Logo
8 out of 11 Articles
Hiriya Landfill Restoration Project, located southeast of Tel Aviv

Over a Third of Food Produced Last Year Went to Waste

Some 2.5 million tons of wasted food in 2020 cost the country NIS 19.1 billion ($6 billion), or the average household NIS 3,600 (US $1,140), according to Leket Israel’s 6th annual Food Waste and Rescue Report, published in partnership with the Environmental Protection Ministry on Monday, December 27.

This waste accounted for 35 percent of the food produced in Israel. Half of it was edible and could have been resold.

The cost to the environment was an additional NIS 3.4 billion ($1 billion), the study found, when waste of land resources, water, waste collection, and processing was taken into account, as well as air pollution and the emission of an estimated 5 million tons of greenhouse gasses, accounting for 6 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions in Israel.

In total, just under one in five (18.7%) of Israeli households suffered from food insecurity last year, equivalent to half a million households, Leket found.

Food insecurity has been defined as the inability to ensure a constant supply of food that contains all the nutritional elements necessary for proper development and health. (TOI / VFI News)