(Brussels, 2 December 2015) FoodDrinkEurope welcomes today’s publication of the European Commission’s Circular Economy Package and encourages the Commission to continue promoting a resource efficient and sustainable economy.

Europe’s food and drink sector is already committed to maximising the use of available resources and to continuously improve waste management practices at every stage along the food supply chain, whilst at the same time continuing to ensure food safety.

FoodDrinkEurope is pleased to see that measures to reduce food waste are an important element of the Circular Economy package. “We welcome the fact that the Commission has recommended Member States to take steps to reduce food waste across the whole supply chain from farm to fork and to assess and report progress according to a set of common methodologies [1]”, declared Mella Frewen, Director General. “We believe this approach will make an important contribution to the global food waste commitment under the UN Sustainable Development Goals which FoodDrinkEurope fully supports.”

Europe’s food and drink industry has already taken steps to help prevent and tackle food waste across the food supply chain, with the Every Crumb Counts [2] initiative and the practical industry toolkit "Maximising Food Resources" [3]. Based on a report showcasing the concrete actions taken by Europe’s food and drink manufacturers [4], over 80% of survey respondents said they are working to identify the causes of food wastage in their production systems and to optimise their processes accordingly. In addition, 80% of respondents are taking initiatives to prevent food wastage in their manufacturing operations.

Working together with the European Commission and other stakeholders, Europe’s food and drink manufacturers will continue stepping up the efforts to tackle resource efficiency, and therefore to progress towards a circular economy.

[1] http://www.wri.org/; http://www.eu-fusions.org/

[2] http://everycrumbcounts.eu/

[3] http://www.fooddrinkeurope.eu/our-actions/maximizing-resources/

[4] http://www.fooddrinkeurope.eu/S=0/publication/preventing-food-wastage-in-the-food-and-drink-sector/