In December 2015, the European Commission dropped an EU-specific target to reduce food waste in the retabled Circular Economy Package. Around 100 million tonnes of food are wasted in the EU each year. It is vital there are binding measures to tackle this.
This position paper – developed with partners in Friends of the Earth England, Wales and Northern Ireland, the European Environmental Bureau, Zero Waste Europe, This Is Rubbish, Feedback, Slow Food, Sustainable Food Cities and Arc 2020 – is calling on the European Commission, the European Parliament and Council of Ministers to:
– Re-introduce an EU-specific food waste reduction target of at least 30%, and accounting for food waste over the full supply chain;
– Include farm-to-fork food waste measurement, including pre-farm gate waste, with a roadmap for bringing in targets for pre-farm gate waste by 2020;
– Embed the Food Waste Hierarchy in all food waste reduction measures and allowing diversion of food waste to livestock feed.
