In order to support the development of the pilot project European Consumer Food Waste Forum and address prevention of food waste at the level of consumers, the Directorate-General for Health and Food Safety is seeking support of the Joint Research Centre. In this regard, the Joint Research Centre is looking to establish a multi-disciplinary forum of researchers and practitioners in the area of consumer food waste prevention.
The deadline for submissions is 12 August 2021.
Developing best practices to tackle consumer food waste
The amount of food wasted during its production and consumption is staggering. While around 20% of food produced in the EU is lost or wasted, some 33 million people cannot afford a quality meal every second day. In addition, food waste has a significant environmental and climate impact. It puts an unnecessary burden on limited natural resources, such as land and water use. Globally, if food waste were a country, it would be the third largest greenhouse gas emitter, after China and the United States. Food waste reduction is thus key for the establishment of sustainable food systems and the deployment of a circular bioeconomy, in which biological resources are used sustainably.
Consumer food waste (in- and outside of the home) - whilst influenced by the food supply chain and the food environment - is essentially a behavioural issue. The Recommendations for action in food waste prevention developed by the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste contain a list of recommendations for action to curb consumer food waste. However, there is a clear necessity to develop these recommendations further, substantiate them by data, develop practical applications and case studies, and find new ways to encourage and support consumers in adopting new habits to reduce food waste.
European Consumer Food Waste Forum
The forum will gather data and identify various evidence-based, practical solutions to reduce food waste at the consumer level, including household and food services. The forum will issue research- and evidence-based recommendations and develop tools to help reduce consumer food waste, aiming to produce a compendium of best practices to facilitate uptake of effective interventions. These will contribute to the work of the EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste and that of other players to help reduce consumer food waste.
Key questions to be addressed by the forum include:
- What are the drivers of consumer food waste and levers for behavioural change?
- What are the current activities to address reduction of consumer food waste, in particular in the EU Member States? How do they perform as regards their feasibility, reach and effectiveness?
- What recommendations and research protocols can be put in place to improve the current situation?
- Considering that actors engaged in food waste prevention (e.g. national, regional and local authorities, industry, consumer- and other NGOs) would benefit from access to a multi-dimensional, multi-level, and evidence-based set of tools, what format and content should these tools have?
The forum is expected to be created in October 2021 and to operate until July 2023.
Call for expression of interest
If you are interested in becoming part of our project, please:
Submit your application via EU Survey
Deadline: 12 August 2021
We also encourage you to register in the Commission's expert database.
The list resulting from this notice will be valid until 31 July 2023.
You can find more information about the procedure in the terms of reference of the call.
Fields of expertise and detailed information
The European Commission is seeking individuals with a track record in consumer food waste prevention interventions, that is who have a scientific background and/or practical experience in the design, implementation, and evaluation of such interventions. We are looking for individuals from different organisations (e.g., academia; government; primary producers; industry; non-governmental organisations; research institutes; international organisations) and with expertise in a range of disciplines and thematic fields including, but not limited to:
- Behavioural change interventions/programmes
- Behavioural science
- Communication
- Consumer science
- Economics
- Education
- Environmental science
- Food policy
- Food science/food safety
- Food waste prevention
- Measurement and evaluation of food waste initiatives
- Nutrition
- Public health
- Social marketing
- Social sciences.
For further details on the type of expertise sought from collaborators, please see the call description:
Personal Data Protection
The European Commission is committed to personal data protection. Any personal data is processed in line with the Regulation (EU) 2018/1725. Please read the:
Contact
For any further information on this call, please email %20JRC-FOODWASTE-FORUM
ec [dot] europa [dot] eu (JRC-FOODWASTE-FORUM[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)
Related Content
EU Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste
KCB Brief on food waste in the European Union
The State of Food and Agriculture - 2019
Details
- Publication date
- 12 July 2021