IWWG Task group on

Prevention of Food Waste

Chair: Felicitas Schneider

Background

Food is an essential part of our life as it covers physiological (e.g. nutrient supply), social (such as identity or status), cultural (for instance taboo and values) and psychological (e.g. pleasure) functions. The supply of food for human consumption implicates numerous research activities (such as biotechnology and food safety) and considerable efforts in production (e.g. manpower, energy, soil, water, knowledge), processing (energy, knowledge, packaging), distribution (mainly energy) and trade (stockyard, energy). Indeed, food represents one of the most demanding products from a point of view of energy and resources. Moreover, food supply chain frequently features as a central theme in connection with ethics as well as social and environmental responsibility - as is the case with hunger, Fair Trade and organic food issues.

Nevertheless a large quantity of still edible food is disposed of during all stages of production, distribution and usage. A part is still suitable for human consumption such as plate waste (e.g. cooked noodles or rice) or food which is disposed of with unopened packaging or only partly used food (e.g. half loaf of bread). In addition to the social and ethical issues involved in the wastage of edible food, considerable efforts are required in the correct handling of food residues in waste management. A huge amount of food waste is directly landfilled worldwide and converted into methane due to the conditions present. Thus, high quality food produced through use of various resources in compliance with strict legal restrictions continues to contribute towards global climate change even at the end of life cycle.

Typically, when dealing with food waste particular emphasis is focused on technical solutions regarding waste treatment such as separate collection, anaerobic digestion or composting. In contrast, the focus of the suggested working group should be laid on the prevention of food waste throughout the value added chain. Therefore besides some technical aspects, particularly environmental, behavioral, psychological, economic, political and social viewpoints with regard to food waste have to be considered and should be represented by the members of the group.

History

The demand for an international working group on food waste prevention was first declared at a workshop held at the Sardinia Symposium in 2009 and was supported by experiences from several previous as well as further meetings (e.g. Climate Smart Food Conference in Lund, Sardinia 2005 & 2007). At Venice Conference 2010 the IWWG managing board introduced the new task group on “Prevention of Food Waste”. The first meeting of the new task group was held at Sardinia Conference 2011 (Thirteenth International Waste Management and Landfill Symposium, 3-7 October 2011 S. Margherita di Pula (Cagliari), Italy). In addition, the task group chaired an IWWG workshop at the conference about “Definitions of Food Waste”.

Aims

Data on amount and composition of wasted food, reasons, effective prevention measures, impact factors on wastage, regional and socio-economic differences, environmental impact or future trends are scarce. Thus, the aims of the working group are

- to accelerate the international and interdisciplinary exchange of results of both research activities and implementation experiences,

- to provide a forum for discussion and ideas as well as the generation of hypotheses to foster further implementations and research outcomes,

- to pool and share data on implemented projects, research, facts and figures and experiences as basis for recommendations on best-practice,

- to develop a strategy of comparable definitions, methods and approaches in the field of food waste as well as

- to increase awareness about wastage of food outside the working group at several stakeholders of the food value chain, politics and society.

Potentially, this approach leads to a substantiated estimation of worldwide wastage of food and the consequential impacts on world´s society, economy and environment as well as to effective prevention measures.

TaskGroup chair of Waste Food Prevention

Felicitas Schneider - Chair of the IWWG Task Group 'Food Waste Prevention'

Members in alphabetical order:

Bernstad Anna - VA-teknik, Institutionen för Kemiteknik, Lund University, Sweden
Scherhaufer Silvia - Institute of Waste Management, BOKU-University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Wien, Austria
Schneider Felicitas (chair) - Institute of Waste Management, BOKU-University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Wien, Austria
Syversen Frode - Mepex Consult AS, Norway
Watanabe Kohei - Teikyo University, Japan
William Ian - University of Southampton, School of Civil Engeineering and the Environment, UK