Later City News: The Farm to Fork Strategy presents a great window of opportunity to reduce food waste by accelerating the transition to a sustainable food system and by proposing legally binding targets for food waste reduction across the EU in 2023. For this reason, the next few years will provide crucial moments of opportunity for EU Member States’ food waste policy.
A report published by the City University of London Institutional Repository confirms that the directive in 2018 provides a 2-year period where the Member States must integrate these policies into their national law. In 2020, the first EU-wide national measurement of food waste has been undertaken, following the methodologies provided in the Delegated and Implementing Acts.
This measurement will be reported in 2022–23 and will deliver comparative baseline measures for all Member States. In 2023, the publication of this baseline data will provide the opportunity for Member States to consider the feasibility of establishing Union-wide food waste reduction targets to be met by 2025 and 2030, which should be aligned with SDG 12.3.
Furthermore, the Farm to Fork Strategy presents a great window of opportunity to reduce food waste by accelerating the transition to a sustainable food system and by proposing legally binding targets for food waste reduction across the EU in 2023. For this reason, the next few years will provide crucial moments of opportunity for EU Member States’ food waste policy.
Each action highlighted in this report has the potential to drastically reduce food waste across the EU; in addition, three of the actions have robust evidence bases. Indeed, the existing literature has shown that food waste measurement is one of the most impactful actions to reduce FLW in the food system. Once FLW has been measured, a case for change can be created, and the reasons for FLW can be understood and prioritized for intervention. Measurement also allows for the tracking of progress and the evaluation of other interventions.
As mentioned above, food waste measurement will occur more consistently across Member States’ supply chains and food systems from 2020. However, there is potential for 1) a greater quantity of detailed and robust measurement of food waste than mandated in the Delegated Act; and 2) for the measurement of smaller scales of food waste to be carried out (i.e. sector or company-wide).
As food waste measurement is an iterative process, it can evolve as greater volumes of food waste are reported. Indeed, in the many Member States, the funding available to support measurement (and related support activities) is already changing and will grow with the establishment of more complex measurement programs across the EU.
The valorization and extraction of added value from food waste is an emerging disruptive technology that has a faster implementation period than voluntary agreements and measurement actions.
Once identified, valorization opportunities provide a rapid pathway (possibly within 12 months) for diverting food waste to create high-value products. Valorization actions have links to new European policy priorities in particular; the updated EU Bioeconomy Strategy, the renewed Industrial Policy Strategy, the Circular Economy Action Plan, and the Communication on Accelerating Clean Energy Innovation.
With these strategies in place, the role of valorization in reducing food waste - and the wider role of the bioeconomy – will continue to grow. A current challenge for the uptake of valorization actions in the EU is the lack of knowledge within companies and sectors about potential valorization opportunities; who can be partnered with to process FLW, and what types of food products can be used for what purpose.
Voluntary agreements provide a longer-term strategy to reduce food waste across an industry sector, a region, or a nation. Several Member States are already implementing voluntary agreement approaches within the EU and there is wide scope for further adoption.
Reviewing previous voluntary agreements, 5 years can be understood to be a typical timeline for implementing and running a voluntary agreement that delivers significant results.
Typically, one year to establish the agreement, three years of operating, and one year to establish a legacy and continuation. Funding for voluntary agreements can come from several sources including contributions from signatories and government sources.
Government funding has previously been used as an initial “set up” funding source, which then switches to shared funding between businesses and the Government once the VA is in operation. Voluntary Agreements that are not supported by funding, don’t have shared targets, so fail to measure and report on progress regularly, and a supporting program that helps the signatories deliver change rapidly is unlikely to be impactful.
More coherent and integrated policies will be instrumental in accelerating FLW reduction. Modifications to the Common Agricultural Policy and the introduction of stronger regulation and/or National Strategies must occur over the next few years for the EU to be able to meet SDG12.3.
Horizon 2020 EU projects also assisted by proposing innovative approaches to FLW reduction, and the experience of experts and researchers in this field will provide fundamental input for the design and assessment of all food waste interventions.
Overall, a high degree of commitment and collaboration from all food waste stakeholders will be needed to deploy all the actions required to accelerate food waste reduction in the EU by 2030.
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