Food Waste

Preventing and reducing food waste, while ensuring the safety of the food chain, is an issue with societal, economic and environmental dimensions. The ways in which food is produced and consumed also has an impact on other important objectives and targets across a range of European policy areas such as climate change mitigation and adaptation, the bio-economy, biodiversity and nature protection.

The amount of food waste that is generated in the EU is difficult to quantify, as there is no harmonised methodology to define and measure food waste along all stages of the value chain. In 2012 it was estimated that approximately 88 million tons of food is wasted in EU, equating to 173 kilograms of food waste per person. Considering that the total amount of food produced is 865 kg/person, this would mean that 20% of the total food produced is wasted. More than 50% of food waste is generated by households and the costs associated with food waste in the EU-28 were estimated at around EUR 143 billion (FUSIONS, 2016).

Supporting the transition to a more resource efficient Europe, the EU and its Member States are taking action in response to the pressing need to reduce food waste. The European partners are committed to meet the food waste reduction target adopted by the United Nations General Assembly as part of the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The 2030 SDGs aim to reduce food losses in production and supply chains and halve the per capita food waste at retail and consumer levels. Actions proposed by the European Commission include:

• reforms promoting better understanding and the use of date marking (including possible legislative reforms);
• the facilitation of food donation to food banks;
• support measures to increase the use of unsold food and by-products as a resource in animal feed production without compromising food safety (EC, 2015).

Designed to support the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste was launched by the European Commission.