'Low cost' corner of ugly fruit in supermarkets and tupperware to take away in bars: keys to the new law to avoid waste

Three years ago the French supermarket chain Intermarché began selling defective fruit and vegetables with 30% discounts within

. Then he did the same with his brand of cookies, many of them broken inside the packages or with irregular shapes. The aim was to prevent the consumer from throwing away the products just because they have some deformity, break in transport or, ultimately,

.

The campaign ran for a whole month in the chain's stores and was remarkably successful. Following these same steps,

. The Government has approved this week a draft law to combat food waste that, among other things, contemplates that supermarkets dedicate a space in stores to sell products close to expiration or with aesthetic defects.

The distribution, which includes supermarkets, hypermarkets and specialized stores, is waiting to know the fine print of the regulations, although they go with the homework done, because, according to sources in the sector,

especially with packaged products, such as yogurts.

Now it will be done obligatorily and also with fresh products.

"We are waiting to learn a little more about the measures of this new project," says Ignacio García-Magarzo, general director of Asedas, the Spanish Association of Self-service and Supermarket Distributors, which encompasses most of the sector.

"

, because the fact of having stores next to home means that there is no accumulation in the fridge," he points out.

Donation without VAT

According to the new law, all agents in the food chain must have a prevention plan to avoid waste:

, those that have not been sold but are in optimal consumption conditions will be transformed into juices or jams, for example. On the other hand, those that are not suitable for human consumption will be given for animal feed.

El problema no está tanto en los envasados, donde no hay casi mermas y "la oferta está ajustada", sino en los frescos. Según Aecoc, la Asociación de Empresas de Gran Consumo, el 3,5% de los alimentos frescos en la distribución no llega a comercializarse por diferentes razones: por la manipulación de los consumidores, que los estropean, o porque se deterioran en el transporte o en el envío a domicilio. De estos, el 2% acaba desperdiciado. La mitad son frutas y verduras, por delante incluso del pescado (42%) y la carne (8%).

12% of this loss goes to donation, compared to 29% that is recovered or recycled and 59% that ends up in the waste manager, according to Aecoc.

This percentage of food that ends up wasted is explained because the chains "encounter serious difficulties in donating products such as meat and fish."

"Companies are the first interested in not having losses. It is not about having a sales corner with products close to expiration, but not having them, or reducing them, because that generates losses for companies and we are the first interested in not have them ", explain sources in the sector, who ask that companies

so that donating them does not imply a tax burden.

Waste in the fridges

They also believe that the debate has to focus more on households, which is where waste occurs.

According to data from the Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food,

.

The Government wants to reduce this figure by half in 2030. "This draft is intended to generate debate," said the Minister of Agriculture himself, Luis Planas, last week at the presentation of the draft.

In the case of hospitality, consumers will have the right (and the establishment will be obliged to do so)

something that, as occurs in distribution, "was already being done in a large part of the establishments" , they say from Hospitality of Spain.

"

", points out Rebecca Rippin, CEO for Iberia of Cookpad, an application focused on reducing food waste through the kitchen And that goes further, since it even tries to reuse parts of the fruits and vegetables that we normally throw away, such as peels or seeds.

"In the case of fresh food, every day we throw away parts of fruits and vegetables that are actually edible because we don't know how to use them. If we learn, and we manage to save half of our leftovers and half of the waste of fruits and vegetables, we could reduce by 34% the total waste of food in Spain from our homes ", says Rippin.

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