’s total food waste reached over 2.09 million tonnes in 2023. This massive quantity is largely driven by Greek households, which wasted 44.3% of the total, amounting to 926,509 tonnes.
The remaining percentage was generated by the food supply chain (primary production, processing, retail, and catering services).
For many years, the debate on food waste in Greece was limited and often approached as a humanitarian issue during the economic crisis, rather than an environmental or economic problem.
While awareness is improving, public campaigns and educational initiatives aimed at changing entrenched consumer habits remain less comprehensive than in top-performing EU countries.
Food waste across the EU
In total, the EU generated 58.2 million tonnes of food waste in 2023, a slight increase of 0.7% over 2022.
Across the EU, households are the single largest source of waste, generating 53% of the total (69 kg per inhabitant). The remaining 47% of the EU total is created by sectors further up the supply chain.
For many years, the food waste phenomenon has been focused on developing countries where malnutrition and hunger are more common.
During the last two decades, however, developed countries began examining food waste, and the attitude towards food waste, in general, has changed as more people in wealthier countries seek assistance in meeting their nutritional needs.
The United Nations recognized the importance of the problem of food waste and, in early 2013, inaugurated the program “Think-Eat-Save: Reduce your Footprint” to drastically reduce food waste in wealthy nations.