Representatives from across Europe's food supply chain have announced the launch of a joint effort to tackle the problem of food waste, by forming a joint declaration under the banner 'Every Crumb Counts'.
Freshfel Europe revealed that the initiative was launched in Brussels in the presence of representatives from the European Parliament, the European Commission, several NGOs and industry representatives.
The purpose of Every Crumb Counts is to both work towards preventing edible food waste and promoting a life-cycle approach to reducing waste and to proactively input into European, national and global initiatives.
'Food wastage does not only have a big impact on the global food situation, but also significant economic and ecologic consequences,' noted Matthias Groote MEP, chair of the European Parliament‟s Environment, Public Health and Food Safety Committee. 'I welcome the launch of the Joint Stakeholder Declaration which seeks to raise awareness of food waste and of solutions to tackle this issue, and of the presentation of the new online toolkit for manufacturers. Policymakers, companies and consumers all have to be part of the solution.'
Co-signatories of the initiative have committed to reducing waste throughout the supply chain, in line with the EC's goal of halving edible food waste by 2020 – a mission laid out in the Europe 2020 Flagship Initiative 'A resource-efficient Europe'.
“Food wastage is a highly complex issue which requires the involvement of all partners in the supply chain in order to tackle it effectively and not just shift it further up or down in the chain,' added Freshfel general delegate Philippe Binard. 'This has been the key driver for Freshfel’s participation in the Joint Declaration. There’s no silver bullet solution, but we hope the increased awareness and exchange of best practices within the fruit and vegetable category will help to reduce the level of wastage across the chain.'
