Representatives from across the European food sector pledged their support for a new initiative aimed at tackling food waste last week. The 'Every Crumb Counts' campaign, being spearheaded by industry lobby group FoodDrinkEurope, promises to deal with "the major societal problem of food wastage" in order to achieve EU resource-efficiency and sustainability goals.

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Launched at an event in Brussels, which was attended by influential members of the European Parliament, the European Commission, a number of NGOs and industry representatives, the strategy aims to bring the sector into line with the EU Commission's target of halving edible food waste by 2020.

Although in the Global South most avoidable food losses occur as a result of problems with infrastructure and storage, in the consumerist North, most losses are from retail or household waste. The UN Food and Agriculture Organisation estimates that between a third and a half of all food currently produced worldwide is avoidably wasted.  

A declaration against food wastage put forward by FoodDrinkEurope was signed by a range of food and farming groups from across the EU. The industry body said in a statement, "With the long-term sustainability of the food chain foremost in mind, and conscious of the global environmental impact of food disposal such as an increase in greenhouse gas emissions, co-signatories commit to contribute to the objective of reducing food wastage throughout the entire food supply chain."

Lending his support to the initiative, Matthias Groote MEP, Chair of the European Parliament’s Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee, said, "Food wastage does not only have a big impact on the global food situation, but also significant economic and ecologic consequences. I welcome the launch of the Joint Stakeholder Declaration […] which seeks to raise awareness of food waste and of solutions to tackle this issue."

As part of the initiative, a Food Waste Industry Toolkit is available online for companies wishing to improve their efficiency and reduce their footprint. 'Maximising food resources: A Toolkit for food manufacturers on avoiding food wastage' is intended to help food manufacturers and other groups reduce and prevent food waste by sharing best practice and guidance throughout the industry.

Frédéric Rosseneu, Secretary General of Europatat said, "We recognise the importance of the current societal and political debate regarding food wastage. Whilst potatoes which cannot be sold fresh are generally used for processing or animal feed, our involvement in the Joint Declaration aims to raise further awareness about the issue and to exchange best practices in the supply chain but and towards the consumer."

In January, a groundbreaking report by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers, revealed the "staggering" extent of food waste in the global supply chain. In their study, which drew attention to the urgent issue of systemic food wastage in the food and retail industry, IME authors identified where and how waste occurs and made recommendations for curbing the problem.

The Joint Food Waste Declaration is available for download here.