The European Union has responded to the major challenge presented by food waste in a number of ways, including policies on bio-waste management, resource efficiency and circular economy.

FUSIONS is currently working on enhancing knowledge on EU policies by reviewing EU and national policies on food waste and policy support to social innovation initiatives.

 

A) EU food waste policy framework

• EU Policy on bio-waste management

In May 2010, the European Commission released a Communication on bio-waste management in the EU, including recommendations on managing bio-waste such as encouraging the usage of separate collection as well as laying out the future planned steps on the part of the EC for addressing bio-waste in the EU.

The key tenets of EC future action related to bio-waste include:

- Encouragement of prevention of bio-waste,

- Treatment of bio-waste according to the waste hierarchy,

- Protection of EU soils via a focus on compost and digestate,

- Investment in research and innovation and,

- Putting more efforts to reinforce the full implementation of the existing set of EU waste legislation.

• EU Policy on Resource Efficiency

The Roadmap to a Resource Efficient Europe sets out a 50% food waste reduction target for 2020.

Furthermore, early in 2012, a 50% prevention target on avoidable food waste by 2025 was proposed by the European Parliament, who presented 2014 as the European Year against Food Waste. The European Commission has launched a working group on food losses and food waste assembling a variety of food chain, animal and plant health stakeholders.

Finally, the EC developed a webpage aimed towards EU consumers providing basic information on the causes of food waste, tips for preventing food waste, and information on the quantity and impacts of food waste in the EU and globally.

• EU Policy on Circular Economy

As part of the Circular Economy package, the European Commission adopted in July 2014 a Communication and a legislative proposal to review recycling and other waste-related targets in the EU. This legislative proposal consists of six pieces of legislation: waste (including food waste), packaging, landfill, end of life vehicles, batteries and accumulators, and waste electronic equipment.

In particular, the draft legislation sets a 30% food waste reduction target for Member states between 1 January 2017 and 31 December 2025. However, the Package was withdrawn from the executive’s work programme in December 2014. A more ambitious proposal is expected on December 2nd.

 

B) FUSIONS current work on Policy

Since 2012, FUSIONS has been working on food waste policy in the EU and Member States:

• Review of current EU legislation and policies with implications on food waste (published in June 2015)

The report used a mix of qualitative methodologies (literature review, expert consultation, inventory of policies, surveys, policy impact assessment) to review the state of EU legislative and policy tools with implications for food waste. Policy measures address a wide range of topics and include animal by-products, feedstuffs, hygiene rules, marketing standards, packaging, Eco-label criteria, VAT, statistics. These policy measures impact (negatively or positively) on food waste in five different ways: by implying food waste generation, or addressing food waste management, food waste reduction, food use optimization, or a combination of these implications. The study also proposes an assessment of challenges and opportunities of current EU legislation and policies with implications on food waste.

• Inventory and analysis of current legislation and policies impacting food waste generation

This report was published as MS country reports and submitted to public consultation until mid-December 2015.  The EU-28 Country Reports Consultation aims specifically at updating and integrating the concept version of the country reports about national food waste legislation as developed in the framework of FUSIONS T3.1b (“Inventory and analysis of current legislation and policies impacting food waste generation”). Data was gathered in EU Member and Associated States covered by the consortium, drawing on existing literature and publicly available information.

• Stimulating social innovation through policy measures (published in July 2014)

The study highlights social benefits associated to tackling food waste through social innovation, from reducing social isolation to improving access to nutritious food. The report provides an assessment of the types of policy activities undertaken by the EU to stimulate and advance social innovation, following the categorization of policy instruments (provided by Gupta J et al, 2013): suasive approaches, regulatory approaches, market based instruments, public provision of services.

Ongoing studies:

• Study on socio-economic policy incentives
• Food waste Evaluation Framework
• Scenario Analysis

 

A study published by FUSIONS "Report on review of (food) waste reporting methodology and practice" in January 2014 explores, through an extensive and thorough literature review, the different methodologies which have been used for quantifying food waste in Europe and elsewhere.

Together with another FUSIONS study (Review of EUROSTATs reporting method and statistics) published in June 2013, it serves as a basis for the development of a harmonised approach on quantitative techniques within the FUSIONS project. The homogeneisation of food waste quantification is a pressing issue, considering that global consequences of food waste stretches from environmental pressures to economic and social impacts.

 

A) Food waste estimations: data collection and data reporting methods

• FUSIONS food waste data set

FUSIONS results indicate that EU-28 produce about 100 Mtonnes of food waste every year, and that about 45% of this is generated from households. This estimate is for 2012. The data has been obtained using a combination of national waste statistics and findings from selected research studies and was aligned with FUSIONS Definitional Framework. The Global Warming Potential (GWP) of current food waste for EU in 2011 is estimated to at least around 227 MT of CO2-Equivalentes (Eq.). This is 16% of the total GWP of food utilization in EU in 2011.

The amounts will be presented in detail via a final FUSIONS report "Food waste data set for EU-28" in spring 2016.

