2014: European Year against the waste of food

The project ARE WE WHAT WE EAT and other initiatives of the ASBL Intermundia are in the frame of the European Year Against the Waste of Food. The European Parliament has adopted a non-legislative resolution that called for action to halve food waste by 2025 and improve access to food by the needy. According to EU Commission figures, households, supermarkets and restaurants, along with the rest of the food supply chain, are currently wasting up to 50% of edible food. To combat such waste, which is occurring at all stages in the chain, MEPs have called on the commission to implement a coordinated strategy combining EU-wide and national measures to improve the efficiency of the food supply and consumption chains sector by sector - and to tackle food wastage as a matter of urgency. The resolution laid out areas which such a strategy would need to address. New awareness campaigns should be run at both EU and national levels to inform the public how to avoid wasting food. In addition the resolution called for Member States to introduce school and college courses explaining how to store, cook and dispose of food and also exchange best practices to this end. MEPs also called for 2014 to be designated as "European year against food waste". The EU27 currently wastes 89 million tonnes of food each year - equivalent to 179 kg per person. In an effort to tackle this still growing problem the resolution called for the adoption of dual-date labelling to show when food may be sold until (sell-by date) and until when it should be consumed by (use-by date). It was claimed that this would help to avoid situations in which retailers offer food too close to its expiry date - thus increasing the potential for wastage. Read more here During the youth exchange, the participants will share recipes and tips that can be used to avoid waste of food. Many of these recipes are part of the food cultures of the countries involved and this will be a nice instrument to reach two aims: - Reducing the waste of food, both during the youth exchange and in the future, when the participants will be back in their countries and in their associastions; - Promoting the knowledge of recipes of other countries. The preparation of these recipes will be one of the activities that will allow the participants to get in touch with other cultures.

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission, by the Belgian national agency for the francophone area of the country Bureau International Jeunesse (BIJ). This publication (communication) reflects only the views of the author. The Commission and the BIJ cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein.