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Food Safety

About the group

Reducing food waste is one of the objectives of the Farm to Fork Strategy, which will also contribute to achieving a circular economy. Redistribution of surplus food for human consumption, in particular through food donation, where safe to do so, ensures the highest value use of edible food resources while preventing food waste, and also has an important social dimension.

In the first mandate of the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste, the sub-group on food donation supported the Commission in the preparation of EU food donation guidelines (adopted in 2017 as part of the 2015 Circular Economy Action Plan) and contributed to the implementation of an EU Pilot Project on food redistribution and its related deliverables. The sub-group supported Platform members in sharing best practices, information and learning related to the recovery and redistribution of surplus food, in line with the waste hierarchy.

The Food donation sub-group will continue to support the work of the Commission and Platform members to facilitate safe food donation practices, ensuring that surplus food arising in the food supply chain is made available, as a priority, for human consumption.

More information about the objectives, tasks and membership of this sub-group can be found in its mandate:

Meetings 2023

28 November 2023 - hybrid (Webex)

  • Agenda
  • Presentation – Information on the ongoing assessment of barriers and opportunities for the redistribution of surplus food in the EU by the European Commission
  • Presentation – Information sharing on food donation activities in Member States by Les Restos du Cœur.
  • Presentation – Supporting food donation in Croatia through the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience by Croatian Ministry of Agriculture
  • Presentation – New initiatives to recover surplus food from the HORECA sector – presentation by the Hungarian Food Banks Association
  • Presentation – Food donation in European wholesale markets presentation by the World Union of Wholesale Markets (WUWM)
  • Presentation – Retail initiatives a practical testimony by Colruyt Group
  • Presentation – Findings of an internal food waste survey by METRO
  • Presentation – Carbon Credits what are they and can they work for Food Banks by the Hungarian Food Bank Association
  • Presentation – Donation of surplus fish direct from landing by FEBA
  • Presentation – Amendments of Marketing Standards on fruit and Vegetables and possibilities for food donation by DG AGRI