Food Waste in Romania: A Lorry-Load of Food Binned Every Minute

Food waste in Romania describes the same uncomfortable contradiction year after year: more than 3.45 million tonnes of food are thrown away annually, while over a quarter of the population lives at risk of poverty or social exclusion. The Federation of Food Banks in Romania (Federația Băncilor pentru Alimente din România, FBAR) puts the scale in plain terms — a lorry-load of food ends up in the bin every minute.

September is internationally recognised as the month dedicated to fighting food waste, but this year it carries a second meaning in Romania. It marks ten years since the food bank model arrived in the country with the founding of the Bucharest Food Bank. The anniversary is a good moment to look not only at the problem, but at the logistical and legal answer that has been running continuously for a decade.

A lorry-load of food every minute

The benchmarks are not flattering. According to Eurostat, roughly 188 kilograms of food per person are wasted each year in Romania, while the European Union as a whole generated 58.2 million tonnes of food waste in 2023. Across the EU, around 36 million people cannot afford a proper meal every second day.

In Romania the two sides sit unusually close together. Some 27.9% of the population is at risk of poverty or social exclusion — the second highest figure in the Union — and 17.2% face severe material and social deprivation, which is the EU’s highest rate. In the same country, in the same year, tonnes of food go to landfill that is missing from a great many kitchens.

The double bind of waste and poverty

Seen this way, the issue is not simply an environmental one. In FBAR’s framing, discarded food is a triple loss: wasted resources from energy and water through to transport and storage, forgone economic value, and a missed opportunity to feed people who depend on charitable organisations.

This is where food rescue meets social policy. Cutting waste will not by itself end poverty, and FBAR does not claim it will. What it does claim is that two parallel realities can be connected: the surplus exists, the need exists, and what is missing is the infrastructure between them.

Preventing food waste has also become a firmer obligation at EU level. The Union has adopted differentiated 2030 reduction targets — 30% for retail, hospitality and households, 10% for processing — a framework Zero Waste Europe criticised precisely for its caution.

From zero to 12,563 tonnes in ten years

FBAR’s 2025 impact report shows what such a network can deliver once it is built. Last year the nine regional food banks collected 12,563 tonnes of product — 3,583 tonnes, or almost 40%, more than the year before.

The rescued food became 20 million portions. The network worked with 854 partner NGOs, reached 326,364 vulnerable people, and was supplied by 183 donor companies. The monthly average was 947 tonnes.

The growth curve is instructive in itself:

• 2016–2017: 57 tonnes
• 2019: 1,091 tonnes
• 2022: 6,277 tonnes
• 2024: 8,979 tonnes
• 2025: 12,563 tonnes

Since it began, the network has redistributed more than 41,000 tonnes in total. The infrastructure behind that scale today amounts to 59 employees, 31 vehicles and 3,831 square metres of warehouse space.

A sense of proportion still matters: 12,563 tonnes is a fraction of the 3.45 million tonnes lost each year. That gap does not show the system failing — it shows how much room is left to expand.

How the rescue works in practice

The logic is simple; the execution is tightly regulated. Operators along the agri-food chain — producers, importers, processors, distributors, retailers — can transfer to the network, free of charge, stock that has become surplus, cannot be sold because of packaging or labelling defects, or is approaching its expiry date while remaining perfectly safe to eat. Donor companies receive full tax deductibility and VAT exemption.

Then the logistics begin. Products travel in refrigerated vehicles so the cold chain is not broken for dairy, meat or fresh produce. At the nine regional warehouses, teams sort the goods, verify traceability and record every item in line with the sanitary and veterinary rules in force. From there the food goes on — again free of charge — to registered partner NGOs, which turn it into hot meals or support packages for children in day centres, elderly people living alone and families in crisis.

This is not occasional charitable collection but an audited supply chain in food-safety terms. That distinction is why a retail chain is willing to donate perishable stock at all — and why several countries have made food rescue mandatory for large grocery chains.

Where the rescued food comes from

The 2025 data shows where usable surplus actually arises. Retail accounted for 64.74% of the collected volume, collection campaigns for 13.29%, manufacturing for 12.87% and distribution for 6.68%. Agriculture and hospitality barely register — and those two sectors remain the largest untapped reserve.

