Food waste is a missed opportunity to feed the growing world population, a major waste of resources and a needless source of emissions. The food and drink industry is committed to contributing to the implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals Target 12.3 to halve food waste by 2030. Our priority is to prevent food waste and surpluses from occurring in the first place and to drive out resource inefficiency within our supply chains. Where surpluses cannot be avoided, we work to redirect food to feed people in line with the food waste hierarchy.
Food waste features high in the European Green Deal and the future Farm-to-Fork Strategy. The Commission has announced its intention to set mandatory targets on food waste in 2023, based on the data annually reported by Member States (MS) from this year onwards1. This reporting exercise will make an important contribution to achieving the current indicative EU wide food waste reduction target of 30% by 2025 and 50% by 2030, which is aligned with SDG target 12.3.