About 2.5 billion shekels in the trash: The disturbing data on food waste during the holidays
Grim data reveals: More than a fifth of family spending on food during the holidays goes to waste, and tens of millions of cubic meters of water are wasted precisely in a difficult year for agriculture.
The Tishrei holiday period brings with it great abundance to the table, but also enormous waste that hurts everyone's pocket. According to new data published by the organization "Leket Israel" and the company BDO, about 260,000 tons of food, with a value of about 2.5 billion shekels, are expected to go to waste along the production and consumption chain during the upcoming holidays.
For the average Israeli family, this is a direct and painful economic blow. Family spending on food during the holidays is estimated at about 4,100 shekels, of which about 850 shekels are effectively thrown in the trash — a figure that reflects more than 20% of the total expenditure.
Beyond the economic damage, food loss has serious environmental and agricultural consequences: it is equivalent to the waste of about 41 million cubic meters of water, an amount equal to about 12,500 Olympic swimming pools. All this is happening precisely at a time when Israeli agriculture is dealing with drought damage and extreme heat loads that significantly increase growing costs.
Gidi Kroch, CEO of Leket Israel, addressed the data:
"There is an absurdity here that is hard to ignore: families feel the cost of living at the supermarket, farmers are dealing with drought, and at the same time food worth billions of shekels goes to waste. Behind this food are water, land, energy, and labor that were invested in vain. Especially during the holidays, it is possible to reduce food loss through shopping planning. The joy of the holiday is not measured by the amount of food left on the table and certainly not by the amounts thrown in the trash."
The general data from Leket Israel and BDO illustrate the scale of the problem over the last few years. As recalled, during 2023 alone, 2.6 million tons of food were lost in Israel, worth 24.3 billion shekels.
Furthermore, the "Iron Swords" war increased losses by an additional 1.6 billion shekels during the first nine months of the war, of which about one billion shekels were due to direct food loss, 200 million shekels in environmental damage, and 370 million shekels in health costs as a result of the increase in food insecurity.
