The Council of Ministers gave the green light this Tuesday, for the second time, to bill to prevent food losses and waste, a proposal that was about to see the light of day in the last legislature, but that finally declined in its parliamentary process due to the advance of the general elections. The regulations, presented after the ministerial meeting by the head of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, provide, among other issues, that all companies involved in the food chain processes have plans to minimize food losses and fix fines of up to half a million euros for the most serious violations.
“We start from several positive points – Planas highlighted – such as the fact that since the pandemic, Spanish households have reduced by 13.5% food waste, and that only between 2021 and 2022, which is the last one for which we have data, this reduction was 6.1%.” The surveys managed by the ministry, he added, indicate that almost a third of families, 29% to be exact, assures that they no longer generate food waste or that if they do, they are very low. “It is 3% more than in 2021,” the minister stressed.
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The new law will force companies that are in direct contact with consumers to establish agreements with non-profit entities for the donation of surpluses. “Establishments with a surface area of more than 1,300 square meters are required by law to have this type of agreement,” insisted Planas, who recalled that “bars, restaurants and taverns “They will have to offer their clients the possibility of taking home leftover food or drink that they have not consumed.”
In Spain, 1,300 million liters and kilos of food are lost per year and, on the planet, food production that is thrown away generates 10% of greenhouse gas emissions. Only with the water that is lost throughout Europe to produce food that is then wasted, the equivalent of 250 cubic kilometers, For example, the Sau reservoir could be filled a total of 1,515 times.one of those that is suffering the most from the effects of the current episode of drought in Catalonia