A project to find a solution to Europe's food waste problem has proposed silicon sensors to "sniff" old food so you don't have to.
How does reducing food waste affect the environment and the economy in the EU? Euronews asked the TERAFOOD project specialists in Ghent and Lille.
Frank Devlieghere, a microbiologist at Ghent University, says we use a lot of energy, water, land, and fuel to farm vegetables, fish, and meat. "So when part of the food is not consumed, it means that these resources are not used for anything. So, if we could avoid that, it would have a noticeable impact on the environment.
"Approximately between 25% and 30% of it is going to deteriorate in Europe. So if we could get this down to 10-20 percent, we'd be ahead," he said.
Mathias Vanwolleghem, CNRS project coordinator, says if we have a chance to tackle a very important social problem, in this case, food waste, which will also have a huge ecological impact if we look at the numbers, since food waste accounts for about 30 percent of exposes. "Production now represents an annual turnover of nearly $600 billion worldwide. For me as a scientist, this is a heart-warming opportunity!" he added.