Estimating food waste generated and packaging placed on the market at national level : food waste model updates version 3.0

The aim of this report is twofold. Firstly, it illustrates the latest refinements applied to a food waste model based on material flow analysis, which performs yearly estimations of food waste generated by food category and stage of the food supply chain. Since 2019, the European Commission Joint Research Centre (JRC) has developed this harmonized model to estimate food waste generation as a tool to assess data reported by MSs on food waste generation. Earlier versions of the model are presented in De Laurentiis et al. (2021) and De Laurentiis et al. (2023). The refinement presented in this report involved updating underlying data sources used to estimate food losses at primary production and food waste across the supply chain, refining the modelling of certain food groups at manufacturing, distribution and consumption stages, and adding a new product (i.e. sugarcane) to the model. The resulting model estimated for year 2021 a generation of 73 million tonnes of solid food waste (fresh mass) across the food supply chain at EU level. Secondly, the report aims to present a methodology to estimate the generation of packaging waste linked to food and beverages consumption. The methodology is based on the use of Euromonitor International's Packaging industry research, which provides annually updated information on consumer product sales by their packaging (differentiated by typology, size, and material) including food and beverage products. The total packaging materials associated to the retail sales of 27 food and beverage product categories, in 19 Member States (MSs) between 2008 and 2022 are estimated. The developed methodology will be used to support MSs in the mandatory reporting of packaging waste quantities, and will be used to benchmark the quantities reported, in the context of the monitoring of the attainment of the recycling targets set out in the Packaging Directive (EU 2018/825).