Designing out food loss and waste

The environmental challenges are huge to meet the growing need for food worldwide. Rethinking the way the food system works is key to delivering healthy, sustainable food to a growing population and protecting the planet. While no single solution is sufficient, reducing food loss and waste is crucial.

Against a backdrop of increased policy focus on healthy, sustainable food systems, DSM in collaboration with Cargill organised a breakfast meeting in Brussels to explore the specific issue of reducing food loss and waste during production, which is key to increasing food and nutrition security, delivering efficiencies and protecting natural resources.

“How can the world adequately feed nearly 10 billion people by 2050 in a manner that advances economic development while reducing pressure on climate, water, and ecosystems?”  Liz Goodwin, First Senior Fellow and Director, Food Loss and Waste at the World Resources Institute (WRI), asked this fundamental question in her keynote speech.

The event convened 22 experts from the European Commission (DG Research and Innovation, DG Health and Food Safety, DG Agriculture and DG Environment), research (WRI), civil society (WWF) and industry (DSM, Cargill, Danone, PepsiCo, Olam, Unilever). It offered a platform for a constructive debate on how public and private stakeholders can join forces to deliver healthy and sustainable food to a growing population, while protecting natural resources and acting on climate change. The specific focus of the meeting was to identify opportunities to reduce food loss and waste (FLW) in the harvesting and production phases of the food chain. There are many technologies already available to increase resource efficiency and reduce food loss and waste, something where the participants from the public and private sectors will continue putting emphasis on going forward.

Click here to download the report of the meeting.