This is how the government wants to reduce Hungary’s food waste

Illustration: Unsplash / Markus Spiske

Around one-third of food produced for human consumption is wasted globally, with some 90 million tonnes of food in the European Union and 600,000 tonnes in Hungary ending up in landfill each year, the agriculture ministry cited Nagy as saying.

The minister noted that the EU this year had allowed the donation of unsold food to the needy. This regulation, he said, increased the amount of food that could be saved and therefore required the development of food redistribution systems.

Nagy noted that this was the aim of a law passed in Hungary earlier this month requiring retailers to save food by

offering it to the needy within 48 hours of its sell-by date.

The law, he said, was aimed both at preventing food waste and distributing unsold food to those in need through charity organisations.

Read also: Budapest among the best places for vegetarian food lovers in Europe

Under the amendment to the law regulating supermarkets, grocery chains will have the option of donating the food to

a new state-owned nonprofit, the Food Rescue Centre, or directly to charity organisations.

They will also be required to draw up a plan to reduce their food waste and appoint a manager in charge of saving food.

Read alsoOrbán cabinet to push out foreign supermarket chains

Source: MTI

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3 Comments

Mészáros & Orbán says:

30/12/2021 at 10:12

It has nothing to do with reducing food waste. This government just wants to abuse foreign grocery chains. Every now and then they think something new that would heart them (CBA owners are Orban friends).

It never applies to Hungarian chains.
Aron says:

31/12/2021 at 07:58

What’s wrong with private initiatives such as TooGoodToGo ? Government run hardly more efficient… Oh – and as a chain – if costs go up, you’d never pass on those costs to the consumer, right?
Put Simply says:

31/12/2021 at 09:16

Supermarket chains and shops in countries around the world including in the EU have been donating unsold food to the needy for decades. Nothing to do with recent EU regulations, every business was free to do so before.