Food waste:
Challenges &
Opportunities
Dr Richard Swannell
Director, WRAP
Trends
Unprecedented demand for food
Food Waste (Biological Nutrients)
Strategy
Simple messages around 5 key behaviours
 planning
 knowing date labels
 savvy storage
 lovely leftovers
 perfect portions
Because it saves people money: £60 per month
Industry engagement: Courtauld
Commitments
 Packaging
 Household food waste
 Supply Chain waste
Courtauld Commitment Phase 3 Signatories
Objective
To change the retail environment to help consumers:
Buy the right
amount
Keep what is
bought at its best
Use what is
bought
- Pack size range and
availability
- Packaging functionality,
re-close
- Consistent, simple
use of dates
- Promotions
- Clear storage guidance
- Maximum shelf life
- Planning / ordering
tools
- In-home tools
- Portioning tools
14
Changes in store
Trends in food-waste reducing behaviours
(% reporting all of the time or most of
the time) and those understanding bestbefore dates
(note that y-axis does not start at zero)
Impact
 2.9 Mt waste
reduced
 8.2 Mt CO2 e
 > £4 billion
savings
 CC3
targeting 1.1
Mt more
FUSIONS has 21 project partners
from 13 different countries.
Using Social Innovation to drive change
Social innovations
are new ideas…
…and create new
social needs… social relationships
…that meet
“We simply describe it as innovations that are both
social in their ends and in their means” (1)
(1) http://ec.europa.eu/enterprise/policies/innovation/policy/social-innovation/index_en.htm
Ways to get involved
Join more than 100 organisations as a project Member
Attend our Platform meetings
- 30-31 October 2014, Brussels
Sign up for our newsletter
Visit - www.eu-fusions.org/epm
Feasibility Studies
Decentralised Food Donation
Cr-EAT-ive Schools
Advancing Social Supermarkets
Food Service Surplus Solution
Order-Cook-Pay
Disco BôCô
Gleaning Network EU
Conclusions
 Significant opportunity & challenges
 Key Features:
 Clear Strategy
 Build Partnerships
 Measure Impact
 Potentially replicable
A need for system-wide solutions
For more information:
 www.wrap.org.uk
 www.lovefoodhatewaste.com
 www.eu-fusions.org
 Richard.Swannell@wrap.org.uk