On 18 November 2021, the last meeting of the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste (FLW) in its current mandate (2016-2021) took place as a hybrid event in Brussels and online.
In her opening statement, Stella Kyriakides, Commissioner for Health and Food Safety, reiterated the importance of the fight against food losses and waste and the related relevance of the Platform and its activities. Following this, the past achievements, among them the Recommendations for Action in Food Waste Prevention released in 2019, have been summarised and details regarding the future development of the Platform during its new mandate (2022-2026) outlined. FEBA was selected as one of the 45 members, which comprise a diverse array of NGOs, trade and business associations, companies, and research institutions. New digital tools, such as the EU Food Loss and Waste Prevention Hub providing data, news, and information as a one-stop-shop for stakeholders engaged in the topic, will play a decisive role, also in regard to the reinforced focus on consumer food waste.
A synthesis of the results of the Inception Impact Assessment on setting food waste reduction targets, to which FEBA submitted a contribution as mentioned above, has been presented, highlighting the main positions as regards the different policy options. In a nutshell, reduction targets covering the whole supply chain, expressed in absolute amounts and as a collective target based on Member States contributions are preferred by the majority of responding actors. Moreover, a reduction level of 40 – 50% compared with the baseline year 2020 is supported by most. An open public consultation in the first quarter of 2022 constitutes one of the next steps on the roadmap towards the final Commission proposal.
As a further item on the agenda, an overview on initiatives on food hygiene in view of food donations has been given focussing on Commission Notice 2020/C199/01 providing guidance on food safety management systems for food retail activities, Commission Regulation (EU) 2021/382 on the redistribution of food, and Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2021/1374 on the freezing at retail pf products of animal origin. Additionally, the activities of the new European Consumer Food Waste Forum (ECFWF) have been elaborated on.
Besides other members of the FLW Platform, FEBA took the floor in the panel on Implementing the Platform’s recommendations for action in food waste prevention: actions taken throughout the food supply chain, focussing the intervention on the contributed drafted on the occasion of the sub-group meeting of the EU Platform FLW on Action and Implementation on 27 October.
