Andrea Veselá

FoodCloud Communications Team

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During 2020, the amount of food waste generated in the EU was 58.5 million tonnes, resulting in 252 million tonnes of CO2 equivalent emissions. This corresponded to 16% of all emissions produced by the EU food system that year. In July of this year, the European Commission proposed a revision to the Waste Framework Directive that would set more stringent targets for food waste; namely reducing food waste generated during processing and manufacturing by 10% and in retail, food services and households by 30% by the year 2030, with figures from 2020 used as baseline. This amendment is proposed with circularity and sustainability in mind, and aims to aid in reaching the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UN SDG) 12.3, ensuring sustainable production and consumption patterns.

Last week, Minister for Agriculture, Food and the Marine Charlie McConalogue spoke in favour of this amendment, establishing Ireland’s support for such targets, which are in line with national circular economy commitments with regards to food waste, and Food Vision 2030. The Minister highlights the importance of food waste reduction across sectors, as well as reaching targets of halving food waste 2030.

One of the two key missions of FoodCloud is reducing the environmental impact of food waste and ensuring no good food goes to waste, therefore, we are in full support of this amendment and call on all public representatives to back the revision to the Waste Framework Directive, in order to reach UN SDG 12.3 and avoid food waste generation as much as possible.

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