2024-07-10 06:30:09
While a 50% reduction target for food waste was set as part of the European Green Deal, Member States are now divided on the level of reduction to be achieved. The heterogeneity of the quantities of waste produced by different countries and the fact that some of them have already adopted binding measures partly explain these difficulties.
Every year in the European Union (EU), more than 58 million tonnes of food waste are produced, representing an estimated loss of €132 billion. This waste represents approximately 16% of the total greenhouse gas emissions of the European food system. Faced with this situation, the EU Council has just adopted its position on the revision of the Framework Directive on waste, particularly food waste. It proposes to reduce waste by 10% at the processing and manufacturing level by 2030 and by 30% (per capita) in retail, restaurants, catering services and households.
These targets are the result of a compromise adopted by European environment ministers. They are less ambitious than those formulated last March by the European Parliament, which wanted to reduce waste by at least 20% in food processing and manufacturing and by at least 40% in retail, restaurants, food services and households. But they are substantially the same as the European Commission’s proposals formulated in July 2023.
To achieve this position, the EU Council has added a number of flexibilities. For example, the reference year on which the reduction is calculated has been set at 2020, but Member States are allowed to use an earlier year, provided that an adequate data collection method is validated. Correction factors have also been introduced to take into account fluctuations related to tourism and production levels in food processing and manufacturing compared to the reference year.
However, these food waste reduction targets are lower than those set by the Green Deal. In this initiative, the EU had committed to achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, namely to halve per capita food waste at retail and consumer levels by 2030, as well as to reduce food losses along production and supply chains. Discussions are to be held once more with the European Parliament with a view to adopting the final text of the revision of the Waste Framework Directive.
The amount of waste produced per inhabitant varies from 68 to 397 kg per year.
These difficulties in agreeing on a level of reduction in Europe are partly linked to the great heterogeneity of the quantities of waste produced by the member countries. Thus, with 129 kg of food waste produced per inhabitant per year, France is at the level of the European average, which stands at 131 kg, as is Germany (131 kg). With respectively 397 kg and 262 kg per inhabitant, Cyprus and Belgium are the two countries that produce the most, while Slovenia (68 kg) and Croatia (71 kg) are those that produce the least.
But above all, some countries have for several years adopted an action plan to reduce this waste and have already set themselves more ambitious targets. Like France, which has been committed to a fight once morest food waste since 2013 and now intends to reduce waste by 50% (compared to the 2015 level) by 2025 at the levels of food distribution and collective catering, and by 2030 at the stages of consumption, production, processing and commercial catering. For its part, Germany wants to halve food waste per capita at the level of retail trade and consumers by 2030 and began a national strategy in 2019.
To achieve its objective, France has taken numerous legislative measures, such as the ban on making unfit for consumption food that is still edible, which applies to the food industry, wholesalers, distributors and mass catering. Above an annual turnover of 50 million euros, these players are required to propose a donation agreement to an authorized association. Penalties have also been strengthened. In the event of destruction of unsold food that is still edible, offenders are liable to a fine of up to 0.1% of the turnover of the last financial year.
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