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Up to 50% of edible and healthy food gets wasted in EU households, supermarkets, restaurants and along the food supply chain each year, while 79 million EU citizens live beneath the poverty line and 16 million depend on food aid from charitable institutions, according to an European Parliament report. The EP called in a resolution Thursday for urgent measures to halve food waste by 2025 and to improve access to food for needy EU citizens.
In the 27 EU member states 89 million tonnes of food per year i.e. 179 kg per capita are wasted and if no action is taken food wastage by 2020 is expected to rise to 126 million tonnes. "We can no longer afford to stand idly by while perfectly edible food is being wasted. This is an ethical but also an economic and social problem, with huge implications for the environment," said EP rapporteur Salvatore Caronna presenting the report. The EP welcomed existing initiatives in some EU Member States to recover unsold food and offer it to needy citizens and called on retailers to take part in such programmes.
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