As part of the European Green Deal, the European Commission adopted the “Farm to Fork Strategy for a fair, healthy and environmentally-friendly food system” in May 2020 to reduce the environmental and climate footprint of the EU food system and facilitate the shift to healthy and sustainable diets. To this end, the strategy aims at addressing, amongst others, food waste, and herewith announces the proposal of EU-level targets for food waste reduction.
The Inception Impact Assessment on food waste reduction targets can be downloaded from the European Commission website, the objective of the initiative is to revise the Directive 2008/98/EC on waste. The amendment of Directive 2008/98/EC may also include other targets related to waste prevention (as envisaged in Art 9(9) thereof). The Commission is therefore also considering the establishment of a target to reduce municipal waste, to which a food waste reduction target would significantly contribute.
While the proposal will define the level of reduction for different stages of the food supply chain, each Member State will be able to choose the most effective measures taking into account its specific national situation. The Commission adoption is planned for the second quarter 2023.