’Less food waste does make a difference’

One out of every three kilogrammes of food in the world is wasted. 'Hence, preventing food waste is equally important for the climate as reducing the consumption of meat', says Toine Timmermans, programme manager of sustainable food chains at WUR. Timmermans' eye was drawn to a remarkable quote on reducing food waste in a from the Dutch Academy of Food Sciences. The quote read: 'The environmental benefits are limited, but there are no drawbacks either.' The press release claimed that reducing the consumption of meat would, indeed, make a difference. The article quoted Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam professor of Nutrition for a Healthy Life Ingeborg Brouwer as saying this during a public lecture entitled "Healthy Food for a Healthy Planet." 'Eating less meat certainly benefits the environment. However, professor Brouwer suggests that reducing food waste hardly makes a difference. I hear this more often, but it is not true', says Timmermans.