BERLIN: Germany launched a drive on Wednesday to halve food waste by 2030 as research shows every consumer on average throws away 55 kilogrammes (120 pounds) of edibles a year.

The new strategy would target households, producers, retailers and the restaurant industry to get them to cut down the 11 million tons of food wasted a year.

The new push would aim to help Germany meet UN and EU targets and reduce its climate footprint, said Agriculture and Consumer Affairs Minister Julia Kloeckner.

“Every product contains valuable resources: water, energy, raw materials, but also labour, care — and heart and soul,” she told national news agency DPA.

New research will look to develop “intelligent packaging” that could use a colour gradient to indicate whether food is still edible or past its use-by date.

Companies will be urged to take voluntary measures, such as fine-tuning delivery chains and appropriate portion sizes in restaurants, the ministry said.

The opposition Greens party, who have long urged a shift away from industrial-scale toward organic agriculture, criticised the strategy as too little too late.

Their veteran lawmaker Renate Kuenast demanded not “voluntary commitments and round tables” from the food industry but “binding obligations”.

Published in Dawn, February 21st, 2019