Minister of Food and Agriculture, Christian Schmidt, wants to reduce food wastage by abolishing the expiration date on packaging in favour of more scientific alternatives.
According to a study commissioned by the Ministry of Food and Agriculture, German citizens threw away 82kg of food in 2012 or the equivalent of €235 in food per person. About half of the food discarded is fruit and vegetables, closely followed by pasta and bread.
Christian Schmidt is aiming to half food waste by 2030. The minister is convinced that products are fit for consumption long beyond what is often stated on the packaging and disagrees with the current consumer protection principle. “We throw away masses of food because producers have established too wide a safety margin,” Schmidt told German media.
For perishable food products, the ministry wants to establish an expiration date that takes into account real consumer information for products like ham.
However, the Federal Association of German Food Traders (BVLH) rejects this idea, stating that the current information on packaging, such as storage advice, is an important tool that allows consumers to make informed purchases.
Schmidt has also called for electronic chips to be installed in food packaging, such as yoghurt pots, which would show the consumer how the product has aged through the use of a colour-coded scale and allow them to decide for themselves whether the product is still edible. Schmidt’s ministry has invested €10 million in research into the idea, with the aim of having something concrete in three years’ time.
Berlin cannot enforce such a radical move by itself. However, Schmidt is confident that his ministry will be in a position in a few months to propose something at an EU level. Germany, together with the Netherlands, has already launched a European initiative on how to make changes to expiration dates in the short-term and how to proceed with “smart” packaging in the long-term.
The two countries are aiming to go one step further than France and Italy, where supermarkets are already prevented by law from throwing away food. Instead, they must sell it at a cheaper price, donate it to the needy, process it into animal feed or compost it. Austria’s Agriculture Minister, Andrä Rupprechter, has stated her office’s aim of setting similar targets.
