Households that cannot afford daily hot meals
According to social reports and surveys by the German government, around 2% of households in Germany are no longer able to afford a hot meal every day. That may not sound like much, but with around 42 million households in Germany, it is equivalent to over 800,000 households. Low-income households, single parents and older people are particularly affected.
In addition, the EU-SILC survey (statistics on income and living conditions) shows that around 4.6 percent of the population cannot afford a full meal every other day. This makes it clear that food insecurity is an issue even in a rich country like Germany.
Households that cook and throw away food every day
On the other hand, there are many households that cook every day and often throw food away in the process. According to surveys by the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture, over 80 percent of Germans cook regularly at home, many of them on a daily basis.
As already mentioned, around 75 kilograms of food is thrown away per capita every year – the equivalent of a full garbage can every week. Households that often buy too much food, store it incorrectly or do not reuse leftovers are particularly affected.
It is also interesting to note that many people cook every day out of habit or time pressure, even though they cannot use it all up. This creates a paradox: while some people have to go without hot meals every day, others regularly throw food away.
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