Putting a stop to food waste
Around 100 million tons of food are being wasted annually in the EU (estimate for 2012) and about 10 million tons in Germany alone (estimate by WWF 2015). The food thrown away in Europe would be enough to feed all the hungry people in the world two times over (European Commission 2015). Together with moving to healthier diets reducing food waste both in and out of home is the most significant demand-side measure for reducing the carbon impact of the food system. The EU-funded project “REFRESH” (http://www.eu-refresh.org/) will support better decision-making by industry and individual consumers and will also derive policy advice.
The major part of the CSCP’s efforts as partner of “REFRESH” will be the testing of concepts for an agreement, in which a range of businesses and organizations work together towards a common waste reduction target. The CSCP engages with major German businesses and a variety of critical stakeholders to reduce the amount of eatable produce thrown away in German households, supermarkets, restaurants as well as in food production and processing. Germany has been selected as one of four countries in which this concept will be piloted over the next four years.
On 16th of September 26 partners from twelve European countries and China kicked off REFRESH in Wageningen (NL). They will work towards the project's goal to contribute towards reducing food waste across Europe by 30% until 2025. The project consortium will support a wide range of relevant actors (governmental bodies, business, civil society and consumers) to reduce food waste and waste management costs. At the same time the project aims to maximize the value from unavoidable food waste and packaging materials.