In celebration of the International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste, which is celebrated on the 29th, the company “Too Good to Go” is promoting a week of awareness and mobilisation of society to the problem of waste from today until next Sunday (the 29th).

Each Portuguese person wastes 2.38 kilos of food per week, according to the social impact platform that combats food waste.

Statistical data indicate that the 184 kilos of food wasted per capita per year make Portugal the fourth country in the European Union that wastes the most.

“This food waste generates more than six kilos of carbon dioxide (CO2) and the unnecessary waste of 1,928 litres of water per Portuguese person in a week”, warns the entity in a statement.

Basing its analysis on Eurostat data, “Too Good To Go” highlights that each person wastes more than 10 kilos of food per month.

And the company does more math: If each Portuguese person wastes 336 euros on food at home per year, and if each person spends on average 3,091 euros per year on food and drinks, then 3.4% of this budget “is spent on food that is being wasted” every year.

“In a context in which concern for our planet and the environment is becoming a priority, and the cost of living is increasingly high, reducing waste is an urgent matter”, highlights the platform in the statement.

On September 29, the organisation will “call attention to the magnitude of food waste and the work being done to eradicate it.”

“Half a kilo of food wasted by one person during a week may seem like little, but if we multiply it by the 10 million inhabitants, in Portugal there are more than five million kilos wasted per week,” it warns.

The objective of the Week Without Food Waste is to “inspire people to take action,” said Maria Tolentino, director of Too Good to Go for Portugal, quoted in the document.

During the week against waste, an initiative that involves nine of the 19 countries where “Too Good to Go” operates, people are invited to follow a daily tip to be put into practice at home.

The company also raises awareness and provides information and content to the brands and establishments with which it works.

In a public manifesto, the company also calls for combating food waste to be a priority on the political agenda.

The manifesto advocates three measures: the definition of “concrete and ambitious” waste reduction targets at a national level, the accounting of waste throughout the value chain, and the establishment of a mandatory hierarchy to “achieve tangible and effective reductions and results”.

In the document, “Too Good to Go” says it is aware that companies can be a major agent of impact, but stresses that legislation, “and everything related to regulatory aspects”, can “significantly accelerate solutions”.

The company, created in Denmark in 2016 when a group of friends saw all the food that had not been consumed in a restaurant being thrown away, uses an app to connect consumers with restaurants, supermarkets, grocery stores and hotels, allowing users to buy products that were not going to be used at lower prices.

This International Day of Awareness on Food Loss and Waste was proclaimed by Resolution 74/209 of the UN General Assembly on December 19, 2019.