Quan%ﬁca%on)of)Food)Waste)in)the)EU) - oecd.org 1_ClementineOConnor.pdf · LaPoste,’Danone,’Casino,’Delhaize,’Heineken,’Mars,’KFC’ ... packaging’and’consumer’

Quan%fica%on of Food Waste in the EU

Clemen&ne O’Connor OECD Food Chain Network

Paris, 20th June 2013

BIO Intelligence Service profile

• Created in 1989, BIO a leading consultancy in France and Europe in the field of environmental and health evalua%on of products and services and in improving the interface between science and policy.

• BIO supports public and private clients through:

Knowledge management

Methodology & tools

Policy instruments, and

Communica%on support

• to enable the measurement and uptake of sustainable produc%on and consump%on prac&ces.

• Main clients include European Parliament, European Commission (DG ENV, ENER, ENTR, INFSO, REGIO, TAXUD), European Environment Agency, EU CommiIee of Regions, and Na%onal authori%es (in France, UK, Australia, Spain...) as well as private companies (Veolia, La Poste, Danone, Casino, Delhaize, Heineken, Mars, KFC ...)

• 70 consultants, 17 languages spoken 2

Food Waste Exper%se BIO Intelligence Service has a wide breadth of food waste exper%se, including quan%fica%on, environmental impact assessment and policy development

Recent work on food waste includes:

• The EC Preparatory Study on Food Waste across the EU27 (2009-‐2010): Causes, quan&&es, environmental impacts, best prac&ces, forecasts and policy development

• The EC Study on the Evolu%on of (Bio-‐)waste genera%on/preven%on and (Bio-‐)waste preven%on indicators (2010-‐2011): MS waste preven&on progress reviews, development of waste preven&on indicators and food waste preven&on targets, best prac&ce studies on bio-‐waste preven&on, and Guidelines on Food Waste Preven&on Strategies for MS

• The EC Assessment of Resource Efficiency in the Food Cycle study (2010-‐2013): Trends and developments in produc&on and consump&on of food in the EU, overall material flows, es&mates of the total resource requirements and future poten&als in the EU, state of the art on environmental impacts of the food sector, sustainability criteria for each stage of food cycle, cross cubng issues (scarcity and deple&on, food waste, sustainable proteins, food packaging and consumer behaviour)

BIO has worked with leading food industry and retail chain actors for many years, providing scien&fic intelligence, bibliometric research, food strategy advisory ,as well as developing pioneering environmental labelling for food products and conduc&ng extensive food life cycle analysis. 3

Food Waste Exper%se BIO Intelligence Service has a wide breadth of food waste exper%se, including quan%fica%on, environmental impact assessment and policy development

Recent work on food waste includes (con&nued):

• The EC FP7 FUSIONS Research Project ‘Op%mising Food Use for Social Innova%on’

A comprehensive European wide approach to food waste quan&fica&on (including defini&on and quan&fica&on methodology harmonisa&on) and environmental impact assessment. The four year research project also includes the establishment of a mul&-‐stakeholder plaeorm to generate a shared strategy on food loss and food waste preven&on, the development of policy recommenda&ons as a Common Food Waste Policy for the EU27, and the tes&ng of pilot ac&ons. www.eu-‐fusions.org

• The Conseil Général de la Gironde Study ‘Food Waste Evidence and Recommenda%ons’

Overview and best prac&ces recommenda&ons on food waste preven&on in households and the food service sector, including 30 best prac&ce factsheets

• The FAO Food Wastage Footprint

This study develops a methodology for calcula&ng the environmental impacts of global food waste, building a more consistent knowledge base on these impacts, and designs op&ons to reduce food waste in specific food systems.

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1 Background on the Preparatory Study on Food Waste

2 Policy developments in the EU

3 Defini%ons

Agenda

Objec%ves of the Preparatory Study

Quan&fica&on of food waste in EU27 Iden&fica&on of causes of food loss Assessment of environmental impacts of food waste

Inventory of exis&ng ini&a&ves to prevent food waste Forecas&ng of evolu&on of food waste to 2020 Selec&on of policy op&ons

Study available here: hip://ec.europa.eu/environment/eussd/pdf/bio_foodwaste_report.pdf

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The genera&on of food waste in the EU is es&mated at around 89 million tonnes per year or 179kg per capita

Households produce the largest frac%on, at 43% of the total

Important limita%ons to this work of quan%fica%on

Available data at European and Member State level is highly heterogeneous

Defini&ons of food waste and methods of calcula&on are strongly variable Data is lacking in many Member States and sectors

