skip to main content
Newsroom

Overview    News

Food waste in Ireland is above the EU average

In Ireland, about 150 kilograms of food are wasted yearly per inhabitant, according to the Eurostat data used by the JRC in its recent estimates of the impact of decreasing food waste in the EU. Total food waste in Ireland was about 770.000 tonnes of fresh mass in 2020. Households and the processing and manufacturing sectors were the highest producers of food waste.

EC JRC 2023

date:  08/08/2023

permalinkMain URL

In 2020 in the EU, nearly 59 million tonnes of food went to waste. That is 131 kg wasted food per each of us living in the European Union or roughly 10% of all food supplied to restaurants, food services, retail and households. Households in the European Union could save 220-720 euros on average every year by reducing food waste. This would mean an over 6% decrease in the share of food expenditure in total household expenditures. 

Households are responsible for over half (53%) of food waste in the EU, followed by the processing and manufacturing sector (20%), the primary production (10%), restaurants and food services (9%). Looking at what makes up the EU food waste, fruits and vegetables take the largest portion in the bin, accounting for 27% and 20%, respectively. Cereals (13%), meat (10%) and potatoes (10%) have a considerable share as well.