The European Action against Food Loss and Waste: Co-Regulation and Collisions on the Way to the Sustainable Development Goals

The daily loss and waste of edible food represents one of the clearest failures of the European food system—evidence that the European Union and its citizens belong to what has been called the throwaway society.1 Ninety million tons of food are thrown away in the European Union (EU) each year, almost a third of it by consumers.2 At the same time, EUROSTAT reported that 8.1 per cent of the EU-28 population—the equivalent of 43 million—did not have continuous access to quality meals and were considered to live in ‘severe material deprivation’ in 2015. In addition, 23.7 per cent of the EU population was at risk of poverty and social exclusion.3 The topic currently represents one of the top priorities for the EU and Member States engaged in transitioning toward more sustainable economies, but two recent studies by the European Court of Auditors4 and the Food Use for Social Innovation by Optimising Waste Prevention Strategies (FUSIONS)5 recognize that very little improvement has been obtained throughout the region. The discrepancy between ambitions and achievements is at the core of this contribution, which looks at food loss and waste through the lenses of co-regulation and the need for more effective mechanisms of governance.