Around twelve million tons of food end up in the trash in Germany every year, although most of it is still edible.Anyone who wants to do something about it can support various initiatives.Every German citizen throws away 75 kilograms of food every year.This was the result of a study by the Thünen Institute published in 2019.Numerous initiatives and associations are committed to reducing food waste in Germany.The federal government is also committed to a more sustainable approach to our food.We present a selection of projects, initiatives and associations and their goals and give an overview of the legal situation in Germany.The federal government has set itself the goal of halving food waste in private households and in retail by 2030.The "national strategy to reduce food waste" includes, for example, the information campaign "Too good for the bin!"This campaigns against the throwing away of food and offers a wide range of information for consumers.Easy-to-implement tips and hands-on activities are designed to illustrate how everyone can reduce food waste at home.The "Best Leftovers" app and the recipe database of the Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture (BMEL) provide recipes for using leftovers and information on using and storing different foods.Under the motto "Germany saves food", a nationwide action week takes place from the end of September to the beginning of October, which combines digital and on-site events and focuses on the topic of food appreciation.The food banks, which accept food and distribute it to the needy, play an important role in the fight against food waste.Around 960 German food banks are organized in the umbrella organization Die Tafel.According to the association, 60,000 volunteers collect 265,000 tons of food donations every year and distribute them to over 2,000 places for the economically and socially disadvantaged."Food waste is expensive and a huge climate killer. It is also unacceptable because more and more people are unable to feed themselves healthily," says Jochen Brühl, Chairman of Tafel Deutschland eV.Despite the federal government's goal of halving food waste by 2030, the fight against waste is not making any significant progress.The umbrella association of food banks is therefore calling for a law against food waste.Rising energy and food costs as well as the Ukraine war are having an impact on the work of the Tafel.Also due to the corona pandemic, the need for people affected by poverty increased by up to 20 percent in many places.Donations from companies, but also from citizens, are currently particularly important and very welcome, according to Tafel Deutschland eV.The foodsharing initiative aims to "save" food that would otherwise be thrown away.According to its own statements, the platform has over 200,000 users in Germany, Austria and Switzerland and more than 115,000 so-called food savers who are committed to fighting food waste at the local level, collecting excess food from supermarkets and redistributing it.Around 11,200 companies cooperate with the initiative.In many cities there are so-called fair dividers: publicly accessible refrigerators or shelves that act as food swap platforms.The Too Good To Go initiative is also committed to saving food.The app of the same name connects catering businesses and consumers: restaurants, bakeries, hotels and supermarkets can offer surplus groceries at a discounted price for self-collection.Customers pay directly via the app and then pick up the goods in a "surprise bag" on site within the specified time window.In Germany, Too Good To Go says it has more than 14,000 partner stores and a community of more than seven million people.With the "often longer good" label, To Good To Go initiated a note on packaging intended to draw customers' attention to the fact that food is usually still edible after the best-before date has expired.65 food manufacturers and trading partners already support the label.The so-called containers, i.e. the unauthorized collection of discarded food from garbage containers from supermarkets or other companies, remains prohibited in Germany.At the end of 2021, however, Federal Food Minister Cem Özdemir (Greens) criticized the criminal liability of containers as "absurd".He also announced that the legal and tax framework for food donations would be relaxed.This should make it more attractive for retailers to donate food instead of throwing it away.Some other EU countries are already taking action against food waste: in France, for example, supermarkets are legally obliged to donate leftover food to charitable organizations.In the Czech Republic, too, supermarkets have to offer unsaleable food to charitable organizations free of charge.Tons of food end up in the trash every day.If you plan and store correctly, you can avoid this and save money.moreSome companies and initiatives want to counteract food waste with creative ideas.morePackaged food has a best-before date, but usually does not have to be thrown away after it has expired.moreIf mold appears on foods such as fruit or vegetables, they should be thrown away because mold is harmful to health.moreWith invented stories, criminals want to cheat users out of money.They pretend to be a child in distress.more