Agricultural sector out of scope of the project

Quan%ty of food waste generated in EU27

Waste amounts in EU27 Sector Mt of food waste/yr kg per capita Manufacturing 35 70

Households 38 76

Retail/Wholesale 4 8

Food Service 12 25

Total 89 179

Source: based on EUROSTAT 2006 data and national data from 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009

Defini&ons Policy developments

in the EU

Background on the preparatory study on

food waste

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Quan%%es A combina%on of EUROSTAT data and na%onal studies

EUROSTAT ‘Animal and vegetal waste’ data stream used EWC_09_NOT_093

Data for manufacturing, households and ‘other sectors’

Base year: 2006

Na%onal studies, plausibility checks and informed assump&ons

Best available data

NATIONAL STUDIES Food waste data for 12 Member

States iden&fied Sectors addressed and base year

variable

EUROSTAT Not all MS provide data for all sectors

Some data provided was improbably low

MS are free to choose own methodology of calcula&on

Defini&on of food waste not specified Hence, results in difficulty confirming that other elements were

not included (such as by-‐products)


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Quan%%es

Household sector considered most reliable, given that:

EUROSTAT data available for most MS In the Household sector, there is a greater availability of na&onal data

Food Service and Retail sector food waste considered fragile, given that:

A pan-‐EU base on EUROSTAT is lacking (mixed in ‘Other sectors’ category)

Na&onal data is strongly variable Available data sources are limited

However, data es&mated for the Retail/Wholesale sectors and the Food Service sector compares well to the EUROSTAT data for ‘Other Sectors’, at 16Mt and 16.8Mt respec&vely

Manufacturing sector considered poten%ally inflated:

EUROSTAT data available for most MS Lack of clarity over the defini&on of food waste poten&al inclusion of by-‐products quan&&es

The wealth of limita%ons confronted in this work of quan%fica%on, and the underlying importance of robust data for defining waste preven%on strategies, segng targets and tracking progress, has led to the priori%sa%on of data repor%ng requirements in an EU policy response to food waste.

Conclusions and reliability


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food waste

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Environmental impacts of food waste An average of at least 1.9t CO₂ eq./t of food wasted is es&mated to be emiied in Europe during the

whole life cycle of food waste. At the European level, the overall environmental impact is at least 170 Mt of CO2 eq. emiIed per year

Rela&ve importance of such figures:

~ Total GHG emissions of Romania or of the Netherlands in 2008 (Source: EUROSTAT) ~ 3% of total EU27 emissions in 2008 (Source: EUROSTAT)

Households sector has the most significant impact, both per tonne of food waste (2.07 t CO₂ eq./t) and at the European level (78 Mt CO₂ eq./yr, that is 45% of es%mated annual GHG emission due to food waste); FW generated in the Manufacturing sector is responsible for ~ 35% of the annual GHG emission

Key limita%ons include limita&ons related to the calcula&on of food waste quan&&es, as they are used as entry data, as well as the nature of environmental data available (no data about FW composi&on)

Reliability : Fragile

Waste amounts in EU27 GHG emissions in EU27

Sector Mt of FW/yr t CO₂ eq./t of FW Mt CO₂ eq./yr

Manufacturing 35 1.71 59

Households 38 2.07 78

Other sectors 16 1.94 33

Total 89 1.9 170 Source: calculated based on EUROSTAT data, na%onal sources and ETC/SCP working paper 1/2009


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Food waste forecast to 2020

Impacts of popula%on and disposable income

• Food waste quan&&es are an&cipated to increase significantly due to popula&on growth and increasing affluence.

• In 2006 food waste produced in the EU was about 89 million tonnes; by 2020 es%mates suggest this will increase to 126 million tonnes (based on increases in popula&on and affluence)

Impacts of policy and preven%on ac%vi%es

• Although it has a considerable impact on the treatment op&ons (diversion from landfill), the impact of waste policy on food waste is considered to be neutral in terms of the absolute amounts of waste generated.

• The majority of ini&a&ves are very recent and very few have measured results. This results in a profound difficulty in accurately forecas&ng their future impacts. On this basis, no impact due to food waste preven%on ini%a%ves has been applied to the data in the forecas&ng.

Environmental impacts

• The above forecast would result in an addi%onal 70Mt of carbon dioxide equivalent emiIed in 2020 as a result of food waste, an addi%onal 40%. This brings the es&mate of annual food waste related emissions to 240Mt in 2020.