A key recommendation from this exercise for accurately quantifying food waste in EU-28 is to increase the number of EU member states that measure food waste robustly. This recommendation applies to all sectors; however, the lack of data was particularly acute for the primary production sector. A more reliable estimate can be achieved by ensuring that those studies that do take place use a consistent definitional framework and definition of food waste, have robust sampling procedures in place, and use measurement methods that are accurate. FUSIONS is taking necessary actions in order to facilitate this work outlining further the practical application of the principles, developing a Quantification Manual (to be published in February 2016), and encouraging member states to have structures in place for regular food waste quantification studies.

You can find the document on FUSIONS Publications page.

• Data collection: methodology and practice

The analysis of (food) waste reporting methodology and practice (FUSIONS, 2014) provided notable results: reviewed studies reveal that no single method, applicable to all steps in the supply chain and covering the criteria, is currently available. As a consequence, it is necessary to combine different methods to fulfil the criteria.

In terms of methodology, the review shows that these different methods are applicable for different steps of the food supply chain. For example, direct measurement is mainly used at the production (together with calculation method from statistical data) and processing stages. Scanning (via bar codes) and questionnaires are used at the processing, wholesale & logistics, retail & market, and redistribution stages. Weighting is also frequently used at these different stages of the supply chain. Concerning food service and households, the review found that the methods are waste composition analysis and diaries (which both use sampling).

In terms of quality of data, the study found consistent data gaps. For example, it is common that liquid food going down the drain and fractions going to feed are not identified as food waste. A substantial factor challenging the quality of data sets is the purpose of collection, which affects both the definition and extent of food waste.

• Data reporting: methods and statistics

In the EU, all countries can decide on their own methodological framework for waste statistics, hampering the possibility to conduct a cross-national (on a detailed level) interpretation of waste figures.

The review of EUROSTAT’s reporting method and statistics (FUSIONS, 2013) was aimed at evaluating how national waste statistics in Europe related to food waste are registered and reported, at assessing how they are further used by Eurostat to establish a common European statistical basis for waste statistics, and at giving input to how FUSIONS can contribute to the methodological basis for these statistics. The evaluation found that formal and methodological elements obstruct the use of statistics to create reliable time series on waste data for several reasons and provided recommendations to move towards greater statistical harmonisation.

 

B) Towards the harmonisation of food waste quantification

Providing robust and reliable food waste quantification standards is a global challenge, which can have major impacts in terms of accountability and reporting, food security, resource efficiency and environmental health. Measuring food waste accurately would help reducing food waste by raising enabling companies to increase their accountability on this topic and policy makers to shape well-tailored (and integrated) public policies to tackle the issue. It is also a very complex task, due to the lack of available harmonised data and statistics, and to the multifaceted nature of food waste generation.

• The Food Loss and Waste Protocol

The Food Loss & Waste Protocol (FLW Protocol) is a multi-stakeholder effort to develop the global accounting and reporting standard for quantifying food and associated inedible parts removed from the food supply chain.

Development of the FLW Protocol is being coordinated by the World Resources Institute (WRI) in conjunction with the Consumer Goods Forum (CGF), FAO, FUSIONS, UNEP, World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), and WRAP.

The draft version of the FLW Standard was published online in March 2015 for consultation. The final draft will be published in January 2016.

• FUSIONS Quantification Manual

FUSIONS is currently working on a Food Waste Quantification Manual, to be published in February 2016. The Manual provides practical guidelines for Member States on the quantification of food waste at different steps of the supply chain.

These guidelines cover three main activities:

1. Quantifying food waste in each sector (i.e. step) of the food chain;
2. Combining sectorial quantifications using a common framework at national level; and,
3.  Reporting the results of the national food waste quantification study at country level and possibly to the European Commission.

The Manual is aimed principally at the Member State authorities[1]. Its goal is to support these authorities in developing coherent methods for acquiring national food waste data covering all sectors of the food chain. It can also be used as a reference by researchers collecting data on behalf of national authorities as well as national statistical offices.

The Manual will be published in February 2016.

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A major research work conducted by FUSIONS was aimed at identifying the main causes of food waste generation all along the food supply chain.

The causes of food waste generation are multiple, and the study enabled their classification: thirteen questionnaires were filled in by the FUSIONS’ experts, who brought to light 286 current causes of food waste. The analytical approach of the study was organised by a matrix combing the seven food supply chain segments (primary production; processing of agricultural staples; food processing and packaging; wholesale and logistics; retail and markets; food service; households) and three context categories:

• Category 1: Technology development (i.e. the Technological Context)
• Category 2: Food supply chain management, including business/economy and legislation/policies (i.e. the Institutional Context)
• Category 3: Consumers’ behaviours and lifestyles (i.e. the Social Context)

Context categories	Grouping of identified drivers of current food waste causes
Technological	Drivers inherent to characteristics of food, and of its production and consumption, where technologies have become limiting	Drivers related to collateral effects of modern technologies	Drivers related to suboptimal use of, and mistakes in the use of food processing technology and chain management
Institutional (business management)	Drivers not easily addressable by management solutions	Drivers addressable at macro level	Drivers addressable within the business units
Institutional (legislation and policy)	Agricultural policy and quality standards	Food safety, consumer health, and animal welfare policies	Waste policy, tax, and other legislation
Social	Drivers related to social dynamics which are not readily changeable	Drivers related to individual behaviours which are not readily changeable	Drivers related to individual behaviours modifiable through information and increased awareness

On the basis of the 286 items classified by the FUSIONS team as current causes for food waste, the experts identified 105 drivers. Among them, 17 were imputable to primary production, 9 to processing of agricultural staples, 14 to food processing and packaging, 15 to wholesale and logistics, 18 to retail and markets, 13 to food services and 19 to households.

