Brussels, 25/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - Smarter labelling and packaging and campaigns for increasing awareness for the distribution of products not sold - these are the measures that the European Parliament plans to recommend in mid-December to reduce wastage of healthy, edible foodstuffs.
A European Commission study shows that the production of food waste in the 27 EU member states each year reaches around 89 million tonnes, i.e. 179 kg per person. This figure varies considerably from one state to the next and from one sector to the next, so that wastage in the agricultural production sector is not taken into account. In the European Union, 79 million people live below the poverty line and 16 million of these people have already received food aid from charitable organisations.
On Wednesday 23 November, the European Parliament's agriculture committee presented and adopted (38 votes for, one vote against) the report by Salvatore Caronna (S&D, Italy) on a more effective food chain and urgent measures to reduce food waste by 50% by 2025 and to improve access to food for citizens of the EU.
Labelling. The EP agriculture committee invites the Commission to assess and encourage measures to reduce food waste upstream, such as dual-date labelling (“sell by” and “use by”), and the discounted sale of foods close to their expiry date, and of damaged goods. It notes that the optimisation and efficient use of food packaging can play an important role in preventing food waste by reducing a product's overall environmental impact, also by means of industrial eco-design, which includes measures such as varying pack sizes to help consumers buy the right amount and discouraging excessive consumption of resources, providing advice on how to store and use products, as well as packaging designed to increase the longevity of goods and maintain their freshness.
MEPs consider it vital to reduce food waste along the entire food chain, from farm to fork. They stress the need to adopt a coordinated strategy followed by practical action, including an exchange of best practice, at European and national level, in order to improve coordination between member states to avoid food waste and in order to improve the efficiency of the food supply chain. This could be achieved by promoting direct relations between producers and consumers and shortening the food supply chain.
The agriculture committee considers that investing in methods leading to a reduction in food waste could result in a reduction in the losses incurred by agri-food businesses and, consequently, in a lowering of food prices, thus potentially also improving the access to food by poorer segments of the population. It calls on the Commission to determine ways and means of better involving agri-food businesses, wholesale markets, shops, distribution chains, public and private caterers, and restaurants in anti-waste practices.
Better education for less waste. New awareness campaigns are necessary to inform the public of ways to avoid food waste, MEPs say. The member states must introduce food education programmes into teaching establishments in order to explain how to stock, cook and process foodstuffs. They call for 2013 to be the European Year against Food Waste.
Out-of-date or damaged foodstuffs must be sold at a discount price, MEPs assert.
Rules for the awarding of public contracts must be reviewed in order to ensure, wherever possible, that contracts are awarded with catering services that use local products and make free distribution of unsold products to the poor or to food banks. MEPs welcome the initiatives taken by a number of member states to recover unsold food products and to give these products to those in need. They call on retailers to take part in these programmes. (LC/transl.jl)