EU talks concluded on Monday at 4.30 am after 18 hours of negotiations, which decide the next 13 years of EU action on food waste as part of the Circular Economy Package.

The European Council, driven by EU member states including the UK, defeated the European Parliament's ambitious proposals for food waste reduction. Food waste campaigning organisation This Is Rubbish have called the final agreement "a tragic wasted opportunity", and "extremely weak".

Michael Gove's department Defra opposed EU targets to halve EU food waste from farm fork by 2030, insisting that the current voluntary commitment Courtauld 2025 is enough, which only targets 20% reduction of food waste by 2025. 

Today, Michael Gove announced a £500,000 fund to be given to food waste redistribution charities, inspired by the Evening Standard's food waste campaign.

However, This Is Rubbish have criticised the move as tokenistic, pointing out that Gove and the Conservative government (including Evening Standard editor George Osborne) have held back the UK and EU's action on solving the deeper causes of both food waste and food poverty. They are calling on Gove to set a national target to halve UK food waste from farm to fork by 2030, and to give backing to Emma Lewell-Buck's Food Insecurity Bill.

image expired

A huge EU wide movement founded by This Is Rubbish of over 100,000 petition signatories and 67 organisations has been calling on EU countries, including the UK, to back binding targets to halve EU food waste from farm to fork by 2030, and to introduce a food waste hierarchy to prioritise feeding edible food waste to humans or to livestock.

Defra ignored calls from campaigners to support the European Parliament's proposals. Over 11,000 emails and over 1000 tweets were sent to Defra, from UK supporters of a Global Citizen petition.

The final EU agreement includes a weak reiteration of the Sustainable Development Goal 12.3 to halve food waste by 2030, which the EU is already bound to meet, but this mention was banished to the "recital" text which has very little weight for member states. A review of setting binding EU targets to halve EU food waste in future was delayed 7 years until 2024, leaving only 6 years until the SDG 12.3 deadline of 2030. The deadline for with devising a methodology to measure food waste was delayed 2 years until 2019 - delayed EU action on food waste extensively. All food waste occuring in the supply chain before the retail level, which is up to 59% of Europe's food waste, seems to be excluded from the specific targets - thus largely letting businesses off the hook and focusing attention on consumers. The European Council voted down the European Parliament's more ambitious proposals, driven mainly by opposition from Eastern European countries, and Eurosceptic countries such as the UK.

Martin Bowman, EU Campaigns Manager for This Is Rubbish, and founder of the EU food waste campaign, said:

"If Gove wants to really reduce food waste and food poverty, here's our Christmas wish list: he should introduce targets to halve UK food waste from farm to fork by 2030, fund this properly, and give backing to Emma Lewell-Buck's Food Insecurity Bill. The government should end the terrible austerity, dismantling of vital worker and environmental protections, and cuts to public services which are driving people into food poverty in this country."

“Gove promises a ‘Green Brexit’, while his Ministry sabotages EU food waste policy abroad and sets inadequate voluntary action at home. Michael Gove's Ministry Defra opposed EU binding targets to halve EU food waste by 2030, from farm to fork - that these were defeated this week with the help of Defra is a huge tragedy for the environment. Meanwhile, at home the Tory government has slashed WRAP's funding to deal with food waste over its time in office, and set inadequate action in the form of voluntary initiative Courtauld 2025 which will only bring 20% reductions of food waste by 2025 - not ambitious enough to meet Sustainable Development Goal 12.3."

"The Tory government, including Gove and the current editor of the Evening Standard George Osborne, are responsible for austerity and defunding of vital public services which are increasing food poverty in this country to record levels. For Michael Gove to now propose a £500,000 fund redistributing food waste to people in food poverty, inspired by the Evening Standard, in itself could be seen as a good thing, but is an insult in this context - it will merely paper over the problems of food waste and food poverty in the short term."

“The outcome of these negotiations on EU food waste is a tragedy - a historic opportunity to halve EU food waste has been wasted due to the stubborn non-cooperation of EU member states, which will have a huge negative impact on EU carbon emissions, land and water resources, food poverty, and efficiency savings for the next 13 years.

"The European Council and Commission have ignored repeated calls from over 100,000 citizens and 67 organisations from 20 EU countries urging them to back the European Parliament's proposals, including calls from members of its own Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste. This was in main part down to Eastern European countries and Eurosceptic countries like the UK blocking "

image expired

"A review of possibly introducing meaningful food waste targets in 7 years time is too little far far too late, and will leave only 6 years to halve food waste by 2030. It is disgraceful that the EU will not even have a methodology ready for measuring food waste for another 2 years, when it has been already working on this for so long. The "indicative" target to halve food waste by 2030 is not contained in the main article text, so is likely to be ignored by EU member states, and excludes food waste that occurs before the retail level on farm and in manufacturing, which makes up to 59% of the EU's food waste. The removal of a food waste hierarchy, which would have prioritised feeding food waste to people and livestock, is unacceptable."

Grazia Cioci, Deputy Director for Health Care Without Harm (HCWH) Europe, and member of the FLW Platform, said:

"HCWH Europe, a member of the EC Platform on Food Losses and Food Waste (FLW),  condemns the two more years given to the FLW to finalise a methodology for reducing food waste, particularly when the guidelines on food donation have already been finalised and the guidelines on measuring food waste are due to be ready soon. The reason for not setting compulsory food reduction targets within the revision of the Waste Framework Directive was the lack of a common methodology and of reliable and available data on food waste across Member States. With the deadline for finalising the methodology being moved forward, it is possible that there will not be the premises to set up compulsory food waste reduction targets in 7 years, as per the revision close, because measurements might not be carried out and food waste data might not even be available by 2024.” says Grazia Cioci, Deputy Director at HCWH Europe."

Liz Goodwin, member of food waste Champions 12.3 and Senior Fellow and Director, Food Loss and Waste at the World Resources Institute, said:

"Given the economic, social and environmental benefits of tackling food loss and waste, we should aspire for companies and nation states to halve food loss and waste from the point it is ready to harvest through to consumer."