National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap 2023-2025
From Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications
Published on
Last updated on
From Department of the Environment, Climate and Communications
Published on
Last updated on
Food waste is a global problem that has environmental, social and economic consequences. Growing, processing, transporting and storage of food all use a significant amount of resources. Tackling food waste is one of the key steps we can take to achieve sustainability, to help combat climate change, and to support the transition to a circular economy and bioeconomy.
Food waste can occur at any point along the food supply chain, from primary production (damage to harvested crops), processing and manufacturing (waste arising from quality control processes), retail and distribution (unsold stock), restaurants and food services (food uneaten by customers) and households (purchased food not consumed on time).
According to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ireland generated approximately 770,316 tonnes of food waste in 2020. Approximately 31% of the total comes from households, 29% comes from the processing and manufacturing sector, with the remainder coming from restaurants and food service (23%), primary production (9%), and retail and other distribution of food (8%).
The urgency and challenge of addressing food waste is highlighted at international level through Goal 12.3 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals: "By 2030, halve per capita global food waste at the retail and consumer levels and reduce food losses along production and supply chains, including post-harvest losses".
Ireland is committed to reducing food waste by 50% by 2030 – in line with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
The development of a National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap is included as a commitment in Ireland’s Waste Action Plan for a Circular Economy, Food Vision 2030, and the Government’s Climate Action Plan 2021.
The National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap 2023-2025 sets out a number of priority actions to bring the focus on food waste prevention, across key sectors in the food supply chain, together in a coherent manner. A public consultation on the Roadmap was carried out in early 2022.
The National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap 2023-2025 includes:
The Circular Economy and Miscellaneous Provisions Act 2022 (the Act) provides the statutory basis for the preparation of a national food waste prevention strategy. In preparing the national food waste prevention strategy, the Minister shall take into account the Circular Economy Strategy which is to be prepared in accordance with Section 7 of the Act. As a statutory Circular Economy Strategy has not yet been adopted, the National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap 2023-2025 has been prepared and approved on a non-statutory basis. The next iteration of the National Food Waste Prevention Roadmap will be prepared on a statutory basis following publication of a Circular Economy Strategy that has been prepared in accordance with the Act.