Research and innovation for food waste prevention and reduction at household level through measurement, monitoring and new technologies

Expected Outcome

Successful proposals will be in line with the European Green Deal priorities, the revised Waste Framework Directive and the EU’s climate targets for 2030 and 2050. Actions will also be in line with the overall challenges highlighted in the updated Food 2030 pathways for action report published in December 2023[1] on food waste and resource efficient food systems.

Project results are expected to contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

• successful implementation of the harmonisation of food waste measurement across Europe, supported by the development of new tools, and testing of existing ones, producing reliable and comparable data on food and waste at household level;
• alleviate the burden of reporting of household food waste data for Member States, by making use of technological innovations;
• understand the underlying causes of food waste at household level to help policymakers and stakeholders develop more efficient interventions;
• contribute to Members States’ reporting on their national food waste levels, in line with targets set by the Waste Framework Directive revision, with positive impacts on the reduction of food waste at household level, thereby reducing greenhouse gas emissions and pressure on natural resources.

Scope

In the EU, over 59 million tonnes of food waste (132 kg/inhabitant) are generated annually[2], with an associated market value estimated at 132 billion euros.

Eurostat roughly estimates that around 10% of food made available to EU consumers (at retail, food services and households) may be wasted. At the same time, in 2023, 9.5% of the EU population could not afford a meal with meat, chicken, fish or vegetarian equivalent every second day[3]. In the EU, households generate more than half of the total food waste (54%).

Wasting food is not only an ethical and economic issue but it also depletes the environment of limited natural resources. Food waste has a huge environmental impact, accounting for about 16% of the total greenhouse gas emissions from the EU food system. Therefore, by reducing food waste we can also support the fight against climate change.

Proposals should contribute to all of the following aspects:

• develop and validate new tools and methods, and/or further test existing methods (including those developed by previous EU-funded projects), to measure and estimate food waste at household level, including the food waste discarded as or with wastewaters and that would help distinguish between amounts of avoidable (edible) fraction of food waste and non-avoidable (inedible) food waste. The potential of AI and other technologies (including ones that are currently available) to simplify the collection of data and the reporting (by being integrated in advanced monitoring solutions) should be considered. Interoperable metadata standards accompanying indicators coming from these new tools and methods should be provided. The metadata standards for edible and inedible food waste indicators should allow data to be federated through the European Open Science Cloud (EOSC) infrastructure;
• these new tools and methods should be applied across a large enough sample of diverse type of products and target groups (in terms of gender, age, socio-economic status, ethnic and/or cultural origins, etc.), allowing for a more precise assessment of food waste fractions (edible and inedible), across several years and in a significant number of Member States, and potentially in Associated Countries. This should generate robust measurement/estimation of food waste at household level for different target groups, at national level. The potential for extensive uptake of the proposed solution should be clearly highlighted;
• in addition to measurement, the direct and indirect drivers and root causes of food waste at household level should be thoroughly investigated. Particular attention should be paid to the identification of consumer behaviours (food consumption and disposal patterns) and other factors that influence food waste at household level, to assess the potential for a reduction strategy based on change in consumer behaviours.

In addition, proposals could explore eco-friendly, low-input and efficient technological solutions to prevent edible food from being discarded in households, e.g. by preventing product degradation.

The required multi-actor approach must be implemented by conducting inter- and trans-disciplinary research and involving a wide diversity of food system actors, with special attention paid to consumers and civil society organisations.

Proposals are encouraged to build on past or ongoing EU-funded research (in particular, the EU-funded CHORIZO and WASTELESS projects, expected to be finalised in 2025) and on the work carried out by the European Consumer Food Waste Forum[4], and create synergies with relevant initiatives including the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste.

This topic should involve the effective contribution of SSH disciplines. Citizen science is encouraged at all stages of the research activities for this topic and should be integrated in the research methodology. Proposals should take into account and address inequalities (e.g. by addressing the risk of AI bias in terms of gender, disability, ethnicity, etc.).

[1] European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation, Bizzo, G., Fabbri, K., Gajdzinska, M. et al., Food 2030 – Pathways for action 2.0 – R&I policy as a driver for sustainable, healthy, climate resilient and inclusive food systems, Publications Office of the European Union, 2023, https://data.europa.eu/doi/10.2777/365011

[2] Eurostat (2024), Food waste and food waste prevention – estimates, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-explained/index.php?title=Food_waste_and_food_waste_prevention_-_estimates

[3] Eurostat (2024), Inability to afford a meal with meat, chicken, fish (or vegetarian equivalent) every second day, https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/databrowser/view/ilc_mdes03/default/table?lang=en

[4] https://knowledge4policy.ec.europa.eu/projects-activities/european-consumer-food-waste-forum_en