On 29 September 2026 Eurostat published the food waste statistics for 2024. The European Union generated 57.9 million tonnes of food waste, 0.7 % more than in 2023 (57.5 million tonnes). That is about 129 kg per inhabitant per year, edible and inedible parts combined.
Where it arises
Eurostat breaks the total down by stage of the food chain:
- Households: 53 % (about 69 kg per inhabitant)
- Manufacture of food products and beverages: 19 % (25 kg)
- Restaurants and food services: 12 % (15 kg)
- Primary production: 8 % (10 kg)
- Retail and other distribution: 8 % (10 kg)
Twelve per cent of 57.9 million tonnes is roughly 6.9 million tonnes a year from restaurants, hotels, canteens, hospitals and other food services. Spread over the EU population it is a modest 15 kg per person; concentrated in the kitchens where it actually arises, it is a daily stream of food residues that has to be stored, collected and paid for.
Why the direction matters more than the number
The revised Waste Framework Directive, in force since 16 October 2025, sets a binding target: by 31 December 2030 food waste in retail, restaurants, food services and households must fall by 30 % per capita against the 2021–2023 average (10 % in processing and manufacturing). 2024 is the first year after that reference period, and the figure went up, not down. Member States have until 17 June 2027 to transpose the directive; the obligations for individual operators will be defined in national rules that most countries are still writing.
Three Member States, Germany, Bulgaria and Romania, did not report 2024 data; Eurostat used their latest available figures in the EU total.
Edible and inedible
The Eurostat figure includes both edible food and the inedible parts: peelings, bones, shells, coffee grounds. That distinction matters for a kitchen. The edible fraction is reduced by planning, portioning and stock management. The inedible fraction cannot be planned away; it arises with every cover served and has to be treated.
What a kitchen can take from this
Measure first. A reduction target is meaningless without a baseline, and the EU methodology (Delegated Decision (EU) 2019/1597) is built on measured mass, not estimates. Two weeks of weighing every container that leaves the kitchen gives a number that no national average can replace. Griffon digesters have built-in scales that record every charge, so the mass data accumulate as a by-product of operation.
Separate prevention from treatment. Over-production and plate waste are reduced at the planning stage. Peelings, bones and spoiled stock are not; for them the only question is how they are handled. Collection in bins means storage, odour, transport and a per-tonne fee that rises with the figures above. Aerobic digestion at the point of origin decomposes the residues continuously into water, carbon dioxide and dissolved compounds; the filtered liquid is discharged through the existing drain, with discharge conditions confirmed with the local water operator. Nothing solid remains to be collected.
Keep the two numbers apart in reporting. Statistically, residues treated on site still count as food waste generated; a digester does not lower the figure a kitchen reports. What changes is what happens after the weighing: no collection contract, no transport, and a measured carbon footprint of about 21.4 kg CO2e per tonne treated, compared with roughly 346 kg CO2e for thermal dehydration (University of Zagreb, Faculty of Geotechnical Engineering, 2022).
The 2030 arithmetic
Thirty per cent in six years is about 5 % a year, every year, starting now. The 2024 data say the EU as a whole has not started. Kitchens that measure from today will know where they stand before their national rules arrive; the others will find out when they do.
Related: the binding EU targets explained · dehydrator vs digester · sizing calculator.
Sources: Eurostat, "Food waste in the EU: 129 kg per person in 2024", 29 September 2026 (dataset env_wasfw); Directive (EU) 2025/1892 amending Directive 2008/98/EC; Commission Delegated Decision (EU) 2019/1597; University of Zagreb, Faculty of Geotechnical Engineering, 2022.