Assessment of food waste prevention actions : development of an evaluation framework to assess performance of food waste prevention actions

Food waste is considered a sustainability challenge, and its reduction is advocated by the Sustainable Development Goal 12.3. The development of food waste prevention actions is, hence, essential. To identify the most efficient and effective prevention actions, a systematic analysis is required. However, the evaluation of food waste prevention interventions is still at an early stage of development and appropriate methods to assess their effectiveness are missing. In this context, the European Commission carried out a pilot exercise of collection and evaluation of food waste prevention actions. This exercise was carried out jointly by the European Commission Joint Research Centre and the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety (DG SANTE) as part of the activities of the European Platform on Food Loss and Waste (FLW) (sub-group on 'Action and Implementation'). This report presents the results of this exercise that involved (i) the collection of food waste prevention actions through a survey distributed to the members of the EU Platform on FLW; (ii) the development of a systematic framework to evaluate food waste prevention actions with selected criteria and indicators, including a calculator for assessing impacts on the basis of life cycle assessment; and (iii) the assessment of the actions reported according to the framework developed. A total of 91 actions have been submitted by different actors (NGOs, local authorities, companies, etc.) covering a wide spectrum of action typologies: 'Redistribution of food for human consumption', 'Food valorisation', 'Consumer behaviour change', 'Improvement of supply chain efficiency', and 'Food waste prevention governance'. Based on the assessment of the prevention actions reported, suggestions for data collection improvement and better action design are provided.