What has changed during the quarantine in our relationship with food?
From 29 April to 5 May Waste Watcher conducted a Spreco Zero campaign, was on 1200 subjects according to a statistical sample by gender, age, macro areas of residence, size of the municipality of residence. Participants were asked: For 24 hours of:
Take note of the food you throw away on a sheet of paper, indicating the motivation and weight. Use the kitchen scale if you have it, or report volumes or units! For example: Strawberry, 10 grams, mold; or 3 strawberries, mold; or half a glass of milk, too.
After 24 hours, fill in the online questionnaire
The investigation was also carried out in Greece on the same days. The results, although related to a limited number with respect to the entire population, still show a trend. In terms of the type of food, the interviewees seem to divide equally between fresh and packaged foods. Precisely these purchase choices have translated into greater attention to the management of the food purchased. "In fact, the amount of food wasted at home weekly is estimated at 430 grams - Segrè announces - a figure consistent with the trend recorded by the Waste Watcher 2020 report (released on the occasion of the National Waste Prevention Day, 5 February), when the waste drop had been about 25% less than in 2019. " By monitoring the waste of a single day, nothing ends up in the dustbin for 6 out of 10 Italians (61%). But what have we wasted, above all, during the quarantine period? In terms of frequency, vegetables and fruit remain at the top of the 'hit' of waste, followed by pasta and cooked rice, canned products, meat and bread. In terms of quantity, however, it is mainly bread that weighs 40g on average per portion thrown, followed by legumes (37 g), canned products (34 g) and then fruit and vegetables (32 g and 31 g).
According to the survey, the use by Italians of food delivery is scarce: almost 1 in 2 Italians (48%) declares a priori that they do not want to practice it, and for those who foresee the possibility of having their food delivered to their home periodicity is extremely thin, less than once a week for 1 Italian out of 3 and 1 to 6 times for 1 Italian out of 5 (20%). Great attention to the kitchen in the lockdown weeks: if 1 in 3 Italians declares that they have dedicated the same timing to the preparation of the food, 7 out of 10 Italians have tried their hand at the stove with more relevant frequency than before, and 4 out of 10 have done so with far greater relevance than in the past. On the purchasing front, less than 1 in 5 Italians (18%) relied on online purchases, for 3 Italians out of 4 (76%) the reference destination remains the supermarket and for 4 Italians out of 10 retail stores ( greengrocers, ovens, butchers, fishmongers, etc ...); if practicable, the local market for 1 in 10 respondents. For the few who choose to buy online, large e-commerce companies make up the lion's share for as many as 1 in 2 Italians (50%), while for other 4 out of 10 online shoppers, the choice falls on the same supermarket, through delivery (44%), 1 out of 4 chooses local producers (24%).
And the comparison with the balance? Four out of 10 Italians (41% of the interviewees) declare that they have kept the same weight as they had before the quarantine, for the other 6, instead, a period of controlled diet is looming: 1 out of 4 took over 2 kg (24%), and 1 in 5 contained weight gain within 2 kilos. But there is even who claims to have lost weight, just under 1 in 10 Italians (8%). In the downstream part of the food chain there is waste: and the Italians in lockdown have paid great attention not to be submerged by what is left of the food. For 1 in 2 Italians (50%) the quantity of waste remained the same as in the pre-quarantine period. For 1 in 5 Italians (19%) the quantity decreased (between 300 and 500 grams in more than 6 out of 10 cases), and for 1 interviewee out of 4 (26%) the quantity increased (between 300 and 500 gr per week in 1 out of 2 cases).
The Waste Watcher Observatory was established on the initiative of Last Minute Market/Swg in partnership with Expo 2015, to provide tools for analyzing food waste and food habits of Italians, together with social, environmental and economic impacts.The Report #iorestoacasa 2020 by Waste Watcher Observatory by Last Minute Market/Swg
(from Adn Kronos)
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