About the 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:
Terms of Reference: Consumer food waste prevention sub-group
See the full list of the subgroup members (under the section "Members")
Meetings 2024
The consumer food waste sub-group was invited to participate in the ECFWF's event on 5 June. The event gathered food waste prevention experts and actors across the food supply chain to discuss solutions to prevent food waste at consumer level, both in- and out-of-home.
The event marked the launch of the Toolkit to Reduce Consumer Food Waste, a digital resource developed by the European Commission, based on the work of the European Consumer Food Waste Forum project.
You can find the recording of the event, presentations and summary report of the discussions on the event's webpage.
24 October - online (Webex)
- Agenda
- Summary report
- Presentation - Too good for the bin! National action week Germany Presentation by Vera Büttner
- Presentation - Food Waste Free Week by WUR
- Presentation - Successful national programmes to prevent consumer waste by WRAP and WUR
- Presentation - Updates from EU-funded projects Chorizo
- Presentation - Updates from EU-funded projects Combine
- Presentation - Updates from EU-funded projects ToNoWaste
- Presentation - Zero Waste, More Taste! A new EU campaign by European Commission
Previous Meetings
4 December - online (Webex)
- Agenda
- Presentation - Setting the scene how to use date marking today by the Netherlands
- Presentation - Danish consumers' interpretation of date labels by Aarhus University
- Presentation - Impact of onpack information on consumers' understanding of expiry dates and food waste behaviour by WUR
- Presentation - Preliminary findings from a study in 8 MSs on drivers of consumer food waste by EUFIC
- Presentation - Applying date marking on food products – the perspective of HKScan Sweden AB
- Presentation - A case study on date marking of yogurt products – presentation by Unilever
- Presentation - A case study on date marking of yogurt products – presentation by Danone company
16 February – Hybrid
- Agenda
- Summary
- Presentation - Update on the work of the European Consumer Food Waste Forum
- Presentation - Overview of the most effective consumer food waste prevention interventions
- Presentation - Building a compendium of tools to help reduce consumer food waste
- Presentation - Disseminating the results of the European Consumer Food Waste Forum
- Presentation - Preventing consumer food waste: the contribution of consumer segmentation studies and importance of tailoring behavioural interventions
8 July - On-line (Teams)
- Agenda
- Summary
- Presentation – European Consumer Food Waste Forum: overview of work carried out so far and collaboration with the Platform sub-group – Joint Research Centre
- Presentation – Work carried out in the context of the European Consumer Food Waste Forum – Joint Research Centre
- Presentation – What Ireland Thinks About Food Waste – Odile Le Bolloch, Food Waste Prevention Team Lead | Circular Economy Programme, Irish Environmental Protection Agency
- Presentation – Approaches to audience segmentation for citizen food waste prevention in the UK – Helen White, Special Advisor - Household Food Waste, WRAP
- Presentation – WRAP and Love Food Hate Waste International’s latest work in consumer food waste – Katharine Fox, International Development Manager, WRAP
- Presentation – Citizens Food Waste – Scotland’s Story by Ylva Haglund, Food Systems Partner, Zero Waste Scotland