On Wednesday (5 July), the European Commission unveiled one of the most-awaited packages by agri-food stakeholders which deals with \u2018sustainable use of key natural resources\u2019 such as soil and plant reproductive materials.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The package \u2013 which was delayed by a month \u2013 includes proposals to reduce food waste as part of a revision of the EU\u2019s Waste Framework Directive in place since 2008.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the EU executive\u2019s proposed scheme, member states will be legally obliged to reduce overall food waste in stores, restaurants, and households by 30% per capita by the end of 2030, based on 2020 figures.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition, a 10% reduction binding target will be put in place to tackle food waste during the processing and manufacturing of food.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Member states will be able to choose the \u2018most suitable measures\u2019 to meet these targets, European Commission\u2019s Vice-President Frans Timmermans explained while presenting the proposal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe put a lot of pressure on land, using pesticides, water, and fertilisers to produce this food,\u201d Timmermans said, adding that \u201cif food waste were a member state, it would be the fifth biggest greenhouse gas emitter in the EU\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to the Commission\u2019s figures, 59 million tonnes of food are thrown away in the EU each year \u2013 representing an estimated loss of \u20ac132 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The largest share of food waste is generated in households, while the processing and manufacturing sectors \u2013 activities between harvest and final sale \u2013 take second place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTo waste food at this scale while more than 30 million Europeans cannot afford a proper meal every other day, and while hunger is again on the rise globally, is simply unacceptable,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Despite this proposal being the first of its kind, stakeholders still worry the targets set in this revision will not be enough to meet sustainable levels of food waste.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The United Nations\u2019 Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 \u2013 which the EU has committed to meeting \u2013 foresees to \u201cby 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
However, the Commission\u2019s proposal sets a lower ambition \u2013 from half to a third.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe think that we should set a target which is really within reach of most member states,\u201d an EU official said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The official added that \u201cthere will be a review in 2027, and we hope that by then we will be able to upgrade further the targets to meet the 50% by 2030.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, according to the campaigning group European Environmental Bureau (EEB), the proposal \u201clacks teeth to effectively slash overproduction and waste\u201d in the food sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition, several organisations have been calling for a 50% target \u2018from farm to fork\u2019, meaning they want to see binding targets also at the farm level.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Orla Butler, EEB Campaigner, said that \u201cthe EU must establish and attain comprehensive food waste reduction targets of 50% across the entire supply chain, from farm to fork.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cAnything less than this puts the EU at risk of falling short of its climate goals, international commitments, and citizens\u2019 demands,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Likewise, Green MEP Sarah Wiener noted that \u201cthe individual stages of food destruction: in primary production, transport, packaging, storage, retail and in the consumer\u2019s own refrigerator\u201d need to be addressed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
She also highlighted the need to tackle labelling and consumers\u2019 lack of information.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMost people still don\u2019t know that just because a product\u2019s best-before date has expired does not mean it is bad,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On the other hand, the director general of the food industry group FoodDrinkEurope, Dirk Jacobs, said that \u201cit remains important not to undermine efforts of member states and actors along the food value chain that have already taken steps towards food waste reduction using a 2015 baseline.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In addition, Jacobs asked the Commission to \u201ccollect robust and reliable food waste data from Member States which is representative and comparable.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
On Wednesday (5 July), the European Commission unveiled one of the most-awaited packages by agri-food stakeholders which deals with \u2018sustainable use of key natural resources\u2019 such as soil and plant reproductive materials. The package \u2013 which was delayed by a month \u2013 includes proposals to reduce food waste as part of a revision of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"none","nova_meta_subtitle":"The European Commission has proposed legally binding targets to reduce food waste by 2030, including a 30% reduction for households, restaurants, and retail, but organisations and lawmakers warn it does not match international ambition to halve food waste","footnotes":""},"categories":[5572],"tags":[16735,13818],"supplier":[2317,4571,5585,12631],"class_list":["post-129119","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bio-based","tag-biowaste","tag-foodwaste","supplier-european-commission","supplier-european-environmental-bureau","supplier-european-union","supplier-fooddrinkeurope"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129119","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=129119"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/129119\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=129119"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=129119"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=129119"},{"taxonomy":"supplier","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/renewable-carbon.eu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/supplier?post=129119"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}