Efficient reduction of food waste in primary production

Background and Objective

The Federal Government is pursuing the goal of halving food waste at retail and consumer level by 2030. In addition, food waste should be reduced along the entire value chain. The Federal Government has included these goals and approaches in the National Strategy for Food Waste Reduction. As part of this, Dialogue Forums were set up for various sectors (primary production, processing, wholesale and retail, out-of-home sector and private households).

The aim of this Dialogue Forum was to quantify food waste and to analyse causes of food waste on primary production. In addition, reduction measures were to be developed, implemented and evaluated.

Target Group

Scientists, practitioners and politicians.

Approach

In order to encourage the communication between scientists and practitioners and to reduce food waste together, so-called round tables were set up for each product group (animal products, cereals, vegetables and fruit).

We developed options for quantifying and analyzing food waste within primary production. In addition, reduction measures were developed, implemented and evaluated in demonstration projects.

Data and Methods

An online survey was used to collect data on the occurrence and causes of food waste, as well as on measures for reducing these food waste.

In addition, the reduction measures implemented in the demonstration projects were evaluated on the basis of sustainability (economic, ecological, social). The methodology used is based on the evaluation framework of the EU Joint Research Centre (JRC) and was adapted to the demonstration projects.

Our Research Questions

How much food is lost on the primary production stage?

Which reduction measures are efficient?

Results

The online survey provided valuable data and insights into the primary production sector. Data analysis showed how much food waste are generated and which policy approaches there are to support the reduction of food waste. The results of the online survey were published as a Thuenen Working Paper (Athai et al. 2023).

In addition, a total of 10 demonstration projects from the fields of fruit, vegetable, cereals and animal products could be evaluated. The results show which measures are particularly effective in reducing food waste, how the measure affects the environment (expressed as CO₂ footprint and product environment footprint), and what the associated economic net benefits are. Furthermore, social effects were analyzed in a qualitative way. The results of the demonstration projects will be published as a Thuenen Working Paper (Lehn et al. 2023 (in preparation)).

Links and Downloads

DLG : Dialogue Forums on primary production and processing

Too Good For The Bin: National Strategy for Food Waste Reduction

Federal Ministry of Food and Agriculture: National Strategy of Food Waste Reduction