People in Cyprus buy more food than they can consume, although there is a positive trend in their behaviour in terms of buying, consuming, storing, reusing, taking food away and composting, the results of the 3rd FOODprint quantitative survey on food waste showed.
The survey shows that consumers in Cyprus are becoming more aware of food waste and are taking positive steps to reduce it, such as eating more leftover food and adopting better storage practices.
In an average Cypriot household, it is estimated that 50% of waste is food waste.
According to the results of the survey, the percentage of people who answered that they often or always throw leftovers in the garbage has slightly decreased (2020: 18%, 2022: 15%, 2023: 16%), while the consumption of leftovers has increased (2020: 64%, 2022: 72%, 2023: 73%), as well as the use of leftovers to prepare other meals (2020: 18%, 2022: 25%, 2023: 28%).
The survey shows that consumers tend to buy more food than they need, mainly because they want to have food in case of an emergency (44%) and in case they have guests at home (36%).
The percentage of households that prepare/order more food than they need when they have guests or are away from home has fallen from 61% to 52%. At the same time, there has been an increase in consumers taking home leftover food from restaurants.
However, the trend shows that we are still cooking more than we should, even though this percentage is increasing.
The survey also found that the percentage of people who store food at home and throw it away when they buy fresh food is falling. A quarter of households say they do not buy more than they need, which is seen as a positive.
The survey found that the tendency to prepare more food fell from 61 to 52%, while 48% said they prepare as much as they need for consumption. Better planning is linked to the rise in food prices, as explained above.
The results show that younger men with higher incomes order more portions, while people with lower incomes and single-person families often consume the food over the following days.
A percentage of 33% said they feed leftover food to pets, a third put food in the freezer for future consumption and 28% use leftover food to prepare other meals.
This tendency is more common among younger people with lower incomes and large families. The tendency to give food to other people is not a common practice and only 15% do so, according to the survey. Home composting is done by 21% of households, but not systematically.
Only 6% compost systematically because they live in certain areas, are part of a programme, have been trained or have received free or subsidised special bins.
A proportion of 17% replied that they take food from restaurants. Older people, women and those with higher levels of education, who are more aware of the challenges of waste and environmental impact than for economic reasons, are more likely to take leftovers from restaurants.
The survey found that 33% throw away 11-20% of the food, fruit and vegetables they buy, which means that on average each household throws away more than 1/5 of what they buy and there was no significant difference compared to previous surveys.
The results of this survey were presented online by Kyriakos Parpounas, Managing Consultant of K. Parpounas Sustainability Consultants.