Campaigners pressure member states for ambitious food waste reduction targets

With around 10% of the food made available to EU consumers going down the drain – and just six years to meet the 2030 UN target of halving food waste – it is fair to say that there is neither time nor food to waste. 

NGOs have warned that the bloc risks falling short of its commitment to meet international ambitions with targets that are not up to the challenge ahead, but not many EU countries have the appetite for more. 

At the upcoming meeting of environment ministers on 17 June, member states have the occasion to reach a common position on the Commission’s proposal, after the Parliament has already done so.  

The bloc’s executive wants to reduce food waste by 30% in households, restaurants and retail, and by 10% in food processing and manufacturing, from 2020 levels – little incentive to speed up action, according to environmental groups such as the Prevent Waste Coalition.  

The Parliament was more ambitious in its position approved last month – raising the targets to 40% and 20% respectively.  

“EU policymakers should back these 40% targets and raise the extremely low targets for manufacturing in line with other sectors,” said Toine Timmermans, Director at Stichting Samen Tegen Voedselverspilling, in a press release published on Friday (10 May).  

But it is unclear whether a majority of member states deem this feasible, also because targets are just a part of the issue. 

At the Environment Council on 25 March, many raised concerns about the baseline year, as 2020 was anomalous because of the COVID pandemic, but also the impact of tourism on food waste levels, and the inclusion of non-edible food in the proposed targets.  

Countries such as Germany, the Netherlands and Austria, want more ambition.  

The proposal for EU-level reduction targets was one of the two actions promised by the Commission to fight food waste as part of its flagship Farm to Fork food policy. The other one was an overhaul of the expiry date in labels, to prevent consumers from throwing away food that is still good to eat.  

Last year, the EU executive launched a public consultation to tackle misunderstandings about the “best before” date label – which, unlike the “use by” date, is an indicator of quality, not safety. 

However, so far, the initiative has not been translated into a concrete proposal. 

Whether it is by setting targets, improving the marketing of products (or both), the pressing need to bring down the millions of tonnes of wasted food will be on the bloc’s menu for some time to come.  

Nibbles of the week 

EU Agriculture Commissioner legacy. Euractiv Poland interviewed Commissioner Janusz Wojciechowski. The Commissioner said that the recent wave of protests helped to improve the most controversial elements of the green rules under the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP). He left a legacy to his successor: incentives instead of obligations are key to involving farmers in the Green Deal. 

EU seeks post-election approval of Mercosur trade deal, says Brussels’ top negotiator. The bloc is preparing for swift approval of a long-stalled trade agreement with the Mercosur bloc – Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay – after June’s European Parliament elections, according to Rupert Schlegelmilch, Brussels’ chief negotiator. 

Schlegelmilch toured the four Mercosur countries last week to iron out the technical details of the agreement, which, if signed, would be the EU’s largest to date, covering 10% of the world’s population and 20% of global GDP. 

Commission to consider measures to speed up recovery of misspent agricultural funds. The EU executive will assess if there is a need to incentivise EU countries to shorten the time for the reclamation of irregular payments, a spokesperson said after on Tuesday the European Court of Auditors (ECA) highlighted the lengthy process to return improper disbursements to the EU budget. 

French beet growers test pest-repelling fragrance as alternative to bee-toxic pesticides. As growers grapple with a lack of alternatives to chemical pesticides, France is testing a pest-repelling fragrance as an alternative to EU-banned neonicotinoids, insecticides harmful to bees and other pollinators.  

The government authorised a biocontrol product – pest control solutions derived from natural sources – based on scented molecules known as kairomones, allowing its use on 500 hectares of sugar beet fields until mid-August. 

Increase investments, change diets – that’s the World Bank recipe for slashing agrifood emissions. Money invested in cutting agrifood emissions should increase 18-fold and reach around €240 billion per year if we want to halve emissions and put the world on track for net zero emissions by 2050, according to a World Bank study published on Tuesday.  

To reverse high emissions per person in high-income countries, the report called for shifting subsidies for red meat and dairy products “towards low-emission foods such as poultry or fruits and vegetables”. 

Bernhard Url asked to stay at least another year as head of EFSA. The governing board of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) decided to reappoint Bernhard Url, director since 2014, to allow the process for the selection to restart and be completed next year, after expressing dissatisfaction with the recruitment procedure led by the European Commission. 

[Edited by Angelo Di Mambro & Chris Powers ]

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