Monitoring to reduce food waste in wholesale and retail

Background and Objective

As a part of the federal government’s National Strategy for Food Waste Reduction, wholesaler, retailer, scientists and politicians met from August 2019 to December 2022 to develop strategies to reduce food waste. In the Dialogue Forum on Wholesale and Retail Trade, they worked together to develop a voluntary agreement with concrete reduction targets and measures, from which the “Pact Against Food Waste” emerged in 2023.

Approach

In order to achieve the agreed reduction targets, the agreement includes both obligatory and elective measures. The obligatory measures include, among others, expanding the distribution of surplus food as donations. Of the 36 elective measures, companies must implement at least eight per year. These elective measures cover the following categories:

• Measures at the producer/supplier interface
• Internal measures in the market or online trading
• Measures at the customer interface
• Improving the distribution of surplus food or food that is no longer marketable but still edible

Data and Methods

The Thuenen Institute is evaluating the implementation of this agreement. To do this, the companies use a template to provide the Thuenen Institute information regarding implemented measures. In addition, the companies provide the Thuenen Institute data on sales losses (write-off rates), food donations and the distribution of food as animal feed.

The deadline for submitting the template and the other data concerning the previous calendar year is July 1^st. 

Preliminary Results

The Thuenen Institute examines the company data, analyses it and publishes the summarized results in an annual monitoring report. Step by step a time series will be created that documents the success of implementation the reduction goals.

Links and Downloads

Dossier: Less is more: reducing food losses and waste

Too Good For The Bin