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Probe looks at grocery food waste in Sweden

TT/The Local
TT/The Local - [email protected]
Probe looks at grocery food waste in Sweden
Photo: Teo Yuwen (file)

The Nordic Council of Ministers will finance a major survey to investigate the reasons why thousands of tonnes of meat, fruit and vegetables are thrown away each year in Swedish grocery stores.

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The survey will also look at the causes of food waste in in shops and wholesalers in the Nordic countries, Swedish newspaper Svenska Dagbladet reported on Tuesday. The report should be ready by the end of the year.

Students at the Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences who were recently commissioned by the Consumer Association of Stockholm examined three stores in one week. They then provided an estimate showing that Coop Forum and Coop Konsum alone threw out about 1,200 tonnes of meat every year.

In 1995, Coop Sweden estimated that its food waste was 11,000 tonnes per year, a figure that is expected to have risen since the stores handle now handle more fresh produce more.

Consumer demands for well stocked shelves and the unwillingness of merchants to sell food close to their best-before date on sale are said to be some of the causes behind food waste in stores.

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