<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
Food waste is one of the most worrying aftermaths of
<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Irrespective of their country of
<\/p>\n Also, according to the respondents of the survey,
<\/p>\n We had a question related to the
<\/p>\n The sanitary crisis triggered by the COVID-19 virus
<\/p>\n The crisis triggered by the
<\/p>\n Meanwhile, some of the economic operators and civic
<\/p>\n First off, when we speak about food
<\/p>\n Held in schools, during the homeroom classes, also using digital resources, the InfoCons campaign offers the required tools so that the prospective consumers may be correctly informed on food waste. <\/p>\n (Translation by Eugen Nasta)<\/p>\n
Romanians’ opinions on food waste<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":143829,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[42997],"tags":[43851,43852,34104,36546,33069,35052],"coauthors":[],"class_list":["post-143828","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-society-today","tag-associations","tag-civic","tag-economic","tag-food","tag-operator","tag-waste"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
\ntoday’s consumerism, and Romania is not spared that scourge either. Food waste
\nhas become really troublesome so much so that in 2016 a bill was passed to
\nfight food waste. Unfortunately, the implementation standards of the law are
\nyet to be completed. Big quantities of food are being thrown in the litter bin
\nby the Romanians, according to recent estimates. Such quantities are large
\nenough to load more than 120,000 trucks each year. Food costs account for 40%
\nof Romanians’ incomes, but unfortunately, 35 to 40% of the food ends in the
\nlitter bin. Clearer and more recent pieces of information have recently been
\nmade public thanks to a sociological survey carried in the summer and autumn of
\n2020 by Cluj-Napoca’s University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary
\nmedicine, as part of an international project financed by the Francophone
\nUniversity Agency. The research focused on three countries, Romania, Republic
\nof Moldova and Northern Macedonia. The results were not that much different
\nfrom one country to the next, of the three aforementioned states. For instance,
\ntaking food habits into account, the vast majority of the respondents stated
\nthey more often than not made a shopping list, which speaks about prudence and
\nprecaution. Also, around 90% of respondents said they usually cooked at home,
\nwhich, at least in theory, meant a lower degree of degradation for the food,
\nsince it was cooked as fresh as possible. However, the study carried by the
\nuniversity in Cluj only confirms earlier estimates on food waste in Romania. Cristina Pocol is the coordinator of the research team:<\/span><\/p>\n
\norigin, respondents said they throw food away. 83% of Romanian respondents said
\nthat. A similar answer was provided by 78.8% of the respondents from Republic
\nof Moldova, as well as by 67.2% respondents in Northern Macedonia. There are
\nquite a few habits related to food waste. We wanted to find our whether
\nrespondents checked the expiry date of a certain food produce. Most of them
\nsaid they never failed to do that each time they took their consumer’s
\ndecision. Then most of the respondents are very particular about the way they
\nstore their food, where and how they do that. And are somehow interested in
\navoiding food waste. Practically, it was very interesting for us to find out
\nthat, when asked how interested they were in avoiding the waste of food, for
\ntheir most part they said they were very interested, and that it was a topic
\nthey really cared about. But that comes in stark contrast with their behavior.
\nOkay, they are interested in the topic of food waste, but they throw food away.
\nThese two things just don’t add up. They do no know how to curb waste, they do
\nnot have the required methods to do that, meaning that for them, education to
\nthat end is in short supply. Let me just say that once again, most of them
\nthrow food away. Most of them are interested in the topic of food waste.
\nHowever, we notice such a contradiction did exist. And the explanation I found
\nfor that was that they try, and have that in mind, but they do not put that
\ninto practice. They do not put that into practice for several reasons: they may
\nhave tried and failed in their efforts, and when it comes to that, we also need
\nto see the reason why they failed.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nthose who waste most of the food are the restaurants and the individual
\nconsumers, while economic operators come in third, especially the supermarkets
\nwhere people mainly make their purchase. Cristina Pocol:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nbuying habits. We still noticed a behavior pattern which practically comes a s
\nno surprise for us. For their most part, people do their shopping from the
\nsupermarket and the hypermarket. Very few people for the time being, opt for
\nthe small traders, for the short supply circuits. Most of them resort to the
\nhypermarkets, and then they go to the marketplace. Very few of them use the
\nshort circuits or value the producer’s direct relationship with the consumer,
\nwhich is very important in various respects. Actually, the retail gives you the
\nopportunity to consume fresh and genuine products, Romanian products. So I
\nbelieve there’s a lot more work to do when it comes to that, meaning we also
\nneed to carry education campaigns to that end. Nonetheless, it would be better
\nto raise the consumers’ awareness on the importance of buying local.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\ndid not change the buying habits in Romanian and Republic of Moldova. About two
\nthirds of the respondents stated they could buy the same quantity of food with
\nthe same money. However, a change does exist, which occurred during the
\npandemic, but it was not the one we expected. Cristina Pocol:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nCOVID-19 virus prompted more than 10% of the respondents to throw more food
\naway. I expected a totally different result. In my mind, the following
\nmechanism was working: I thought that, since we had the lockdown, we were more
\ncareful about what we eat, how we eat and how we plan our shopping. That is why
\nstarted off from the assumption whereby such a thing would have food waste
\nreduction as a result. The outcome of the study has revealed otherwise. 10% of
\nthe respondents say they throw more during the pandemic. I tried to find
\nexplanations to that. Much larger stocks may have been made. That could be the
\nmain explanation. We all know what happened at the beginning of the sanitary
\ncrisis, when people went wild buying boxes of food, they bought food in very
\nlarge quantities for fear they would be deprived of food supplies. That could
\nbe an explanation. That food could not be consumed straight away and in a
\nrelatively short period of time. So, part of it was disposed of. I believe the
\nclear explanation for all that is the fact that, eventually, too much storage
\nof food lead to waste. <\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nassociations stage awareness-raising campaigns for a within-bounds consumption
\nrate and for the fated consequences food waste has on the economy as well as on
\nthe environment. InfoCons is an NGO that has staged such a campaign targeting
\nthe economic costs of food waste. Sorin
\nMierlea is the president of InfoCons. He believes that, if emphasis is laid on
\neconomic loss, the message for fighting food waste is easier to reach the
\npublic. Sorin Mierlea:<\/span><\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\nwaste it is not the problematics we discuss, but we also need to consider the
\nmoney we pay each time we buy food products that end in the litter bin
\nafterwards. That kind of cost means hours of work while those hours of work
\neventually mean the life of every one of us. In another move, I believe that
\neach and every one of us, in our capacity as consumers, need to have all the
\ndata and the info lest we have no choice other than saying we did not know
\nanything about it. Therefore, InfoCons, jointly with other entities in other
\ncountries, since this it’s a cross-border project, has set out to raise the
\npublic opinion’s but also the public authorities’ awareness on the impact food waste may have.<\/p>\n
\n
<\/p>\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"