European Commission adopts EU-wide data collection act to tackle food waste

07 May 2019 --- The European Commission (EC) has adopted a Delegated Act – a procedure used to establish secondary legislation – involving a common food waste measurement method to support Member States in quantifying food waste throughout the supply chain. Based on a common definition of food waste, the methodology seeks to ensure the coherent monitoring of food waste and in the future, help to tackle it. Member States are expected to put in place a monitoring framework with 2020 as the first reporting year in order to provide the first new data on food waste levels to the Commission by mid-2022.

The move follows the 2015 Circular Economy Action Plan, which includes measures that will help stimulate Europe’s transition towards a circular economy, boost global competitiveness, foster sustainable economic growth and generate new jobs. Food waste is one of ten major indicators of the Circular Economy Monitoring Framework, indicating how advanced the EU is in the transition from linear “make-use-dispose” to circularity, where loss of resources is minimized, the EC notes.

“The act is now subject to scrutiny by the Council and the (new) European Parliament. If no objections are raised, a decision will be published in September,” Aikaterini Apostola, Health and Food Safety at the EC, tells FoodIngredientsFirst.

Recognizing the need for more data on food waste
Each year, approximately 20 percent of food produced in the EU is wasted or lost, causing social, environmental and economic harm, according to the EC. “To be able to take effective action, we need more data on food waste than we currently have,” the governing body explains. 

In food waste, as in life, what gets measured, gets managed, according to Jyrki Katainen, Vice-President for Jobs, Growth, Investment and Competitiveness, EC. “To be able to implement effective national food waste prevention programs and promote circularity in the food chain, we need to know where, what, how much and why we are losing food resources. We are making the decisive step to get this knowledge,” he says.

“The [move] is the result of a long process which can be traced back to 1999 (when the landfill directive was adopted) or to 2005 where food was named as one of the key areas to gain from preventative measures,” says Apostola.

Food waste is unacceptable in a world where millions still suffer from hunger and where natural resources, which make human life and wellbeing possible, are becoming increasingly scarce, notes Frans Timmermans, First Vice-President of the EC. 

“That’s why we have defined food waste prevention as a key priority in building a circular economy and a sustainable society. To deliver change, we have to be able to properly measure food waste. The EU is developing the first-ever comprehensive food waste measurement methodology and blazing the trail globally,” he notes.

Collecting the data
The revised EU waste legislation, adopted in May 2018 as part of the Circular Economy Action Plan, allowed for specific measures on food waste prevention to be introduced, which will provide the EU with new and consistent data on food waste levels. The new waste legislation requires Member States to implement national food waste prevention programs and to reduce food waste at each stage of the supply chain, monitor and report on food waste levels.

The EU’s action plan to fight food waste aims to help achieve the global Sustainable Development Goal Target 12.3 to halve per capita food waste at the retail and consumer level by 2030 and reduce food losses along the food production and supply chain.

While the Delegated Act defines what needs to be measured as food waste at each stage of the food supply chain and how this should be carried out, it provides flexibility as to how data collection should be carried out at national level. 

“The data are to be collected by the Member States, themselves. They will decide on how to organize their national data collection. We can be assumed that they will work in a similar manner they use to gather and report other data related to waste. Waste statistics and other waste reporting are already well developed in Member States. Hence, while it is a new challenge for Member States, it is completely within their capabilities,” explains Apostla. 

With the support of the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste and other relevant expert groups, the Commission will closely follow the implementation of the Delegated Act, organizing regular exchanges with Member States in order to facilitate practical implementation and share learning. 

Based on the methodology, Member States are expected to put in place a monitoring framework with 2020 as the first reporting year in order to provide the first new data on food waste levels to the Commission by mid-2022. The EU reporting framework will help standardize reporting of food waste levels by business and contribute to global monitoring of SDG Target 12.3.

Apostola notes that the mere act of measurement is already a driver to reduce waste. When a household or business is aware of what is wasted, it becomes better geared to avoid it. 

“The next steps are focused on measurement and reporting, the Commission and the Member States are now working on a reporting format (to be adopted in summer or early autumn of this year) and Member States shall start measuring in 2020,” she concludes.

Industry fighting food waste
With food waste becoming a growing concern, industry is enlisting ways to tackle the issue. Several start-ups are innovating in a bid to reduce food waste. Wasteless, for example, is focused on fighting food waste by tracking products on the shelf and dropping the price as they get close to their expiration date.

In the same space, food waste initiative Winnow has launched a novel artificial intelligence (AI) technology, coined Winnow Vision, that promises to revolutionize food waste management in commercial kitchens to benefit businesses and the environment.

By Kristana Lalou