European Food SCP Round Table
Plenary meeting, 8 December 2011
Sustainability of the Food Chain:
Food Waste Minimisation
Food Packaging Optimisation
Consumer Information Needs
Eric Poudelet, Director
European Commission, DG Health and Consumers
Directorate E – Safety of the food chain
Food waste in Europe
- an example of un-sustainability
89 million tonnes/year in EU
179 kg per capita/year
By 2020: 126 million tonnes/year expected
Agricultural waste and fish discards
not included
Source: EU funded study « Preparatory study on food waste across EU 27 »
Food waste in Europe
At ALL stages of the food chain
Agriculture and fisheries
Food manufacturing
Retailers/wholesalers
Households
Caterers
Food waste – possible solutions
Preventing food waste = 1st priority
Awareness raising, information & education
Food redistribution programmes
Logistical improvements
Role of food packaging
Transforming unavoidable food waste
into a resource
Feed & energy recovery  separate
collection of food waste necessary
Food waste – next steps
The "Roadmap to a Resource Efficient
Europe" announced:
to further assess how to limit food waste
throughout the entire food chain;
to investigate incentives to halve the
disposal of edible food waste in the EU by
2020.
Food waste – next steps
Analyse the issue and define best actions at
the appropriate level: how to minimise food
waste/optimise food packaging without
compromising food safety?
with all stakeholders - various EU fora
Inter-service cooperation
FP7 research project
Communication on Sustainable Food in 2013 
food waste important part
Consumer information needs and
sustainability
• Communicating environmental performance for
food = crucial
• Driver of global resource use
• Environmental pressures further increase
• Consumers aware of challenges?
• Encourage consumers and producers – fostering
more sustainable choices
Consumer information needs and
sustainability
Current challenges:
• New and complex area of information, in
particular for food
• Information overload and proliferation of labels
• Reliability of information
• Only information not enough!
 green choice should be the easy and affordable
choice
Consumer information needs and
sustainability
Solutions and ways forward:
- Clear, reliable and comparable information
- Further consumer research
- Exchange of best practices/guidance from multi-stakeholder
platforms
 Food SCP Round Table key partner
 Working Group 2 report useful and important step
 Next steps: implementation and working together on
concrete actions
- Consumer Agenda (2012), Communication on Sustainable
Food (2013)