The lack of solidarity of choosing yogurts with a distant expiration date

BarcelonaTen years ago, chef Ada Parellada decided to host a four-euro dinner at her restaurant, Semproniana, to raise awareness about food waste. On June 16, 2015, Parellada created a dinner with foods that had either not entered the food distribution system or had left, proving that they were good, very good. This Tuesday, the Department of Agriculture, Livestock, Fisheries and Food launches the fourth edition of the campaignWe take advantage of food, which, of course, has the Semproniana chef as its driving force, and a total of seventy restaurants have joined the campaign. Until October 31, menus are available at very affordable prices (three dishes for around twenty euros) with the aim of raising awareness about the importance of making the most of food.

"After ten years of campaigning, first on my own and for the last four years with the support of the Generalitat of Catalonia, I think we've all changed our perspective on the foods we should use, but we still have to keep working." says the cook Ada Parellada, and mentions the example of yogurts"We're being unsupportive if we choose yogurts with a far-off expiration date," he says. In fact, some supermarkets have changed their strategies to combat this unsupportive gesture toward the next consumer, so they place yogurts with a close expiration date in the last row. "Yogurts don't expire, but rather have a best-before date; what they do after that date is evolve," Parellada points out.

And this gesture coincides with many other strategies that markets and supermarkets have been implementing over the past ten years. "If before, people threw things away without consideration, now it's embarrassing, especially for food chains," he says. And he reinforces this with a phrase that was often said in the restaurant industry: "You throw things away, the customer will do the rest." has already paid for it". Now that's no longer the case. Many markets and supermarkets have channeled donations of food close to expiration dates to entities with soup kitchens. They either have offers, or make juices from the crushed or soft fruit, or even give gifts to customers who go shopping at the last minute. "Ten years ago, when I told the owner of a supermarket close and that I shouldn't throw them away, he replied that he wouldn't, because it gave a bad image," Parellada recalls, and emphasizes how we have all changed during this time, that we view with very good eyes and even validate as good the markets and supermarkets that do it.

70 restaurants joined for the first time

To continue, the campaign, which begins this Tuesday, will allow seventy restaurants spread across Catalonia to meet and enjoy menus cooked entirely with foods that have left the food chain. This is the first time this number has been reached, and the goal for next year is to reach one hundred. Parellada provides a statistic on this point: "Customers have a hard time recognizing whether a dish is made with a mixed fruit or with a fruit that looks good." Of course, the diner will find the dish good, because the chef's hand will have been able to capitalize on the mixed fruit. However, he continues, "I can assure you that in ten years, there has been an impact among the kitchen teams of the restaurants, who are a fundamental part of this story," and adds that some restaurants have assured him that since they joined the program, We take advantage of food They are so aware that the organic fraction has been reduced by half. In other words, "the restaurants that have joined are gradually generating a culture of food conservation, such as making honey from pumpkin stems, which they would previously, without a second thought, throw away."

Parellada points out that he has no data indicating the amount of food thrown away in Catalonia in general terms. "What we do observe is that social organizations receive less food; they don't receive as much, which is a tragedy, yes, but at the same time an improvement in the environmental problem because the data indicates that less is thrown away." The tragedy, of course, is that people without resources have to feed themselves with food discarded by others. For its part, the Department of Agriculture commissioned the report. Diagnosis of food waste in Catalan homes In 2024, it is known that an average of 21.56 kg per inhabitant is currently wasted per year in Catalonia, considering only household waste. "These figures represent an expenditure of €902.85 million on food. And the environmental impact, specifically, is the emission of 462,347,277 kg of CO₂," the department states.

While, At the restaurant La Gormanda, the chef Carlota Claver has already prepared the dishes that will make up the menuWe take advantage of foodThe chef is one of the first to join the campaign, and she's doing so with the hope of joining more often. For this edition, she's prepared a twenty-euro menu with three dishes: salad, pork, and flan with pomegranates. It will be made with ingredients that are not part of the food chain for several reasons: "The onions and pomegranates, for example, are tainted, which is why they're no longer sold, but of course, cooked, they're just as good." She'll be hosting dinner tomorrow, October 1st.

Finally, among this year's notable activities, in addition to the meals, is the fifth #JoEspigo marathon, with simultaneous gleanings in different locations (last year 12,128 kg of food were collected) and the free Great Recycling Meal. for more than 400 people, to be held in Vic, featuring recycled food in perfect condition for consumption. The event is supported by Vic City Council, the Aprovechem els Aliments (PAA) Platform, and other organizations. The chefs will be the Osona Cuina collective.