Food waste panel

23 recommendations to speed up food waste reduction in the EU

Today, over 36 million EU citizens cannot afford a quality meal every second day and the rising food prices is a growing concern. Wasting food is not only an economic and ethical issue, it also exacerbates climate change and depletes the environment of limited natural resources. How to drive further action and accelerate food waste reduction in the EU was the topic of the first of the new generation of citizens’ panel in the follow-up of the Conference on the future of Europe to actively contribute to the EU policy-making process.

The European citizens gathered in the panel have concluded their work after 3 weekends of deliberations. 23 recommendations were presented to the European Commission around three lines of action aiming to: strengthen the cooperation in the food value chain; encourage food business initiatives; support the change of consumer behaviour.

The citizens’ recommendations will support the Commission’s work on food waste, including the upcoming legislative proposal to set legally binding EU reduction targets. The report of the deliberations, as the outcome of the panel, will be published together with the Commission’s proposal. The food waste reduction targets will be proposed as part of a wider initiative to revise the "Waste Framework Directive" which is expected to propose measures to reduce waste and increase recycling.The citizens’ recommendations will be shared and discussed further with the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste bringing together Members States and stakeholders.

The full set of recommendations can be found in the documents section below.

How to reduce food waste more effectively?
The citizens’ perspective.

Citizens have discussed and developed recommendations on the actions that the EU, the 27 member states, citizens and other private and public stakeholders should take, in order to speed up efforts to reduce food waste.

Fighting food waste is a triple win
saving food for human consumption
helping farmers, companies and consumers to save money
lowering the environmental impact of food production and
consumption

Food waste: what's at stake?

57 million tonnes

of food waste per year

127 kilogrammes

of food waste per year per EU citizen

€130 billion

of food waste per year

Timeline

The Food waste panel sessions took place between December 2022 and February 2023.

16-18 December 2022
Session 1 - Brussels
The first session had to generate ideas, and to build and group approaches that citizens found most promising for further discussion.
Recordings 16 December 2022 | 18 December 2022.
20-22 January 2023
Session 2 - online
The second session, was held online from 20-22 January 2023. Based on the approaches to reduce food waste agreed at the first session, initial recommendations were drafted. Citizens evolved ideas on three different topics
- Cooperation in the food value chain - From farm to fork
- Food business initiatives
- Supporting behaviour change among consumers.
Recordings 20 January | 22 January.
10-12 February 2023
Closing session - Brussels
The closing session on 10-12 February 2023 in Brussels submitted the conclusions of debates, together with the panels’ recommendations, to the European Commission. The final list of recommendations can be found in the documents section below.
Recordings
- Plenary discussions on 10 February
- Plenary discussions on 12 February

What we can expect from the panel

The panel has provided a list of recommendations to support the Commission’s work on food waste, which includes a legislative proposal to set EU food waste reduction targets. The panel also provided guidance to help Member States achieve these targets.

There is such a lack of knowledge when it comes to waste. It’s not just the consumer’s fault. We have to find solutions. We’re all consumers, after all.