EU campaigns against food waste

27 November 2014 — Over 100 million tonnes of food are wasted annually in the EU. The European Week for Waste Reduction, between 24 November and 30 November, focuses on activity to preventing food waste.

The European Week for Waste Reduction is an initiative aiming to promote the implementation of awareness-raising actions about sustainable resource and waste management during a single week.
It encourages a wide range of audiences (public authorities, private companies, civil society as well as citizens themselves) to get involved. If nothing is done, food waste is expected to rise to about 126 million tonnes by 2020. 

The European Commission is taking the issue of tackling food waste very seriously. Reducing food waste has enormous potential for reducing the resources we use to produce the food we eat. Being more efficient will save money and lower the environmental impact of food production and consumption.

In 2011, the Commission's Roadmap to a resource-efficient Europe, identified food as a key sector where resource efficiency should be improved and called for ambitious action to tackle food waste.

In 2014, the Commission's Communication Towards a circular economy,: a zero waste programme for Europe, and the related legislative proposal to review recycling and other waste targets puts forward objectives for food waste reduction in the EU. It includes a proposal for Member States to develop national food waste prevention strategies with the aim of reducing food waste by at least 30 percent by 2025. Sectors concerned include: manufacturing retail/distribution, food service/hospitality and households.

This website provides information on EU actions to tackle food waste, communications materials to help raise awareness, a repository of good practices in food waste prevention and a food waste resources library.

Think eat save in Turin

The United Nations also campaigns against food waste. FAO and UNEP have joined forces in the Think.Eat.Save – Reduce Your Foodprint  campaign in partnership with the Messe Düsseldorf, and in support of the UN Secretary-General’s Zero Hunger Challenge.

The Think.Eat.Save campaign took its messages into the heart of one of Europe’s largest food festivals.

With an information booth at Slow Food International’s Salone del Gusto/Terra Madre event in Turin, Italy, tens of thousands of people who passed by had the opportunity to learn about the impacts of food waste and what they could do to reduce it. 

 UNRIC, in cooperation with the Nordic Council of Ministers, organized an ad/poster competition on the theme Food waste, in 2013 open to creative minds in the five Nordic countries, the three Baltic states and the neighbouring regions in Russia.  Some of the top posters were on display at the food festival in Turin (see main photo). The winning ad from the competition "The Last Wish was to be Eaten" Latvian designer Marta Zarina-Gelze, can be seen here.