International Day Against Food Waste & a recipe using leftovers

Droughts, floods, crop failures. Climate change is taking its toll on agriculture worldwide and is increasingly threatening our food security. At the same time, we are throwing away vast quantities of food. This is highlighted every year on 29 September by the International Day of Food Loss and Waste, which was established by the United Nations in 2019.

And because good food is too good to throw away, we’ve saved a delicious recipe for leftover risotto to finish with.

October 2026

Further links:
- 3000 Tonnen landen täglich im Müll. ORF.at, 28 September 2026
- International Day of Awareness of Food Loss and Waste. FAO, Accessed on 12 October 2026
- World squanders over 1 billion meals a day. UN report, 24 March 2024
- Reducing food loss and waste to protect forests and transform agrifood systems. FAO, 29 September 2026
- FAO: 2025 AQUASTAT Water Data. FAO, 26 January 2026

To mark the International Day of Food Loss and Waste, the issue was once again widely covered in the media here: around 3,000 tonnes of food end up in the bin every day in Austria. That is equivalent to around 140 lorry loads. In private households alone, 69 kilograms of food per person are thrown away every year. 37 kilograms of that could be avoided. The value of the food: around 400 euros per person per year. This does not include CO2 emissions, land use or water consumption. And globally? According to the Food Waste Index Report 2024 des UN-Umweltprogramms (UNEP), 1 billion meals are wasted every day – 1.05 billion tonnes annually.

This represents 19 per cent of all food available in shops, the catering sector and private households. Added to this is around 13 per cent of food production that is lost between harvest and retail.

The environmental consequences are significant: around 10 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions are caused by food loss and waste. Around 1.4 billion hectares of agricultural land are used to produce food that is never eaten. This corresponds to around 28 per cent of the world’s agricultural land. And according to a 2014 FAO estimate, the associated costs amount to 2,600 billion USD! These comprise
- direct economic losses: 1,000 billion USD
- environmental costs: 700 billion USD
- of which: costs due to water scarcity: 164 billion USD
- social costs: 900 billion USD

We all end up footing the bill – through environmental and climate damage, the loss of natural resources and the impact on our health. Much of this does not appear on any invoice and is passed on to the general public and future generations. So there can be no question of ‘true costs’ when we buy cheap goods at the supermarket.

Water consumption. Waste is also enormous when it comes to water. Agriculture accounts for around 72 per cent of the freshwater extracted worldwide. According to an older study, around 24 per cent of freshwater is used to grow food crops that are ultimately not eaten. What’s more, land has been tilled, energy consumed and people employed for all this food – only for it to end up in the bin.

Incidentally, I summarised some information on our individual water consumption a while ago → Water consumption from consumer goods..

Overproduction. In view of a growing world population, it is often argued that agriculture must do one thing above all else: produce more. And with the highest possible yields. But how sensible is it to keep increasing production when a considerable proportion of food is wasted anyway? Wouldn’t it be better to use fewer resources, keep our soil fertile and produce our food organically?

It could work. Back in 2017, the German Research Institute of Organic Agriculture (FiBL) investigated the conditions under which organic farming could feed more than nine billion people. The conclusion: a large-scale switch to organic farming would be possible if, at the same time, we significantly reduced food waste, consumed fewer animal products and used less arable land for feed production.

Back to the 3,000 tonnes of food that end up in the bin every day in Austria. Just under half of this could be avoided. This calls for action from the agricultural sector, the food industry, retailers, the catering sector and, of course, us as consumers: shopping more consciously, storing food properly, using it up in good time and making the most of it wherever possible. Take the stalks and leaves of beetroot, for example. I’ve described what can be made from them in my column → Stalks, Leaves & Tuber: Beetroot All Round.

→ Risotto patties, quick and easy. uick and easy. Because using up leftovers is a smart idea and great fun, here’s the promised RECIPE for using up yesterday’s risotto:

Shape the risotto into flat patties, coat them in breadcrumbs and fry them slowly in butter until crispy. Serve with a green salad.

Enjoy your meal!