FAO.org

Launch of the Food Loss and Waste Protocol (FLWP) at 3GF 2016

The work of 3GF represents an on-going and dynamic process - delivering solutions that can be replicated, speeded up and scaled to truly produce impact. Excellent examples of this include the Food Loss and Waste Protocol.

An international multi-stakeholder partnership devoted to reduce food waste along the value chain from production to consumption enhancing use of valuable resources. The partnership protocol will be launched at the 3GF 2016 Summit in Copenhagen on June 6, 2016.  + READ MORE

The participants to the 154^th Session of the FAO Council had the opportunity to hear about practical and context specific approaches for food loss prevention and reduction during a Side Event.  + READ MORE

New SAVE FOOD Study on Food Loss in India

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) is carrying out extensive studies on the topic of food losses in various districts of India between May and July 2016. The scientific work targets all stages of the value chain for chickpeas, mangos, milk and rice, quantifies the losses and outlines approaches for counter measures.  + READ MORE

Calls for evidence-based action plans to limit food losses and waste

Governments from the Near East and North Africa (NENA) region have made concerted efforts to publicize the issue of food losses and waste (FLW), raise awareness of prevention and reduction, and commit to strategic action. A major step is their collective goal of reducing FLW by 50 percent over ten years, and their request for FAO’s support in comprehensive studies and strategy development.  + READ MORE

Europe and Central Asia set sights on better nutrition and sustainable agriculture

Having made major strides in reducing the prevalence of hunger, many countries in Europe and Central Asia are now looking to improve the quality of people's diets and transform their food systems to adapt to climate change, optimize the use of natural resources and cut waste. At FAO’s Regional Conference for Europe, held in Turkey in May, food losses and waste, nuclear techniques for controlling insect pests, and the upcoming World Census of Agriculture were among the topics discussed.  + READ MORE

FAO-IFPRI Technical Platform on the Measurement and Reduction of Food Loss and Waste

The new platform launched in December 2015 under the G20 Turkey presidency and supported by The Rockefeller Foundation is further enriching with new links and resources. You can have access to the most updated information related to food loss and waste reduction and measurement including laws, studies and implementation activities. In addition a link to the G20-MACS research network is providing with an overview of research projects and experts that worldwide are dealing with food loss and waste. You can also contribute by submitting and sharing relevant information at: [email protected].   + READ MORE

Have your say in the online CoP Forum!

The Community of Practice on food loss reduction continues to host in the online Forum a discussion on PHL reduction policy development, co-moderated with FANRPAN. CoP members can leave a post and contribute with their experiences on existing policy and regulatory frameworks as well as processes to establish and improve such frameworks. Examples from Benin and Mozambique have been extensively described by FANRPAN.   + READ MORE

World Food Day 2016 poster and video contest is open

Our climate is changing and FAO wants you to tell why food and agriculture must too. There are two ways you can do this. Design a poster or produce a video on the World Food Day theme to enter the 2016 competition.  + READ MORE

P-Ecology Dinner Show

Kyoto University (KU) has designated June 2016 as Sustainable Month, called “École de”. Many awareness-raising activities on environmental sustainability and food waste reduction will be held on campus. Organized by the Graduate School of Global Environmental Studies & Advanced Integrated Studies in Human Survivability (GSGES & GSAIS), the "P-Ecology Dinner Show" will take place on 14 June at Camphora, the KU campus main restaurant.  + READ MORE

Wastes to worth: value added products from fruit and vegetable wastes

This paper presents opportunities for obtaining an array of value added products having applications in food, pharmaceutical and allied industries. The main value added products that can be produced from fruit and vegetable wastes/residues include enzymes, reducing sugars, furfural, ethanol, proteins, amino acids, carbohydrates, lipids, organic acids, phenols, activated carbon, degradable plastic composites, cosmetics, biosorbent, resins, medicines, foods and feeds, methane, biopesticides, biopromoters, secondary metabolites, surfactants, fertilizer and other miscellaneous products. Full papers (as pdf) can be obtained from [email protected]. 

At UN Environment Assembly Convening in Nairobi: Governments agree to 25 landmark resolutions to drive sustainability agenda and Paris Climate Agreement

Resolutions on food waste and sustainable consumption and production, which both impacts on the 2030 Agenda and Paris Agreement in terms of increasing emissions and resource use and holding back efforts to reduce hunger, were passed. The resolution called for increased efforts and cooperation to decrease the one third of all food produced each year that is lost or wasted and committed Member States to achieving SDG 12, which focuses on Sustainable Consumption and Production.  + READ MORE

Reducing food losses in sub-Saharan Africa

A regional project on food loss reduction to support smallholder producers in East and Southern Africa organized a validation workshop in March, in Harare, Zimbabwe, which brought together representatives of 13 countries, experts from the Rome-based United Nations agencies and development partners, including the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation. The workshop provided the impetus for designing strategies and practical solutions aimed at reducing food losses, and identified practical actions to support the development of a programme for the reduction of food losses.  + READ MORE

