Over 53% of the said 380,000 tonnes refers to food thrown away by households, Marija Batinic of the Croatian Agriculture Ministry said in Opatija on Wednesday during a two-day conference on food waste and efforts to be made in food waste prevention and reduction.
Batininc warned that food donation procedures were too expensive and complicated.
Patrick Alix, the secretary-general of the European Federation of Food Banks (FEBA), said that one of solutions is establishing a food bank in Croatia.
He called for tax breaks and incentives for those who donate food.
Sintija Perinic Saric of the Croatian Tax Administration said that some steps in that regard had been already made in early May with the introduction of tax deductions for companies that donated food.
FEBA was founded in 1986, as a non profit organisation which brings together 265 Food Banks in 23 member countries in Europe which collect food, a large part of which would otherwise be thrown away, and redistribute it to charitable organisations and social centres taking care of people in need.
During the conference held on 30 and 31 May, the participants warned that wasting food was not only an ethical and economic issue but it also depleted the environment of limited natural resources.