A project to strengthen the knowledge about food wastage from Norwegian households shows that every inhabitant throws away an average of 42.6 kg of edible food each year (2016-2017).
It is the Environmental Protection Agency who commissioned the project in order to find a new reference value for the amount of food wast from households and how much of this is actually food wastage. The report was published April 11 this year.
Mepex has played a key role in this project by carrying out all the analyzes and quantitative calculations. The project has been carried out in collaboration with Avfall Norge and Østfoldforskning.
A good reference point for future measurements
The new figures, based on a comprehensive analysis material, shows an amount on the same level as previous estimates.
“We in Mepex believe that the present figures do not provide a basis for concluding on a trend that food wastage from households are reduced. The reason for this is that previous calculations have been too uncertain. With the new analyzes and quantitative calculations, we have achieved a good reference point for future measurements towards 2020, says Frode Syversen, Managing Director of Mepex.
Syversen finds it worth emphasizing that over 76% of the food wastage consists of bakery, fruits, vegetables and meal left-overs. “These are products where expiry date is not a big challenge,” says Syversen.