Effectively Reducing Food Waste

Documentation of the expert forum 2017

  • News 22.03.2018

Preventing food waste is one of the major topics when it comes to waste prevention as the top priority in the waste prevention hierarchy. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), about one-third of the food is lost on the way from field to plate. At the same time about 800 million people are suffering from hunger. Against the ethical and social background as well as the massive loss of natural resources, the Umweltbundesamt (UBA) organised the expert forum "Effectively Reducing Food Waste – Achieving More Together" in Berlin on September 5, 2017 together with the Wuppertal Institute, the ifeu Institute and Stakeholder Reporting.

The now published report, written by Dr. Henning Wilts (Head of the Research Unit Circular Economy, Wuppertal Institute), Jana Nicolas and Jennifer Schinkel (Research Fellows, Research Unit Circular Economy, Wuppertal Institute) as well as the project partners ifeu Institute and Stakeholder Reporting, presents the current state of discussion about the "effective reduction of food waste". The authors identify the causes for the emergence of food waste and loss. From these findings, five main topics were derived:

  • Cosmetic standards for food: Bent? Dented? – Edible!
  • Innovative logistic systems: Logistics as an aid to preventing food waste
  • Catering: The contribution of commercial kitchens and bulk consumers in practice
  • Strengthen food donations: Eat, don't waste
  • Target group consumers: Effective approaches for preventing food waste

In five interactive workshops, experts discussed these topics during the expert forum. In the published documentation, the five topics are summarised and presented with a solution approach. The report can be downloaded free of charge via the following link.


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