New Report Finds Israelis Waste Obscene Amount of Food Each Year

Earlier this month, the global consulting firm BDO completed its first-ever comprehensive survey of food waste in Israel. (Surprisingly for such a gluttonous age as ours, Israel is only the second country, after Australia, to commission such a report.) The results are grim: for a country of seven million people where 1.6 million reportedly live under the poverty line, the Jewish state wasted 1.3 million tons of edible food in 2015 alone. This number translates to NIS18 billion ($4.5 billion), or 1.6 percent of the national GDP.

Commissioned by Leket, a non-profit that rescues fresh, perishable food from farms, hotels, army bases and other institutions, the report estimated that Israelis waste 85 kilograms, or 187 pounds, on average per household each year, 75 percent of which are fruits and vegetables.

“The research demonstrates the significant economic and social impact of food rescue to Israel’s national economy,” said Gidi Kroch, Leket’s CEO. “Rescuing 25 percent of food waste translates to a savings of NIS 3 billion [approximately $755 million], equivalent to the food purchasing gap between the food insecure and food secure.”

By 2030, Kroch added, his organization hoped to reduce food loss in Israel by 50 percent, in large part by passing legislation that would require organizations funded by the state to contract with recognized food rescue groups. “Even modest gains at cutting waste dramatically improves societal conditions, and does so at a relatively low cost,” Kroch added. “The price of adopting a food rescue program is significantly less expensive than the many social welfare programs being used all around the world.”