Irish Examiner View: We need to start tackling food waste

Buying mindfully means only purchasing the food we need.

A considerable amount of Christmas food will end up in the bin, as it does every year. File Picture.

Judging by the lengthy trolley queues outside supermarkets in the run-up to Christmas Day, fridges and presses across the country are still full to the brim with food. 

Unless entire armies were dining at the tables of Ireland this Christmas, it is hard to envisage how all of this could be consumed in a couple of days.

While much of it may be eaten in the coming week, a considerable amount will end up in the bin, as it does every year. In fact, it is estimated that in Europe, around 88m tonnes of food waste is produced annually, with households responsible for more than half of the total food waste. 

It is alarming to think how much of this might be generated over a seven-day period at the end of December.

From an environmental as well as a moral perspective, tackling food waste is probably one of the easiest actions consumers can take to improve the world we live in. 

The European Green Deal aims to reduce food waste in the EU by 50% by 2030. If we are to achieve that, the best place to start is by changing our mindsets at the shopping trolleys. 

Buying mindfully means shopping locally, supporting local producers, and purchasing only the food we need. Otherwise, we will continue on this perpetual cycle of buying food simply to throw it out.