We can stop it one plate at a time…

By Eleni Panayiotou

We’ve all done it, left food on our plates after over-ordering at a restaurant or thrown out most of the Cyprus Sunday barbecue (you know who you are). But while this might seem trivial in the moment, collectively, food waste is a global crisis with deeply local consequences.

In Cyprus, local environmental NGO AKTI Project and Research Centre has been raising awareness on food waste for over a decade and earlier this month through the support of the Federation of Filipino Organisations in Cyprus (FFOC ) it has once again shone the spotlight on the issue through the PINOY Cooking Challenge.

The PINOY Cooking Challenge, now in its seventh year, is a food waste awareness and gastronomy event raising awareness around sustainability and conscious consumption whilst having fun.

On Sunday, May 18, the six teams cooked traditional Filipino food, sang and danced but unlike a typical cooking competition, success wasn’t just about taste, it was also about using up every ingredient and not having any waste. With meticulously labelled bins for biodegradable and non-biodegradable waste the contestants aimed high.

In a society where food often plays a central role in celebrations and hospitality, this event does ask a vital question: how can we honour food? How do we minimise precious food waste?

According to Eurostat (2024), over 59 million tonnes of food waste are generated in the EU each year, equivalent to 132 kg per person. At the same time, 42 million Europeans struggle to afford a quality meal every second day. You’d think that there’s something wrong with the numbers, but there isn’t. These are the facts. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that one-third of all food produced for human consumption – about 1.3 billion tonnes – is wasted each year, even as 828 million people worldwide go hungry.

The consequences of food waste do not however stop there; it is not just an economic or moral issue. Food waste accounts for roughly 16 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions from the EU food system. When organic waste ends up in landfills, it decomposes and produces methane, a greenhouse gas far more potent than carbon dioxide. As the climate crisis accelerates, reducing food waste becomes one of the most effective individual and collective actions we can take.

Who do you think the biggest contributor to food waste is? Restaurants? Luxury hotels? Likely culprits but not the biggest. The biggest contributors are our homes. Households generate more than 54 per cent of total food waste in the EU, accounting for 72 kg per person (Eurostat 2024). That is an astonishing percentage, which clearly outlines the fact that the power to create change isn’t only up to policy – it’s in our own kitchens.

Knowing that we can do something about this is a relief however solutions require more than just awareness. According to a 2024 study published in Resources (Special Issue: Alternative Use of Biological Resources) food waste “represents a significant untapped potential that can be harnessed to enhance food security”, with strategies like composting, bioconversion and upcycling waste into fertilisers, animal feed, and even new food products. In other words, food waste isn’t just a problem, but it can be seen as an opportunity for innovation, for community resilience, and for building a circular food economy that gives back more than it takes.

The UN’s Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 calls for halving per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels by 2030.

What can that look like? Cook smaller portions. Get creative with leftovers (we love that orzo with leftover chicken!). Learn to store food better (did you know that onions and potatoes shouldn’t be stored together? I certainly didn’t know that gases from the onions cause potatoes to ripen, and moisture from the potatoes causes onions to leak!). Support local events and businesses that prioritise sustainable practices. Advocate for redistribution policies that ensure surplus food reaches those who need it.

As you watch your beef burger cooking over that summer barbecue remember that it took 2,000 litres of water to make it (World Economic Forum). Let’s stop viewing food waste as inevitable. Instead, let’s see it for what it truly is: a chance to be smarter, kinder and more connected – to our environment, to each other, and to the meals we share. One plate at a time…

Eleni Panayiotou is a communications manager at Isotech Ltd (journalist and creative communications and media strategist