Croatians wasted 71 kilograms of food per capita in 2021, and more than a half of this waste, 53 percent, was thrown away by households, state news agency Hina said on Friday citing a press release by the state agency for food Hapih.

The state agency for food and agriculture Hapih has put food waste in the main focus of their new promotional campaign titled “EU Chooses Safe Food.”

Hina did not say how does this compare to other EU countries.

“Over half of all food waste comes from households, and about 10 percent of this waste comes as the result of a lack of understanding of food labeling. Therefore it is necessary to train and inform consumers on a permanent basis,” head of Hapih, Darja Sokolic, said in the agency’s press release.

Some 39 percent of households reportedly “never or seldom” use leftovers to prepare a new meal, and the reason most often cited for food waste is “excessive amount” of bought or prepared food.

Sokolic also said that Croatians are more interested in food safety compared to average Europeans. In 2021, there were nine food-borne illness outbreaks in the country, and 109 people got sick in those incidents. Most of those cases involved salmonella poisoning, Hapih said.

In the European Union some 88 million tons of food are wasted annually, costing an estimated €143 billion. Apart from Croatia, the campaign to promote safe food is currently ongoing in another nine EU countries: Austria, Cyprus, Finland, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, and Spain.

Hina did not clarify what the campaign involves.