Luxembourg, 28/06/2015 (Agence Europe) - EU agriculture ministers adopted conclusions in Luxembourg on Tuesday 28 June in which they pledge to improve data gathering and awareness raising on food losses and waste.
The Council expressed its concern at the substantial quantities of foodstuffs produced but not consumed: the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) estimates that, between the farm gate and the plate, almost one third (1.3 billion tonnes per year) of all foodstuffs for human consumption is lost or wasted.
In its conclusions, the Council calls for it to be made easier to share good practice and for everyone along the food production chain and consumers to be involved in cross-cutting programmes to reduce food wastage.
Ministers call on the European Commission to include a number of targets in future “fitness checks” of Community legislation: waste prevention, waste recycling and minimisation of negative consequences of legislation on waste reduction. In addition, following on from recently adopted national laws - for example, in France - the Agriculture Council wants the Commission to remove the legal and practical barriers that lead to food losses and waste so that it is easier to make food donations, for instance. Foodstuffs that cannot be sold but which are fit for consumption would, then, be given (mainly by supermarkets) more systematically to associations, thereby considerably reducing wastage. (Original version in French by Lionel Changeur)