Food waste is a wide and multifaceted problem: considering the food supply chain as a whole enables to grasp the complexity of the issue. This methodological choice also gives us a glimpse of the interrelated nature of the determinants of food waste. It concludes on the possibility to act in a relatively short term and the necessity to design solutions which take into account the composite nature of the food supply chain.

The full report is available in the FUSIONS Publication section.

A) FUSIONS' Definitional Framework

Available scientific publications on the topic demonstrate a tendency from researchers and policy-makers to use and define the same terms (“food waste”, “food loss”, “avoidable food waste”, “unavoidable food waste”, “potentially avoidable food waste”, etc.) differently. Moreover, the definition of food waste (and its perimeter) has an impact on the way policies are shaped and on the way food waste is quantified across the different sectors of the food supply chain. 

FUSIONS has been working on providing a Definitional Framework to harmonise the current definition within the EU28 (see section 1 on Food Waste definition). According to FUSIONS, “Food waste is any food, and inedible parts of food, removed from the food supply chain to be recovered or disposed (including composted, crops ploughed in/not harvested, anaerobic digestion, bio-energy production, co-generation, incineration, disposal to sewer, landfill or discarded to sea)”.

Drink and liquid waste, fish discarded to sea and waste of any materials that are ready for harvest, but which are not harvested, are included in FUSIONS’s definition of food waste, making its perimeter wider and broader than many other existing definitions. FUSIONS also considers inedible parts of food (e.g. skin, bones…) as food waste in order to support the development of resource efficient and sustainable food systems in the EU.

FUSIONS’ theoretical framework is provided in Figure 1 below:

For more information on the methodology to arrive at the FUSIONS definition, please refer to the FAQ section of our website.

 

B) FAO’s definition of food waste

Within the FAO’s definitional framework, food waste is delimited by two other notions: food loss, food waste and food wastage.

• Food loss refers to a decrease in mass (dry matter) or nutritional value (quality) of food that was originally intended for human consumption. These losses are mainly caused by inefficiencies in the food supply chains, such as poor infrastructure and logistics, lack of technology, insufficient skills, knowledge and management capacity of supply chain actors, and lack of access to markets. In addition, natural disasters play a role.
• Food waste refers to food appropriate for human consumption being discarded, whether or not after it is kept beyond its expiry date or left to spoil. Often this is because food has spoiled but it can be for other reasons such as oversupply due to markets, or individual consumer shopping/eating habits.
• Food wastage refers to any food lost by deterioration or waste. Thus, the term “wastage” encompasses both food loss and food waste.” (FAO, 2013)

The importance of food waste stretches from environmental pressures to economic and social impacts. According to the FUSIONS project, an estimated 100Mtonnes of food waste is produced eache year in EU-28[1]. The Global Warming Potential (GWP) of current food waste for EU in 2011 is estimated to at last around 227 MT of CO2 equivalents. This is 16% of the total GWP of food utilisation in 2011. At the global level, the FAO study Food Wastage Footprint: Impacts on Natural Resources highlights that the carbon footprint of all food that is produced but not eaten is close to 3.3 Gtonnes of CO2 equivalent. Consequently, food wastage becomes the 3rd emitter after USA and China.

In terms of economic impacts, food waste represents high waste management costs and money wasted, given the considerable amount of edible food thrown away every year in the EU. Such waste management costs include the maintenance of landfills (where food waste is most often disposed) as well as transport costs, operations costs in the treatment plants, and separation costs in some cases. Biogenic waste (food residues) usually show a high water content and therefore low heat value, heavily influencing the calorific value of the waste and therefore the energy efficiency of combustion plants. WRAP estimates that the portion of food waste which can be avoided represents an average economic cost of £480 (€595) per household per year.

Wasting food also raises social questions, particularly given the current global financial crisis, rising food prices and international food shortages. If only one-fourth of the food lost or wasted globally was consumed it would be sufficient to feed 870 million peope, 12% of the world’s current population.[2] Food loss and waste drives up the price of food. Reducing food loss and waste is a key strategy towards ensuring food security for a projected 9 billion people in 2050.

This section provides information on food waste, its impacts and initiatives underway to reduce food waste. Information is available below on the following topics:

 

FOOD WASTE DEFINITION | DRIVERS | DATA | POLICY | SOCIAL INNOVATION | AWARENESS RAISING