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2016
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2017 HOTREC ANNUAL REPORT
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9
Promoting a responsible restaurant industry
through the reduction of food waste
Today one third of the food produced every year is thrown away. To
tackle this problem, the 28 EU Member States committed in September
2015 in the United Nations to halve per capita food waste by 2030, as
part of the U.N Sustainable Development Goals, while the European
Union is currently developing many activities to help Member States
fulfil this pledge.
An active contribution to EU activities on food waste
reduction
The hospitality industry is a small waster of food
1
, as it generates only
a share of the waste produced by the food service sector (12%), while
the bigger wasters are households (53% of the total food waste in
Europe) and the processing industry (19%). Despite this excellent track
record, HOTREC actively engaged in the EU activities about food waste
reduction to help the industry achieving high levels of sustainability.
For instance, HOTREC joined in November 2016 the newly created
EU platform on food losses and food waste. By bringing its expertise,
HOTREC is helping the EU institutions in the elaboration of various policy
documents on food donations and food waste measurement. This will
ensure that the needs and constraints of SMEs in the hospitality sector
will be accurately reflected, therefore reducing red-tape, while helping
enterprises reducing food waste.
With the same objective in mind, HOTREC also contributed to the debate
on the revision of the Waste Framework Directive and to the European
Parliament own-initiative report on food waste reduction, by advocating
flexible targets for food waste reduction, a focalisation on big wasters,
and the promotion of financial incentives to help enterprises reduce their
food waste.
HOTREC developed concrete tools to help restaurants
HOTREC also engaged with other stakeholders active on food waste
reduction. This resulted in the conclusion of a framework agreement
with METRO and the European Federation of Food Banks (FEBA), which
foresees regular exchange of best-practices.
Besides, HOTRECdevelopedanewbrochurecontainingaset of guidelines
which any hospitality establishment can follow to reduce its food waste,
some recommendations to help businesses managing donations to
charitable organisations, as well as best-practices examples developed
by HOTREC members to help the industry reducing food waste. The
brochure was officially presented in a successful event organised in the
European Parliament at the kind invitation of MEP Biljana Borzan.
These actions are clear examples of how HOTREC helps hospitality
businesses achieving a high level of environmental and economic
sustainability, through the saving of resources, while contributing to a
positive EU legislative framework for businesses.
“We acknowledge the initiative
taken by HOTREC, the European
Federation of Food Banks and
the retailer METRO AG to sign
a Framework Agreement to
formalise cooperation to reduce
food waste and further engage
in food donation”
Xavier Prats Monné, Director General of DG Santé,
European Commission
1
See FUSIONS report “Food waste data set for EU-28”