Consumer food waste prevention sub-group

About the sub-group

As households generate more than half of the total food waste in the EU (53% or over 31 million tonnes) with 69% of food waste arising at household, food service and retail (Eurostat, 2022) and given global developments in this area of work, prevention of consumer food waste is a key area of focus. 

At the inaugural meeting of the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste under its second mandate (2022-2026), it was agreed that a sub-group dedicated to consumer food waste prevention would be established in order to support EU and Platform members' work in this field.

The sub-group provides a forum to exchange information on interventions carried out to modify consumer behaviour concerning food waste generation and/or raise consumer awareness about the issue and results achieved.

More information about the background and tasks of this sub-group can be found in its Terms of reference

See the full list of the subgroup members (under the section "Members")

On 20 May 2025, the sub-group met in Brussels for a workshop to discuss how to reduce consumer food waste through effective actions at national level. The aim of the workshop was to equip participants with the necessary knowledge to implement successful national strategies and programmes to reduce consumer food waste. To support the workshop with practical insights, the European Commission carried out 20 interviews with practitioners across the EU working on consumer food waste prevention. The purpose of the interviews was to gather experiences, lessons learned, and to identify key challenges and opportunities in implementing consumer food waste prevention initiatives. The feedback from interviews is available here:

• Feedback collected during a series of interviews with practitioners that run actions to prevent and reduce consumer food waste across the EU.

Meetings 2026

24 March

• Agenda
• Presentation - Introduction by the Matvett-Norsus-Nofima Consortium
• Presentation - Insights on food waste prevention actions at consumer level – the case of Flanders (Vlaco, BE)
• Presentation - The role of local authorities in assisting households on food waste prevention (WRAP UK)
• Presentation - Evaluating household food waste reduction tools for refrigerators (Teikyu University, Japan)
• Presentation - Reducing bread waste – best practices from the Netherlands
• Presentation - Reducing bread waste – best practices from Norway
• Presentation - Reducing bread waste – best practices from Hungary
• Presentation - 'A playbook for food retailers to reduce consumer food waste' (WRI)
• Presentation - 'Food for thought' report (Zero Waste Scotland)
• Presentation - Development, implementation and evaluation of a consumer campaign on date marking clarification – CLARIFY SMP project
• Presentation - Strategic Interventions to Reduce Food Waste Across Consumer Settings – COMBINE SMP project
• Presentation - Advancing food waste prevention in school canteens in Spain – GUSTOS SMP project

Presentation - Previous Meetings