A third of the human food produced on earth every year is thrown away uneaten according to a report published by the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture. Furthermore Spain’s ministry for agriculture, fishing and food claim that a total of 1.363 billion tonnes of food was thrown away in 2020 alone.

Spain’s Council of Ministers have concluded that this equates to 31 kilos of food per person is being wasted and have therefore implemented a set of laws to reduce the wastage.

This means that all industries in the food chain will need to reduce waste, handling and storage will need to ensure optimum freshness by providing sufficient fridge or freezer space, restaurants must give customers the option to take home parts of meal uneaten at the table, and supermarkets should offer reduced prices on items approaching or reaching their ‘use by’ date.

Everybody working in the food chain must be given training on food handling to prevent damage and the priority will be to donate unsold perfectly edible food to food banks or equivalent charities. 

As reported by the ThinkSpain website failure to comply with the new laws will face hefty fines ranging from €6,000 to €150,000 and these are aimed at reducing excess emissions, land use, water, deforestation and carbon emissions.