Millions of tonnes of food are wasted in the EU each year. This means that food systems are causing damage to the climate and environment without even fulfilling their function of nourishing people. Adopting holistic approaches promoting greater circularity and behavioural shifts is essential to cut the waste.
One thing many European countries share is a great pride in food. From rich traditional cuisine to daily sustenance, food is at the centre of everyday life. Despite this importance, huge amounts of food are going to waste: over 59 million tonnes annually in the EU, the equivalent of 132kg per person.
Loss or waste
Food wastage can be considered as either food loss or food waste. Food loss occurs during harvesting, processing or transport, and can be due to pests, disease or adverse weather, or inadequate packaging and storage.
Food waste occurs at the retailer and consumer stages, which can be down to a myriad of reasons, like strict aesthetic preferences or poor planning.
How does wastage affect the climate and environment?
Food wastage is a big problem for the climate and environment because modern food systems require a lot of resources and cross multiple planetary boundaries, explains food systems sustainability expert Prajal Pradhan:
Prajal Pradhan, assistant professor at the University of Groningen and visiting senior scientist at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research: “Our food system contributes to around 1/3 of greenhouse gas emissions if we look at the whole system, including production, processing and transportation. Also, there are issues related to agricultural activities, such as the overuse of phosphorous and nitrogen fertilisers, pesticide use, deforestation, biodiversity loss, water for irrigation, and atmospheric ozone pollution. So, producing food harms our planet, and if food is lost or wasted, we’re damaging our planet by producing more food than required without nourishing ourselves.” – Read the full interview with Prajal Pradhan
Even with so much food waste, 9.5% of the EU population in 2023 was still unable to afford a proper meal every second day.
Households and shops
More than half (54%) of all food waste occurs at the household level, and up to 10% of EU food waste could be linked to consumers’ misunderstanding of the “use by” and “best before” date labelling.
A better understanding of what the different labels mean – “best before” for example is about the optimal quality before a certain date, so it can still be consumed after the date – could help prevent food from being unnecessarily thrown away.
Less food is wasted at the retail stage (8%), with retailer efficiency driven by profits. However, retailers use commercial strategies that push potential wastage elsewhere, for example they may use strict aesthetic standards to reject food from producers or use promotions to entice consumers to buy more than they need.
Globalised complexity
Modern food value chains are complex and globalised, with many foodstuffs travelling long distances from their source. This makes identifying and mitigating their climate and environmental impacts more complicated.
The complexity of food systems means that holistic and multi-sectoral approaches are essential to cut food waste.
Waste hierarchy
We can achieve more sustainable and circular food systems by using the ‘waste hierarchy’: this means that if wastage cannot be prevented, then efforts should be made to reuse, recycle or recover food, with landfill only as the last resort.
For example, unwanted food can be reused as donations for charitable purposes, while food no longer fit for human consumption could be repurposed as animal feed or as biomass energy.
Farmers’ platform
Several EU-funded projects are investigating solutions to cut food waste.
For example, the SISTERS project aims to tackle excess production being wasted by creating a platform where farmers can sell this produce, favouring local economies.
The project is also developing better food packaging that is biodegradable and recyclable, and extends the shelf-life of foods. Additionally, SISTERS is encouraging retailers to adopt more sustainable practices and raise consumer awareness using a guidance and labelling system.
Carolina Peñalva Lapuente, R&D at Aitiip Centro Tecnológico and coordinator of the SISTERS project: “Around 38% of EU consumers would be willing to switch their usual supermarket to one that is more sustainable. Guidelines for retailers with ten practices that retailers and wholesalers should implement to develop their activities in a more sustainable manner are being produced… The right application of these practices will involve achieving a seal of excellence that can be promoted to consumers, who will have the guarantee that the retailer promotes sustainability.” – Read the full interview with Carolina Peñalva Lapuente
Forecasting software
LOWINFOOD is another project that has been testing solutions for food waste prevention and distribution across different sectors. These include forecasting software that better predict product demand, help avoid surplus issues, and facilitate food donation.
Clara Cicatiello, assistant professor in agricultural economics at the University of Tuscia and coordinator of the LOWINFOOD project: “These sectors are very complex, so no one innovation can impact all supply chains across all sectors… but every solution can do its part in reducing food waste.”
Read the full interview with Clara Cicatiello
Cicatiello points to the need for behavioural change across multiple levels: “At the level of producers and retailers, the big lever to push behavioural shifts is essentially making money. For consumers, it’s much more complicated. So this is the key question: how can we push this shift? Because consumers are increasingly aware of the problem but this does not necessarily translate into less wasteful behaviours.”
Shifts in relationships towards food are also highlighted by Prajal Pradhan: “I advocate for regional and local food systems to fix broken food systems by reconnecting producers and consumers… The disconnection has created issues of discarding food of specific shapes, sizes, and ripeness because of not appreciating the effort involved in producing that food… So, it’s a question of reconnecting producers and consumers so that people start valuing food more”
EU objectives on food waste
The EU has committed to the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 to globally halve food waste per capita at both retail and consumer levels by 2030, and reduce food losses in production and supply chains.
As part of the efforts to achieve this goal in the EU, a targeted revision to the Waste Framework Directive proposes binding targets for 2030 to reduce EU food waste by 10% in processing and manufacturing, and by 30% per capita in food services, households, retail and restaurants.
Under the Farm to Fork strategy, the Commission has said it would propose a regulation revising the rules on ‘use by’ and ‘best before’ date marking to correct misunderstandings and misuse.
Under the Circular Economy Action Plan the Commission has adopted guidelines facilitating the donation of surplus food, while a previous action plan laid out guidelines for reusing food not fit for human consumption as animal feed. Other policy options include local level policies addressing specific regional challenges and leveraging local resources, increased funding for research, public awareness campaigns and enhanced collaboration between governments, businesses and NGOs.
Measurement of food waste is key for its management, with the EU in 2019 establishing a common methodology and reporting format, a step that is underlined as a “gamechanger” by Clara Cicatiello: “I see especially in the European Union a great policy push towards food waste prevention… [measurement] is the first step for reduction, because if we know what is happening, we can find better solutions and interventions.”
Related content:
• Prajal Pradhan on food loss and waste: ‘Our current food systems are broken’
• Clara Cicatiello on innovations for tackling food waste
• Carolina Peñalva Lapuente on innovations for tackling food waste