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Iden%fica%on of 5 policy op%ons

Op%on 1: EU food waste repor&ng

requirements

Op%on 2: Date labelling coherence

Op%on 3: EU targets for food waste

preven&on

Op%on 4: Requirement on separate

collec&on of food waste in the MS

Op%on 5: Targeted awareness

campaigns

EUROSTAT repor&ng requirements for MS on food waste and a standardisa&on of methodologies for calcula&ng food waste quan&&es at MS level to ensure comparability. EUROSTAT conduc%ng quan%fica%on trials with volunteer MS before requirement set.

Clarifica&on and standardisa&on of current food date labels, such as “best before”, “sell by” and “display un&l” dates, and the dissemina&on of this informa&on to the public to increase awareness of food edibility criteria, thereby reducing food waste produced due to date label confusion or perceived inedibility.

Crea&on of specific food waste preven&on targets for MS, as part of the waste preven&on targets for MS by 2014, as recommended by the 2008 Waste Framework Direc&ve. This policy op&on relies upon improved MS food waste data repor&ng (as proposed in policy op&on 1). Target set: halve the disposal of edible food in the EU by 2020.

Recommenda&on of MS adop&on of separate collec&on of food waste or biodegradable waste, for the household and/or food service sector. Subsidy for the development of separate collec&on and treatment infrastructure.

Targeted awareness campaigns, aimed at the household sector and the general public, to raise awareness on food waste genera&on, environmental and other impacts, preven&on methods and prac&cal &ps to encourage behaviour change and a long-‐term reduc&on in food waste genera&on. In place in many MS and by UNEP and FAO.

5 policy op%ons, represen%ng a variety of approaches were selected to target a range of food waste causes


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Agenda



3 Defini%ons

European Parliament passed a resolu%on in January 2012 on food waste avoidance

asks the Commission to take prac%cal measures towards halving food waste by 2025;

calls on Member States to create specific food waste preven%on targets, as part of the waste preven&on targets to be set by Member States by 2014, as recommended by the 2008 Waste Framework Direc&ve;

Urges the Council and the Commission to designate 2014 the European Year against Food Waste, as a key informa&on and awareness-‐raising ini&a&ve for European ci&zens and to focus na&onal governments' aien&on on this important topic, with a view to alloca&ng sufficient funds to tackle the challenges of the near future.

The 2011 European Commission Resource Efficiency Roadmap sets a milestone of halving the discard of edible food waste by 2020.

The EC Sustainable Food Communica%on is expected to underline the EU food waste target.

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Rising importance but concrete policy s%ll in development

Founda%ons for food waste repor%ng EUROSTAT is conduc&ng a voluntary food waste data collec&on among Member

States based on 2012 data.

European Commission to release Communica%on on Sustainable Food this year, to cover food waste

The development of food waste data repor&ng and preven&on target sebng at Member State level is a priority area of inves&ga&on. Interest in food waste policy is moun&ng at European and Member State level (France for example presented a 50% reduc&on target for 2025 last week).

FUSIONS bringing stakeholders together and leading the way on quan%fica%on

The EU FUSIONS project is hos&ng mul&-‐stakeholder plaeorm mee&ngs across Europe this spring to catalyse ac&on on food waste.

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Agenda



3 Defini%ons

Defini%ons: issues

Whether to use the term waste (legal) or wastage (more flexible)

Defini%on of food FUSIONS dis&nc&on with EU defini&on of food, which begins at harvest

Whether to separate defini%ons of losses and waste And whether it is appropriate to group both of these under « wastage »

Whether to consider inedible and edible frac%ons in measurement Edible frac&ons are difficult/burdensome to measure, but closer to the

Roadmap Milestone and reflects only por&on upon which we can act

Whether to consider unavoidable as well as inedible Given that food that is roien has become inedible but was oyen avoidable

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EU undecided on defini%ons as yet • The fact that there is no harmonised defini&on of "food waste" is complica&ng the

quan&fica&on, the development of adequate reduc&on policies and the monitoring of the successes/failures of these policies.

• The EC is considering the use of « wastage » to cover food losses and waste.

• The FAO and other actors are developing their own defini&ons, and consensus is difficult. Provided the scope is clear this should not provide a conflict with FUSIONS and the EU.

FUSIONS Food Waste Quan%fica%on Manual to be finalised in 2015 will provide harmonised guidance for EU Member States and general guidelines for quan%fica%on at all levels

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Thank you for your aIen%on

Clemen%ne O’Connor Project Manager, Sustainable Food clemen&[email protected]

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Documents

Quan%ﬁca%on)of)Food)Waste)in)the)EU) - oecd.org 1_ClementineOConnor.pdf · LaPoste,’Danone,’Casino,’Delhaize,’Heineken,’Mars,’KFC’ ... packaging’and’consumer’