Ten million tons of food are wasted every year in France (French)
LeMonde.fr

Ten million tons of food are thrown away each year in France . The equivalent of 16 billion euros and 15.3 million tonnes of CO 2. These are the figures of a study, unprecedented in its scale, published by the Agency for the Environment and Energy Management (ADEME), Thursday, May 26 The organization, which launched a vast campaign of communication and awareness "Enough mess" confirms that food waste is indeed an aberration, as well as economic and ecological ethics.  + READ MORE

New research shows that reducing food waste helps fight climate change. So now you can do your bit and save money in the process!
Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research

A team from the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (Germany) is providing – for the first time ever – comprehensive food loss projections for countries around the world along with calculations of the associated emissions. “Reducing food waste can contribute to fighting hunger, but to some extent also prevent climate impacts like more intense weather extremes and sea-level rise,” says lead author Ceren Hic.  + READ MORE

“Uganda has shown that we can achieve zero food loss”
Daily Monitor by Michael Dunford

The World Food Programme (WFP) has established a postharvest losses knowledge centre in Uganda. In May, the centre hosted delegates from 18 countries to learn from Uganda’s experience in the hope of replicating Uganda’s successes in their own countries.  + READ MORE

Food Bank Singapore launches the Food Pantry Shop to sell food that is close to its expiry date and reduce food waste
Asia Pacific Food Industry (APFI)

Food Bank Singapore (FBSG) has announced the Food Pantry, which will sell food items at just S$1 (US$0.74). Established in 2012, FBSG is the country’s first food bank and complements charities’ food donation efforts by helping them obtain better access to excess food while finding creative and alternative ways of maximizing the use of this food.  + READ MORE

New crop of companies reaping profits from wasted food
The New York Times

Several start-ups are chasing ways to use food waste to make other edibles. Some are aiming to quickly distribute food that is about to be thrown out. And yet others are working to use every last ounce of ingredients.  + READ MORE

#PerfectlyGood Campaign aiming to end label confusion
Sustainable Brands

Food waste is a high priority: Since a 2015 study revealed that the United Kingdom is the worst-performing European country in terms of food waste, a host of initiatives – including TV shows, redistribution schemes and edible solutions – have arisen to address the problem at both the consumer and commercial ends. In May, the Scottish Government announced plans to reduce food waste by 33 percent by 2025.  + READ MORE

World Environmental Day 5 June 2016
World Environment Day (WED) is the United Nations’ most important day for encouraging worldwide awareness and action for the protection of our environment.

The Global Green Growth Forum – 3GF Summit
Copenhagen, Denmark, 6–7 June 2016
The aim of the 3GF Summit is to provide a forum to accompany and accelerate delivery of a sub-set of SDGs through transformational public-private partnerships.

Workshop on Sustainable value chains for sustainable food systems
FAO headquarters in Rome, Italy, 8–9 June 2016
FAO is organizing with UNEP and the support of Switzerland a Workshop on Sustainable Value Chains for Sustainable Food Systems.

Sustainable Catering Forum
Ghent, Belgium, 9 June 2016
The Sustainable Catering Forum will bring together a mix of learners, thinkers and doers working in the field of sustainable public procurement from all over Europe.

Sustainable Foods Summit
Amsterdam, Netherlands, 9–10 June 2016
Sustainable ingredients, food waste and marketing developments will be featured in the European edition of the Sustainable Foods Summit.

P-Ecology Dinner Show
Kyoto University, Kyoto, Japan, 14 June 2016
Kyoto University (KU) has designated June 2016 as Sustainable Month, called “École de”.

Africa Strategic Grain Reserves Conference
Nairobi, Kanya, 14-15 June 2016
The event aims to break the cycle of hunger and poverty in developing nations by reinforcing the role of strategic grain reserves through innovative and affordable safe storage systems and solutions.

IFAMA World conference
Aarhus, Denmark, 19-23 June 2016
The joint organisers cordially invite submissions for participation in the combined 26th Annual IFAMA World Conference and the 12^th Wageningen International Conference on Chain and Network Management (WICaNeM).

8th OECD Food Chain Analysis Network Meeting
Paris, France, 23-24 June 2016
Reducing food loss and waste in the retail and processing sectors

Reduce & Recover: Save Food for People
Harvard Law School, Cambridge, MA, 28-29 June 2016
This two-day event will convene entrepreneurs, practitioners, policymakers, and enthusiasts to further a public dialogue on reaching EPA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s national food waste reduction goal of 50 percent by 2030.

Sustainable Foods Summit
São Paulo, Brazil, 29-30 June 2016
The Session Four looks at approaches to reduce food losses in the supply chain, as well as food waste at the consumer level.

ISEKI_food2016 Food Waste Recovery Workshop
Vienna, Austria, 6-8 July 2016
The workshop is dedicated to the Recovery of Valuable Compounds (i.e. polyphenols, carotenoids, antioxidants, dietary fibers, proteins etc) from Food Processing By-products.