The EU wastes more food than it imports, damaging EU food security amid the cost-of-living crisis, a new report from environmental organisation Feedback EU, published this week (19 September), says.
According to the report, in 2021, the EU imported almost 138 million tonnes of agricultural products, costing €150 billion. At the same time, the report “No Time to Waste”, which Feedback EU says is based on the most up-to-date sources, estimates that the EU wastes 153.5 million tonnes of food each year.
This figure is nearly double previous estimates. Feedback EU says this is due to better availability of data on food wasted on farms and official EU figures still exclude most on-farm food waste from EU member state measurement and reporting.
In light of this news, an international movement of 43 organisations from 20 EU countries issued a joint statement calling on the EU to introduce legally binding targets for member states to cut EU food waste from farm to fork by 50% by 2030, within the scope of current reporting, and review extending reporting to cover all on-farm food waste.
At a time of high food prices and a cost-of-living crisis, it’s a scandal that the EU is potentially throwing away more food than it’s importing.
The signatories include NGOs Feedback EU, the European Environmental Bureau and Zero Waste Europe, food waste businesses Too Good to Go and OLIO, and members of the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste – the EU’s official advisory body on food waste.
The European Commission is to propose legally binding food waste targets for EU member states later this year, with formal adoption by 2023. Negotiations with the European Parliament and Council will then decide on the ultimate targets. Feedback EU says that if adopted, this will be the first legislation of its type in the world.
Feedback EU says that halving EU food waste by 2030 could save 4.7 million hectares of agricultural land.
Executive Director at Feedback EU, Frank Mechielsen, said: “At a time of high food prices and a cost-of-living crisis, it’s a scandal that the EU is potentially throwing away more food than it’s importing.
“The EU now has a massive opportunity to set legally binding targets to halve its food waste from farm to fork by 2030 to tackle climate change and improve food security. Setting targets lower than 50% would be planning to fail to meet Sustainable Development Goal 12.3.
“It’s critical that targets include waste on farms and from processing and food service businesses – if the EU limits targets to covering only retail and consumer food waste, our report finds that between 48-76% of total EU food waste would be excluded, which would leave most businesses causing food waste in supply chains unaccountable for food waste reduction.”
