Europe’s F&B sector rallies behind a Circular Economy Action Plan

11 Mar 2020 --- The European Commission (EC) is presenting a new Circular Economy Action Plan that details a roadmap toward closing the loop on sustainable sourcing and manufacturing across the bloc. The move has been welcomed by F&B sector representatives within the EU, who have spoken out to emphasize industry’s role as a valuable partner in bringing these ambitions to fruition. 

“The food and drink industry has some world-leading ideas and innovations that will support the ECs action plan,” stresses Laura Degallaix, Environment Director of FoodDrinkEurope. “Our members continue to find ways to reduce food waste and to improve the environmental performance of their products throughout the lifecycle. They have been working to limit the quantity of packaging materials they use and find sustainable alternative packaging materials and delivery models, while always ensuring the highest level of food safety.”

Increasingly, industry stakeholders are beginning to see circular economy models as investment opportunities. Upcycling models that bring in new value for otherwise unused material have been entering the spotlight. Notable examples of this include the partnership between Comet Bio and Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), which launched earlier this month to pilot nutritional ingredients from upcycled brewers’ grain. 

Food chain models that turnupcycled ingredients into value-added ingredients and materials is now trending in the spotlight.In other recent developments, bread waste destined for dumpsters has been found applicable as a medium for cultivating microbial starters for the bakery sector. Even McDonald’s used coffee grounds have found their way into Ford’s car parts.

“Our caution on the action plan is to avoid trade-offs. For instance, packaging can be important for food safety or to prolong the life of a product. Therefore, any new initiatives must not compromise safety or increase food waste. Equally, the action plan must be in step with the Industrial Strategy to ensure continued economic growth and jobs – leaving no one behind,” underscores Degallaix.

Pressingly, food loss and waste has been found to cost the global economy almost US$940 billion annually. In addressing this problem, industry is shifting focus toward solutions particularly in the spaces of natural food preservation strategies and business models that involve reusing discarded ingredients.

Among other examples of industry action, at this year’s World Economic Forum (WEF) collaborated with Swiss start-up Kitro to pilot automated food waste monitoring. At the event, food waste was scanned through an artificial intelligence (AI) system installed on several bins in the Congress Centre that photographs waste and weighs binned food.

“We must use our natural resources more sustainably if we are to live within our planetary boundaries and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050. For that reason, we support the new Circular Economy Action Plan and the EC’s ambition to move towards a more circular economy,” Degallaix concludes.

As part of the Circular Plastics Alliance, FoodDrinkEurope and its members are currently working together with the plastics value chain to ensure 10 million MT of recycled plastic make their way into new products by 2025, as foreseen in the EU 2018 Plastics Strategy. 

In addition, many FoodDrinkEurope members are using the Product Environmental Footprint (PEF) methodology – an approach developed by the ECand supported by industry for evaluating the environmental footprint of a product and providing product information to consumers.

As industry races to fight the tide of human-generated waste and overconsumption, “The Sustain Domain” has been pegged by Innova Market Insights as a top trend for 2020, expected to shape future NPD. 

By Benjamin Ferrer