Best practices
The figures are emblematic: 88 million tons of food are wasted annually in the EU. French legislation adopted in 2016 provided momentum, and the European Parliament addressed the challenge. Initiatives to prevent food waste are increasing – from Denmark to Poland, from Italy to The Netherlands. In fact – it should not be forgotten – millions of people worldwide still lack sufficient food and are starving
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The European Parliament gave the green light, now it’s up to the European Commission to develop regulations to cut food waste by 30% by 2025 and by 50% by 2030, to remove restrictions on food donations along with clearer labelling, making “best before” and “use by” labels less confusing. Finally, it’s time to stop wasting 88 million tons of food in the EU (1.3 billion worldwide), 53% of which by European families, amounting to approximately 98 kg per capita. The figures discussed in the recent debate at the European Parliament show that the highest food waste occurs in The Netherlands (541 tons) followed by Belgium (345), Cyprus, (327), Estonia (265) Poland (247) Britain (236), while the most virtuous Countries are Romania and Slovenia (76 and 72 kg). It’s a huge economic damage (amounting to 143 Bln EUR), an enormous burden on waste disposal leading to the emission of harmful Co2. It is also a scandal, considering widespread food shortage. While the EU still lacks dedicated regulations and a common EU methodology to measure food waste, actions and awareness initiatives on food waste are increasing through praiseworthy “best practices.”
France, a role model. The initiative that boosted France’s popularity in this respect is the 2016 Act which requires supermarkets (with more than 400 square meters of commercial space) to donate unsold edible foodstuffs to charities that request it and punishes those who refuse or destroy edible food products. According to the promoter of the regulation, Arash Derambarsh, in a year since its adoption over 10 million meals were distributed to people in need, while more than 5,000 new volunteer associations were created. Among the good practices figures the French “National Pact” and the “anti-food waste Paper” promoted by the National Association of Food Industries (ANIA) to involve all stakeholders in the food chain in efforts ranging from the optimization of production processes and packaging, the enhancement of the “second choice”, to the donations.
Italy and Poland… Some French restaurants introduced “portion sizes”: you order what you can eat and you pay according to size, small, medium, large o extra large. This led the restaurant “Les arcades” in Lyon, for example, to save 12 thousand EUR in a year. In 2014 six Franche-conté municipalities adopted a control project in school canteens, portions customization and awareness programs.
Countless exhibitions, campaigns, dedicated initiatives throughout the French territory.
The exemplary French regulation inspired the Italian one, the so-called “Gadda Law” adopted in September 2016, which simplifies and favours donations of unsold foodstuffs for human consumption, and, when not possible, for zootechnical or energetic use. In Poland a similar project has been on the Parliament agenda since last year, but has not yet been adopted at legislative level. For this reason, past April Greenpeace Poland launched the campaign #NieMarnujemy, No to Waste.
Denmark: non-profit consumers. Given the priority to combat food waste, in 2008 Denmark adopted the initiative “Stop wasting food” (Stop Spild af mad), thanks to an idea of Selina Juul, a young Danish woman of Russian origin that founded a non-profit consumer movement that across the years has involved over 20 thousand volunteer workers thereby becoming the leading initiative in this sector, extended throughout all stages of the food chain, from harvest to kitchens. The goal is to reduce food waste by 50% by 2025 and turn Denmark into the less wasteful Country in the world. Awareness campaigns, pressing on media outlets, books, debates and events of all kinds are the tools used to reach out to consumers and convince them not to waste food through a set of rules: buy only the quantity needed; reuse leftovers (the movement’s website features a list of recipes to use up leftovers); put in your dish only what you can eat, and if you go to the restaurant, ask for the “doggy bag” to take leftovers to your dog or the “goodie bag”, the bag of the “good things”, to finish dinner leftovers at home at the candle light. Figures recorded until the first months of 2017 show that since 2010 food waste in Denmark fell by 25%.
From Spain to Germany. The Plataforma Aprofitem els Aliments (PAA) counters food waste in Spain, the Alliantie Verduurzaming Voedsel is active in The Netherlands. In Germany, the documentary “Taste the waste”, (2011) by Valentin Thurn, has become a multimedia awareness platform. In Great Britain Wrap (Waste and Resources Action Programme), created to promote sustainable waste management, in 2007 was converted into the
Campaign “Love Food Hate Waste.”
According to data released in January 2017 Wrap has managed to cut waste at the level of the production chain, outperforming the 3% target, while the goal of reducing domestic waste by 5% by 2015 has made no progress, for “a set of reasons, such as British population growth, drop in foodstuff prices and of personal income, which reduced the pressure to avoid individual waste habits.” In Uppsala, Sweden, past January Cathy Xiao Chen launched an app to purchase discounted, unsold foodstuffs from restaurants and cafeterias via a take-away system. It’s nothing new: the south of the world is fighting against famine and draught, while all of us living in the north of the world are combating food waste.