By product category, fruit and vegetables lead with 34.68%, followed by cereals and bakery at 19.59%, protein-based products at 14.14% and dairy at 12.50%. In other words, the bulk comes from exactly those perishable groups where rescue is hardest and where everything depends on the cold chain.

One figure deserves separate attention: 7,992 tonnes of the total arrived under Romania’s food waste law, from 70 donor companies. The legislation is not decoration — it brings roughly two thirds of all rescued food into the system.

Alongside this runs the network’s most visible activity, the National Food Collection. Two editions were held in 2025 in Lidl, PENNY, Auchan, Kaufland and Profi stores: 704.1 tonnes with 10,519 volunteers at Easter, and 956.24 tonnes with 14,274 volunteers in December. The campaign brings in shelf-stable goods that would never reach the banks through normal donation channels.

Education and digitalisation mark the next step

A food bank network only achieves genuine prevention if it handles more than surplus that has already been created. In 2025 FBAR ran 147 educational programmes involving 118 schools and universities, reaching 21,489 students across 1,272 hours of sessions. The same logic drove MiReHu’s “Mentés másként” campaign during the European Week for Waste Reduction.

The other direction is digitalisation. The network is developing the BringTheFood application within the ROMOAL 2.0 project, together with Italian, Moldovan and Albanian food bank partners, aiming to standardise donor and partner workflows and track losses in real time. The 2024 financial statements were audited by Crowe România — with major commercial donors, that kind of transparency is an entry requirement rather than an option.

The year also brought a personal loss. In April, Gabriel Sescu, founder of the Romanian food bank network and president of FBAR, died. The federation has since been led by Romuald Bulai.

Why the Romanian model is worth watching

The key lesson about food waste in Romania is not the size of the problem, which has been known for a long time. It is the steepness of the growth curve. Going from 57 tonnes to 12,563 tonnes in a decade means the constraint was never a shortage of surplus, nor a lack of willing recipients — it was capacity, and nothing else.

The pattern holds elsewhere too. In the United States, retail and foodservice recorded measurable improvement after moving to systematic data collection, while in Ukraine recent research found that company size is the decisive factor in whether prevention measures get adopted. The shape is the same everywhere: where volumes are measured, they fall; where a legal and logistical channel exists, food gets rescued.

Every tonne saved is a double gain. Less waste, fewer emissions, fewer squandered resources — and more food reaching people who need it. The same infrastructure produces both.

Frequently Asked Questions About Food Waste in Romania

How much food waste does Romania generate each year?

Romania generates more than 3.45 million tonnes of food waste annually. Eurostat figures put this at roughly 188 kilograms per person per year. The Federation of Food Banks in Romania offers a vivid comparison: a lorry-load of food is binned every minute, while more than a quarter of the population lives at risk of poverty or social exclusion.

How much food did FBAR rescue in 2025?

FBAR’s nine regional food banks collected 12,563 tonnes of product in 2025, almost 40% more than the previous year. That volume became 20 million portions of food. The network operated with 854 partner NGOs, was supplied by 183 donor companies, and reached a total of 326,364 vulnerable people across the country.

How can a company donate food to Romanian food banks?

Operators along the agri-food chain can transfer surplus stock free of charge, including goods with packaging defects or approaching expiry that remain safe to eat. Donor companies receive full tax deductibility and VAT exemption. Products travel in refrigerated vehicles, are recorded against traceability rules at the warehouses, and pass on to registered NGOs.

Which product categories are rescued most often?

Of the volume collected in 2025, 34.68% was fruit and vegetables, 19.59% cereals and bakery goods, 14.14% protein-based products and 12.50% dairy. By origin, retail supplied 64.74% of the total. Because perishable categories dominate, maintaining an unbroken cold chain is the decisive operational requirement.

What role does Romania’s food waste law play?

Of the 12,563 tonnes rescued in 2025, some 7,992 tonnes — roughly two thirds — arrived under Romania’s food waste law, from 70 donor companies. The legislation is therefore not a formality: it creates the legal channel through which commercial and manufacturing surplus can reach the food bank network at all.

Sources:

Federația Băncilor pentru Alimente din România – Raport de Activitate 2025; Radio România Internațional; Eurostat