About the project
Food waste is a major problem: around 88 million tonnes of food is wasted annually along the EU supply chain, from primary production to consumption, with associated costs of €143 billion. The consequent environmental impact is also huge: global food loss and waste is equivalent to 8-10% of total anthropogenic GHG emissions and costs around $1 trillion per year, and 30% of agricultural land is wasted. The situation may be even worse, as statistics indicate that 70% of all food lost or wasted by humans may be unrecorded because it originates from primary production or is used as animal feed. In parallel, the assessment of this problem remains unresolved, not only because it is extremely complex due to the lack of open access data and the absence of a standard methodology for comprehensive assessment in real food systems, but also because it affects the commitment of private entities that need to assess the cost-effectiveness and sustainability of food waste prevention and reduction (FWPR) solutions to act.
As part of the ToNoWaste project, the PhD research aims to analyse the cocreation of new policies and guidelines to encourage actors in European food systems, using evidence-based tools and lessons learned, to make better decisions towards a more sustainable food production and consumption patterns. The objective is to provide farmers, supply chain companies as well as consumers and policymakers with more concrete, integrated, and standardized information about the impacts and global co-benefits of their daily actions.
Goal
The PhD will be delivered in 2026.
Financing
The project is funded by the Horizon Europe Project ToNoWaste.