Romanians and their food habits

Romanians' opinions on food waste

Christine Leșcu, 07.07.2021, 14:00

Food waste is one of the most worrying aftermaths of
today’s consumerism, and Romania is not spared that scourge either. Food waste
has become really troublesome so much so that in 2016 a bill was passed to
fight food waste. Unfortunately, the implementation standards of the law are
yet to be completed. Big quantities of food are being thrown in the litter bin
by the Romanians, according to recent estimates. Such quantities are large
enough to load more than 120,000 trucks each year. Food costs account for 40%
of Romanians’ incomes, but unfortunately, 35 to 40% of the food ends in the
litter bin. Clearer and more recent pieces of information have recently been
made public thanks to a sociological survey carried in the summer and autumn of
2020 by Cluj-Napoca’s University of Agricultural Sciences and Veterinary
medicine, as part of an international project financed by the Francophone
University Agency. The research focused on three countries, Romania, Republic
of Moldova and Northern Macedonia. The results were not that much different
from one country to the next, of the three aforementioned states. For instance,
taking food habits into account, the vast majority of the respondents stated
they more often than not made a shopping list, which speaks about prudence and
precaution. Also, around 90% of respondents said they usually cooked at home,
which, at least in theory, meant a lower degree of degradation for the food,
since it was cooked as fresh as possible. However, the study carried by the
university in Cluj only confirms earlier estimates on food waste in Romania. Cristina Pocol is the coordinator of the research team:

Irrespective of their country of
origin, respondents said they throw food away. 83% of Romanian respondents said
that. A similar answer was provided by 78.8% of the respondents from Republic
of Moldova, as well as by 67.2% respondents in Northern Macedonia. There are
quite a few habits related to food waste. We wanted to find our whether
respondents checked the expiry date of a certain food produce. Most of them
said they never failed to do that each time they took their consumer’s
decision. Then most of the respondents are very particular about the way they
store their food, where and how they do that. And are somehow interested in
avoiding food waste. Practically, it was very interesting for us to find out
that, when asked how interested they were in avoiding the waste of food, for
their most part they said they were very interested, and that it was a topic
they really cared about. But that comes in stark contrast with their behavior.
Okay, they are interested in the topic of food waste, but they throw food away.
These two things just don’t add up. They do no know how to curb waste, they do
not have the required methods to do that, meaning that for them, education to
that end is in short supply. Let me just say that once again, most of them
throw food away. Most of them are interested in the topic of food waste.
However, we notice such a contradiction did exist. And the explanation I found
for that was that they try, and have that in mind, but they do not put that
into practice. They do not put that into practice for several reasons: they may
have tried and failed in their efforts, and when it comes to that, we also need
to see the reason why they failed.

Also, according to the respondents of the survey,
those who waste most of the food are the restaurants and the individual
consumers, while economic operators come in third, especially the supermarkets
where people mainly make their purchase. Cristina Pocol:

We had a question related to the
buying habits. We still noticed a behavior pattern which practically comes a s
no surprise for us. For their most part, people do their shopping from the
supermarket and the hypermarket. Very few people for the time being, opt for
the small traders, for the short supply circuits. Most of them resort to the
hypermarkets, and then they go to the marketplace. Very few of them use the
short circuits or value the producer’s direct relationship with the consumer,
which is very important in various respects. Actually, the retail gives you the
opportunity to consume fresh and genuine products, Romanian products. So I
believe there’s a lot more work to do when it comes to that, meaning we also
need to carry education campaigns to that end. Nonetheless, it would be better
to raise the consumers’ awareness on the importance of buying local.

The sanitary crisis triggered by the COVID-19 virus
did not change the buying habits in Romanian and Republic of Moldova. About two
thirds of the respondents stated they could buy the same quantity of food with
the same money. However, a change does exist, which occurred during the
pandemic, but it was not the one we expected. Cristina Pocol:

The crisis triggered by the
COVID-19 virus prompted more than 10% of the respondents to throw more food
away. I expected a totally different result. In my mind, the following
mechanism was working: I thought that, since we had the lockdown, we were more
careful about what we eat, how we eat and how we plan our shopping. That is why
started off from the assumption whereby such a thing would have food waste
reduction as a result. The outcome of the study has revealed otherwise. 10% of
the respondents say they throw more during the pandemic. I tried to find
explanations to that. Much larger stocks may have been made. That could be the
main explanation. We all know what happened at the beginning of the sanitary
crisis, when people went wild buying boxes of food, they bought food in very
large quantities for fear they would be deprived of food supplies. That could
be an explanation. That food could not be consumed straight away and in a
relatively short period of time. So, part of it was disposed of. I believe the
clear explanation for all that is the fact that, eventually, too much storage
of food lead to waste.

Meanwhile, some of the economic operators and civic
associations stage awareness-raising campaigns for a within-bounds consumption
rate and for the fated consequences food waste has on the economy as well as on
the environment. InfoCons is an NGO that has staged such a campaign targeting
the economic costs of food waste. Sorin
Mierlea is the president of InfoCons. He believes that, if emphasis is laid on
economic loss, the message for fighting food waste is easier to reach the
public. Sorin Mierlea:

First off, when we speak about food
waste it is not the problematics we discuss, but we also need to consider the
money we pay each time we buy food products that end in the litter bin
afterwards. That kind of cost means hours of work while those hours of work
eventually mean the life of every one of us. In another move, I believe that
each and every one of us, in our capacity as consumers, need to have all the
data and the info lest we have no choice other than saying we did not know
anything about it. Therefore, InfoCons, jointly with other entities in other
countries, since this it’s a cross-border project, has set out to raise the
public opinion’s but also the public authorities’ awareness on the impact food waste may have.

Held in schools, during the homeroom classes, also using digital resources, the InfoCons campaign offers the required tools so that the prospective consumers may be correctly informed on food waste.

(Translation by Eugen Nasta)