Prevent Food Waste and optimize the use
of agrofood materials.
Towards a European approach !
Toine Timmermans, Brussels, 26 June 2012
Reduce food loss
 Roughly 1/3 of food produced for
human consumption is lost or
wasted globally. Which amounts
to about 1.3 billion ton per year
(FAO, 2011)
 About 2/3 of all food waste occurs
in perishables products (f&v,
bread, dairy, fish, meat)
 In the Netherlands total food loss
values 4.4 billion €
 Global earning potential 180
billion € (McKinsey Global Inst.)
FUSIONS
A European Multi-stakeholder Platform for
food use optimisation & social innovation
Project duration: 48 months (2012 – 2016)
FUSIONS Aims of the Project
The overall aim of the project is to contribute significantly to the
harmonisation of food waste monitoring, feasibility of social
innovative measures for optimised food use in the food chain
and the development of a Common Food Waste Policy for EU27.
The FUSIONS European multi-stakeholder platform will enable,
encourage, engage and support key actors across Europe in
delivering a 50% reduction in food waste and a 20% reduction
in the food chains resource inputs by 2020.
FUSIONS Project structure
FUSIONS partners
FUSIONS Platform committed stakeholders
 Committed stakeholders
(business, government,
universities, ngo’s, networks,
platforms)
 Before start of the project: 80
organizations, target > 250
Waste hierarchy model
Intended product flow under intended conditions
production
processing
distribution
sales
consumption
supply chain
Secundary
resources
E
Landfill
Incineration
Waste
D
Energy,
Compost
Industry
Food loss/waste
B
Re-use
Human
C
Animal
Feed
consumption
Re-use
A
Prevention
Waste hierarchy framework
loss
None
Prevention
Economic
value
Energy
Indirect
Human Cons.
Product
output
X
A
Human consumption (food
banks, charities)
X
Convert for human
consumption
X
x
Animal feeding
X
X
x
Industrial biobased
resources
X
X
X
Bio Fermentation +
digestate
X
X
X
Composting
X
X
X
Green energy
X
X
X
Incineration (waste)
X
X
X
X
Landfill
X
X
X
X
B
C
D
E
National partners Wageningen UR food loss
Government
Production
Processing and
distribution
Retail & OOH
Service providers
to the industry
Others
Consumer
Packaging, ICT, logistics,
services
Extension of shelf life
• Innovation in packaging and/or
mild conservation technology
• Integral approach and
optimalise at total chain level
Cooperation in the Supply chain
Processing
Breeding & genetic line
Packaging
Grower
Processor
Freezing
ICT & transparancy
Distribution
10
5
DC retailer
Heethoudtijd voor 3 log inactivatie
0,001 s
99,9999% voorspelinterval
0,01 s
99,99% voorspelinterval
99% voorspelinterval
0,1 s
1s
ln(k) (ln(1/s))
Quality assessment
Pricing policy
0
10 s
100 s
-5
Metingen in
media, zuivel en
andere voeding
1000 s
1E4 s
-10
Afwijkend:
met lage aw
1E5 s
1E6 s
-15
-0,00004
Yoghurt
Karnemelk
90 °C
80 °C
-0,00003
-0,00002
Dagverse
Kaas
melk
70 °C
-0,00001
60 °C
0
1/RT-1/RTref (1/K)
Temperatuur
50 °C
0,00001
40 °C
0,00002
0,00003
Retailer
Consumer
Resource Efficiency: valorisation
Side streams +
dissipated energy
Agricultural
products
Food Production
Processing
Food
Foods
Technosphere
Natural resources (solar energy, minerals, energy sources, chemicals, water)
Ecosphere
Requires knowledge and integration of logistics and food
science concepts:
 pinpointing critical control points in the chain
 multi-criterion optimization on costs, safety, quality and
environmental effects
Catering: share best practices

Food waste analysis and reduction in the Dutch catering
sector

Goals: Identification of the largest avoidable food wastage in
the catering sector to find solutions to avoid them, including
the evaluation of those solutions through pilot projects.
Methodology:

(1) Inventory, analysis, co-creating and experimenting
innovative approaches in the catering process of all Dutch
Food Services companies.


(2) Dissemination of best practices & experiences.
(3) For each caterer at 25 locations analyses are done, in
total 225 catering locations in the Netherlands.
Results Catering sector Veneca 2012
Food waste Veneca catering companies total all products in kg (Wageningen UR, 2012)
0-measurement in the hospitality sector


Goal measurement tool: objective assessment of the relation
between the serving concept and the effects on sustainability &
quality of life
Outcomes (‘Máx à la Carte’, Maxima Medisch Centrum,
WageningenUR, 2010) :
 Food waste reduced to 2,5% (reference 26-60%)
 Appreciation quality of food increased (from 6 to 8)
Re-use food products from a supermarket



Food waste and spoilage in Dutch supermarkets:350 - 450 million €

The ambition is to develop a economic viable concept, where food
products – before expiration of the use-by-date – are collected in the
PLUS-supermarkt, processed for re-use and re-distributed for human
consumption
This matches the accepted norm of 1.4-1.6% in retail business
The food products that are discarded are in general still fit for
consumption
Project region Apeldoorn

Towards a Waste Free society in 2030

Transition from Waste to Resource;
10 kg per inhabitant per year in 2030

Closing of resource cycles close to home

Strengthen regional social economic structure

Instrument Consumer behaviour: Food Battle
Food waste – A GLOBAL challenge
About 1/3 of all edible food products are lost annually.
This counts up to 1.3 Billion tons of food waste.
% waste
High/medium
income
countries
Low income
countries
Steps in food
chain
Source: FAO, 2011
Initiatives to link both worlds
 1-2-1 food losses: bi-national program
(the Netherlands – subSahara Africa): multistakeholder platform, concrete actions
 Virtual Network of Excellence to reduce postharvest losses in emerging & developing
countries
 Metropolitan food security (innovating,
emerging & developing markets)
 Capacity building projects (local production,
storage/packaging, supply chain organisation,
waste management, small scale processing,
etc.)
Multi-stakeholder and integral approach
Advises for successful next steps:
 Stakeholder management & platform: Build
consensus between stakeholders on the goals,
targets and definitions; share the ‘sense of
urgency’
 Consistent approach to acquire reliable data and
insights per (sub)part of the food chain
 Use – where possible – existing public and private
data on food waste
 Coordination of actions by an independent and
respected party with focus on the total supply
chain
Thanks for your attention
Time for questions & discussion
Looking forward to meet you again at
FUSIONS
toine.timmermans@wur.nl