WWF Germany publishes Unser täglich Brot – ‘Our Daily Bread’

Overview

In some shops every fifth item of baked goods is not sold. This is the result of the study by the WWF Germany and case analysis on food waste in German bakeries. According to the study, not only consumers are responsible, but also massive overproduction. The so-called returns are donated at best. However, bread also ends up in animal feed, and cake becomes biogas.

It is noticeable that there are far fewer returns to complain about in small craft businesses. Here, positive front-runners report, for example, one percent of returns. However, medium to large bakery companies have losses of up to 19 percent of the volume produced. On average, returns are between 12-15 percent. According to current estimates, bakery products in Germany suffer total losses of around 1.7 million tonnes per year.

In terms of ecological effects, a harvest of around 398,000 hectares of arable land is wasted. In addition, an unnecessary 2.46 million tonnes of greenhouse gases are emitted. The study “Unser täglich Brot” was carried out on behalf of the WWF Germany from May 2017 to March 2018 on the basis of comprehensive research, interviews and case analyses.