Globally, more than 25% of food produced is wasted. In Ireland we waste about 750,000 tonnes of food each year, according to current best estimates. Growing, processing and transporting food uses a huge amount of resources, such as land, water, energy and fertiliser. If food is wasted, these resources are wasted too.
Food waste is also a significant contributor to climate change. It is estimated that food waste generates about 8% to 10% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Reducing food waste is therefore an effective climate action.
For information and tips to help you reduce household food waste, visit the EPA’s Stop Food Waste website.
If you are a food sector business and want to take action to reduce your food waste, visit the EPA's Food Waste Charter website.
In line with the food use heirarchy, preventing food waste should be prioritised and any unavoidable food waste should be treated in the most resource efficient way possible. Diverting food waste from landfill has environmental and financial benefits, and the benefits of preventing food waste are even greater.
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The National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap 2023-2025 was published in November 2022. In the Roadmap the government has identified priority actions to meet Ireland's commitment to reduce food waste. The EPA has been given responsibility to deliver various actions under the Roadmap, with support from the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine and other stakeholders.
The EPA leads the national food waste prevention programme which is delivered through the Circular Economy Progamme.
The programme delivers campaigns and supports targeting food waste in households, across the supply chain and in the hospitality sector, in support of national targets and objectives for a 50% reduction in food waste by 2030.
Household food waste: awareness raising activities through the national stopfoodwaste.ie campaign, and application of behavioural insights to achieve widespread public awareness of environmental and social issues around wasted food; leading to a significant increase in the number of people taking action on the issue.
Supply chain and hospitality: activities to drive change across the Retail, Distribution, Processing and Manufacturing sub-sector, and reducing food waste in the Hospitality and Food Service sectors.
Data and evidence: Behavioural insight is a foundation of the programme, providing evidence and data to inform policy, behavioural change interventions and awareness campaigns, establish sectoral benchmarks and indicators, and to monitor progress. These insights include:
Robust and meaningful data on food waste is central to building a compelling narrative on the benefits of preventing food waste and to complying with national legislative reporting requirements.
The EPA produces national waste statistics and therefore has responsibility for producing the relevant statistics under the Waste Framework Directive. The EPA also funds research and studies to develop finer scale understanding and address data gaps in this area.
Under the government's Roadmap, the EPA has responsibility to co-ordinate the Forum on Food Waste, with support from the Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications and various stakeholders. The Forum is a national platform to bring policy leaders, businesses and and experts from across the food supply chain together and provides a valuable network for information exchange on food waste prevention and reduction activities.
2021: presentations and videos Food Forum
