Swedish News:

Swedes eat more meat. Swedes throw out 123 pounds of food per person a year. 

• Swedes eat more meat
  As prices go down, Swedes consume more meat. It may also have to do with the fact that the meat industry in Sweden is turning out newer products which promise to make it easier to prepare and eat meat. The Swedish chicken consumption went up 5% in 2010, beef and pork consumption increased over 3%, which put meat consumption at a total record high.

• Swedes throw out 123 pounds of food per person a year
  Livsmedelsverket (the Swedish National Food Administration) believes a regular Swedish household throws out fully edible foods that amounts to 5,000 SEK ($784) a year—a sum that would pay for food for one household for one month. It comes to 56 kilos (123 pounds) of food per person. “What people mostly throw out is fruit and vegetables, followed by bread,” explains Anna-Karin Johansson, environmental strategist at Livsmedelsverket. “Meat and fish is something we don’t throw out as often.” This waste is felt not only in the wallet, but also in the environment, since the food that’s thrown out leads to approximately 1.8 million tons of green house gas emissions. “Perhaps that doesn’t sound like much, but it is and it’s unnecessary,” says Johansson. One reason for this waste may be the best-before date of products. Says Louise Ungehrt, director of Konsument och Miljö: “We think it’s more pedagogical to have a ‘good at least until’ date.” Ungerht also has some tips on how to keep food fresh longer: “Lower the temperature in your fridge from 8 to 4 degrees Celsius (46 to 39 Fahrenheit), that way you double the durability.”